Art History: Prehistoric through Classical Antiquity
What this domain tests
Chronology, function, and material change from Paleolithic image-making to Roman imperial art. Expect questions that ask why an object was made, what convention it follows, and how style shifts.
Core sequence
- Paleolithic: cave paintings at Lascaux and Altamira use charcoal and ochre; animals shown in composite or twisted perspective; small carved Venus figurines emphasize fertility features.
- Neolithic: megalithic construction, post-and-lintel at Stonehenge; shift to settled agriculture.
- Ancient Near East: ziggurats, cylinder seals, law stele, Assyrian narrative reliefs emphasizing royal power.
- Egypt: consistent canon of proportions, frontal shoulders with profile head, registers, durable stone for the ka; Old Kingdom pyramids, New Kingdom temples and painted tombs.
- Aegean/Greek: Cycladic figurines; Minoan fresco; Mycenaean citadels; Geometric vases; Archaic kouroi with stiff stance and archaic smile; Classical contrapposto and idealized proportion (Polykleitos); Hellenistic drama and emotion.
- Roman: veristic portraiture, arch and concrete vault, Pantheon dome, historical relief, Pompeian wall painting.
Worked example
Compare an Archaic kouros with Polykleitos's Doryphoros. The kouros stands frontally with weight evenly on both feet and a schematic anatomy; the Doryphoros shifts weight onto one leg, drops the opposite hip, turns the head, and applies a calculated proportion system. Reasoning: the key evidence is weight shift and axis, not "more realistic muscles."
Traps
Assuming cave images were mere decoration; confusing Egyptian and Near Eastern conventions; dating Hellenistic works as Classical because both are Greek; and treating Roman copies as the original Greek bronze.