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topic 4 and 5 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Taoism, the philosophical and religious system that intended to create peace with the “Tao", made a huge influence in the way of Chinese government:
        It offered them such blandishments as the elixir of immortality or communication with the dead. But at the same time they were shrewd enough to appreciate that this kind of sorcery, even though backed by a primitive church organization, was not an instrument by which they could rule a huge country.
        
        the Confucianism, a movement that sometimes is believed to be a religion,, it is a movement closer to ethical philosophy: to expand our sense of justice and a proper way to be in society. Confucianism uses a set of behaviors to make a well relation between human beings. If people acted in the correct way, society could function without a single problem. One of the most quoted sayings from Confucius
        could explain his vision about making the right thing
        
        Only when things are investigated is knowledge extended.
        
        Only when knowledge is extended are thoughts sincere.
        
        Only when thoughts are sincere are minds rectified.
        
        Only when minds are rectified are the characters of persons cultivated.
        
        Only when character is cultivated are our families regulated.
        
        Only when families are regulated are states well governed.
        
        Only when states are well governed is there peace in the world.
        
        Another of the influences was the Buddhism, from India. Buddhism was founded by Siddharta Gautama, which is referred as the Buddha. The mother of Buddah, Queen Maya, gave birth to Buddah standing down a tree and he was born by a side of the Queen. It is common that, in these legends, the birth of people is in extraordinary circumstances, like, in Christianity, Jesus was born from a virgin women or, in Aztec religion, Huitzilopochtli’s mother got pregnant from feathers. Through prophecies Siddharta’s father knew that his son was meant to be a spiritual leader. Siddharta was living inside a palace and when he saw the world and all its problems, he decided, at the age of 29, to live a more simple life and he renounced to materialism ).
        Buddah is translated as “the awakened one” or “the enlightened”: the one who can live a real life, like if everything before was a dream and then, in the Buddhism, you finally wake up to discover what is real. Vail (2014) says that, nowadays, Buddhism is not very common in India, but it is one of the most popular religions in Asia. All of these systems were very important to the Chinese culture and influenced in a great way the art of its time.
    - - One of the first important work written about Chinese painting was “Six Canons of Painting” by Hsieh Ho. In his book, Ho writes about six elements that he uses to criticize, judge or talk about a painting. It has been translated in many languages, but you’re going to read the versions of Acker & Soper quoted by Lee (1973). These are the six cannons that offer a general vision of a painting
        
        Animation through spirit consonance
        
        Structural method in the use of the brush
        
        Fidelity to the object in portraying forms
        
        Conformity to kind in applying colors
        
        Proper planning in the placing of elements
        
        Transmission of the experience of the past in making copies
  - - - Persian civilization was at the east of Mesopotamia, where today is Iran. That region was called the Fars. In the sixth century, Persians were a very strong empire, commanded by the King Cyrus. The empire reached the Indus Valley (a civilization that was near the Indus River, extended from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India), Northern Greece, Central Asia and Egypt (German, 2014).
      - According to Fichner-Rathus (2007), Persian art consists on big palaces with simple designs. Among the things that they used to portrait were animals like birds and ibexes (a kind of goat with big horns). Usually, they were showed in vessels or in rhytons.
      - The columns from Persians were modelled after Greek columns, according to Essential Humanities (2013). In a capital (the superior part of a column) from a Hall of the palace of King Artaxerxes (available now at the Louvre Museum in Paris), you can observe a lot of the motifs (a theme or a pattern that you can observe) from the Persians, this is often called Persian animal capital. It has an animal (the bulls), a volute (spiral ornament) and a simple design (the bulls does not look exactly as bulls, but as an abstract version of it).
      - In architecture, we can find buildings supported by columns, especially in the Achaemenid Empire (the first Persian Empire, from 550-330 BC), like in the Apadana Palace, which capitals were made with animals like bulls and lions. On the other hand, Empires like the Sassanid (224 BC to 651 BC) used arched constructions, more common with the Romans.
  - - - Dharma
        
