Heroes & Leaders Throughout History: 3D Gallery

Heroes & Leaders Throughout History

Our topic is Heroes and Leaders & how art of heroes and leaders has evolved throughout history. To us, heroes and leaders means people that did heroic things, lead others in society or just in general people that others in the past looked up to.

As you can see, in each time period, the art can relate or be completely different. In particular the last 4 periods, almost all the periods, Early Medieval Art, Romanesque/Gothic, and Renaissance Art all had biblical figures. While researching, I found how it was interesting that all of the heroes/leaders were biblical figures. Yet, in the Islamic period, a new religon, Islam is brought forward and so the beliefs change for some.

The Islamic period focuses on the Prophet Mohammed and religon of Islam. All other 3 periods focused on biblical figures. 2 of them had Christ in them. One of them was a sculpture and the other was a painting. A cool similarity I found was that both of the art pieces have Jesus in the center and apostles on both sides of him. This shows that there was a similarity between them and that the beliefs were connected. For the most recent piece of art to match our theme heroes and leaders, we picked a painting of Queen Elizabeth. She is the leader of our country and rules Canada. We can see how much recent art differs from the older types. Leaders back then would have been male, but now both genders can rule the country.

Ennedi Cave Painting

Art Period: Prehistoric

Title Of Piece: Ennedi Cave Paintings

Artist: Unknown

Location: Mandegueli Cave in the Ennedi Mountains, Chad

Media: Made with red pigments, most likely blood

Date: The artwork is around 8,000 years old

Subject Matter & Story: This artwork is from the prehistoric time period & is just one of many cave paintings in the Mandegueli Cave in the Ennedi Mountains in Chad, which are all called the Ennedi Cave Paintings. This cave painting was done around 8,000 years ago & it was most likely made with blood because back then, they didn’t have things like paints etc. & people were still learning new things. So, they also didn’t really have any heroes but they did have leaders in their communities like how in this cave painting, you see warriors or what looks like people hunting, so those were the leaders at that time in their society.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39332438

Mask Of Tutenkhamen

Art Period: Egyptian

Title Of Piece: Mask Of Tutankhamun

Artist: Unknown

Location: found in the Valley of Kings, Egypt

Media: has a solid gold base inlaid with precious stones like lapis lazuli, quartz & obsidian (the face itself is also made of gold)

Date: made in 1352 BC (18th dynasty)

Subject Matter & Story: The Mask Of Tutankhamun is a gold death mask of the 18th-dynasty ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun. It was found in the Valley of Kings in Egypt where’s other kings tombs also resided but they had already been ransacked by robbers.Luckily, King Tutankhamun’s tomb wasn’t. King Tutankhamen died at the young age of 19, so he had not been a leader for a very long time. The ancient Egyptians also had a strong belief in the afterlife, so their desire for a happy eternity led to the prolific development of tomb art like this death mask.

Source: https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/the-mask-of-tutankhamun/

Head Of Augustus

Art Period: Classical (Greek & Roman)

Title Of Piece: Head Of Agustus / The Meroe Head

Artist: Unknown

Location: Found in Meroe, Sudan & made in Egypt

Media: Made of bronze

Date: 27-25 B.C.E

Subject Matter & Story: This piece of artwork is from the classical/ greek & roman time period. It's called the “Head Of Augustus” and its also known as the Meroe Head. Augustus was the first emperor of Rome who turned Rome from a republic into a whole empire and the Romans also declared him a “god” after he died. The head was originally part of a bronze life-size statue of him but this was all that they had found. It was made around 27-25 B.C.E in Egypt and it was found in Meroe, Sudan. During this time period, the Romans often borrowed from & imitated the Greeks regarding artwork such as sculptures & the human being was at the center of Greek culture because the human body to them was considered beautiful & perfectly proportioned. Here, Augustus was made as a youth to reflect his strength & vitality & and the statue was made as a continuous reminder to others of the all embracing power of Rome & its emperor.

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=466397&partId=1

Art Period: Early Christian / Byzantine

Title Of Piece: Justinian & His Attendants

Artist: Unknown

Location: Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy

Media: Brightly colored glass pressed into water plaster (Glass mosaic)

Date: 547 A.D.

Subject Matter & Story: After the Classical time period ended, the first golden age of the Byzantine time period began with the reign of the emperor Justinian. He is considered one of the greatest late Roman/Byzantine emperors in history & while he was emperor, he sought to reconquer the lost western-half of the historical Roman Empire & he did a lot of great things for the Roman empire so he was considered a great hero & leader.