        The meaning of this word is “natural word”, meaning the natural order of the things. Is there something that organize and order all of the things? That’s what the dharma means. Dharma is also about searching for peace and harmony, and to have integrity and righteousness with life: to live in a correct and ethical way, according to your values. Also, it can refer to the teachings of Buddah, “the awakened one”, as you read in the topic before
      - Artha
        
        Artha means “wealth” or “property”. It refers to the search of having material things. Artha is important for living: it is obvious that human beings need to have some superficial things in order to survive. It is important to notice that dharma is always more important, and artha should be only a medium to achieve the dharma
      - Kama
        
        Kama was the god of love in the Indian mythology. This word refers to the emotions that we feel on Earth, making us attached to this life. It also can be used to express a love in a sensual or sexual way (like the written work of the “Kama Sutra”, written by Vātsyāyana, in where love and sexual nature are explored). Kama could be also a problem to reach the enlightenment, because desire can chain us and we can be enslaved by it
      - moksha
        
        The definition of this word is “freedom” and it means a liberation from the constant cycle of the death and the “samsara” (the soul that tries to find the freedom from the things that he does in the past, the karma). It also means a moment in which we know ourselves
- - - - Hierarchical social structure
        
        Society based on slavery
        
        Important social and commercial development
        
        Thoughts related to the rationalism, the anthropocentrism (the man is the center of the things)
        
        The search of an idealized beauty
      - another thing that influenced the Greeks to a degree in which no important decision was made without this: the Oracle of Delphi. An oracle is someone who was able, according to legends, to know the future and tell prophecies; they were claimed to be inspired by gods. In Greek literature, the part of the oracle is always important, like in Oedipus Rex, where an oracle tells King Laius that, someday, his son is going to kill him. Laius order the death of his son but he is saved. In a moment of the story, Oedipus asks to the Oracle of Delphi who his parents are, and the Oracle tell him that he is going to be married with his mother and kill his father. The prophecy became true and Oedipus, knowing what he did, gouged his eyes out in desperation.
    - - The golden section is the idea in which a line, if it is divided in two, the longer part divided by the smaller would equal to the whole line divided by the longer part. The equivalent number of the golden ratio is 1.618. For example, if a complete line is measured in 200, you can make two lines of it, one measured in 123.6 and another measured in 76.39. This division is equal to 1.618. Also, if you divide 200 between 123.6, you would get the same result: 1.618. Why is this important in an art perspective? Because, according to Mittler (2000), Greek architects used this proportion to construct their buildings, especially in the columns.
        
        The Parthenon (478-432 BC) is the most recognizable building from the Acropolis of Athens. It used the method that you studied in the Neolithic topic, the post and lintel. It was the temple dedicated to Athena.
        
        The Acropolis of Athens, in which the Parthenon is st
    - - the Greek culture the celebration of the human body is notorious. According to Fernández-Madrid (2009), there are some premises that can be found on the Greek sculpture
        
        The use of different materials, like marble (one of the most used), the bronze (with Polykleitos, Phidias and Miron) and the lost-wax casting.
        
        Techniques, like the relief in the sculptures, which creates the impression that the image is standing out the wall).
        
        Applying of different laws of proportion, according to the Canon. All of the body parts must be as real as possible. According to the ideas of the Greek, for making a perfect body, the height should be seven times its head.
        
        The ideal beauty, in which any element excel to others, in that way, the nose or the chin are small and round.
        
        In the beginnings of the Greek sculptures, male bodies were naked and female bodies were dressed. However, in the time of Praxiteles, the female body was naked.
        
        The faces portrayed never show feelings. You need to look at the posture or the attitude of the character in the sculpture to know what is expressing.
- - - - Other innovation of the Roman architecture was the triumphal arch: a big structure with one arched passageway, created to commemorate the achievements of the military or an emperor. It could also celebrate an important event.
        
        Some of the Roman and Greek gods and goddesses, Apollo (god of poetry, medicine and sun, just to mention a few) for instance, have only one name in both civilizations.