So, this is a piece of artwork of him from that time period. Its known as “Justinian & his Attendants”, it’s a glass mosaic in the Church of San Vitale in Italy that is part of a larger mosaic inside the church & it was made around 547 A.D. During the Early Christian time period mosaics made of glass were very popular because they were the primary means of wall decoration and completely covered the interiors of churches. There is also a lot of symbolism in this artwork because art in the Early christian time period very symbolic. So, Justinian is the focal point & he symbolizes Jesus, with a halo around his head representing holiness or doing god’s work and his crown is just his power as the emperor. Justinian's attendants also represent the 12 apostles and all of them wearing the white robes represent everyone’s purity. So, all together, this artwork symbolizes Justinian's power and him being seen as a powerful leader. The artist of this artwork is unknown but the black lettering at the top might be the artist’s signature.

Source:

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonial-americas/medieval-europe-islamic-world/a/justinian-mosaic-san-vitale

St. Mathew from the gospel book

Artist: Unknown

Date: 820's-830's

Location: Reims, France

Media: Ink and tempura on vellum.

Subject Matter/ Story: St. Matthew was one of Jesus’s 12 apostles, and also one of the 4 evangelists, according to the bible. Matthew authored the first Gospel of the Bible's New Testament. In this painting, St. Matthew is seated outside, in front of an open book. A tiny angel in the upper right corner, is pictured watching over him. This painting is extremely expressive, and is energetic as St. Matthew hurries to write in the Gospel. The vibrant colors show expression, and give the picture more emphasis as it stands out. St. Matthew is a leader, because he helped carry on the religion (Christianity) and stood as an important biblical figure.

Silk Banner (Sanjak)

Art period: Islamic

Source: Met Museum website

Artist: Unknown

Date: A.H 1235/ A.D 1819-20

Location: Turkey, Istanbul

Media: Silk, metal wrapped thread; lampus, brocaded

Subject Matter/ Story: This silk banner is engraved with the name of God (Allah), the Prophet Mohammed, Quran verses, and an image of a 2 bladed sword with a dragon headed hilt. This sword is said to have belonged to Ali, the cousin and son in law of the Prophet Mohammed. The Islamic religon does not allow any painted pictures of any of the important figures. I chose this banner to represent Islamic Hero’s/ Leader’s because it includes the name of God, and Prophet Mohammed, the 2 most important leaders for the religon of Islam. Prophet Mohammed was a leader for the muslim tribes. He obeyed what God (Allah) ordered him to do, and was the leader of Islam.

Saint-Madeleine Tympanum

Art Period: Romanesque- Gothic

Artist: Unknown

Date: 12th Century

Location: Burgandy, France

Media: Stone

Subject Matter/Story: This stone sculpture is located inside a church in France. It shows a very busy scene with many figures carved. In the center, is Jesus, with his apostales beside him and with open books (the Gospels) in their hands. In this sculpture, Jesus is shown conveying a message to the apostales. Among the sides of the sculpture, there are people shown that are not normal. For example, there are people shown with ears the size of an elephants. This is portraying how they believed the non believers looked. In this sculpture, Jesus wants his apostales to spread Christianity among all nations. Christ was a leader for the catholic religon.

The Last Supper

Art period: Renaissance

Source: Renaissance Art (book)

Artist: Leonardo Da Vinci

Date: 1495- 1498

Location: Milan

Media: Tempra paint, and Gesso.

Subject matter/ Story: In this very famous painting, Jesus declares that one of the apostales will betray him. Jesus sits in the middle, with apostales to the right and left of him. After this news was announced, we can see that the apostales have a worried reaction. They wonder which one of them could do such a thing, and betray their leader. We see Christ calm, while everyone else in the painting shows some kind of expression.

Art Period: Today (Last 50 years)

Title Of Piece: “Queen Elizabeth II”

Artist: Henry Ward, a British-Canadian artist

Location: Unveiled/presented to the queen at Windsor castle

Media:Oil on canvas

Date: made in 2016

Subject Matter & Story: This painting was made to commemorate the Queen's 60-year role as the patron of the British Red Cross & it shows you how art of leaders today has changed compared to art of leaders in the past based on the type of artwork & materials used etc.

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/721089/Queen-new-portrait-patron-British-Red-Cross-windsor-castle-Henry-Ward-Victoria-charity

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Heroes & Leaders Throughout History