Chapter 15: Nature, Knowledge,

and Technology
Book Objectives
What do we consider ideal in nature?
How do animals in art reflect desirable or despicable qualities in humans?
What do we know about the world around us through art?
How does art advance knowledge?
What are our attitudes regarding the things humans have constructed in the world?
How is technology helping us, and how is it hurting us?

Book Outline
Lecture Notes
Lecture Questions

Blackboard Objectives
Week 15

Content

Required Textbook Reading

Read Chapter 15.

Try to answer some of the following questions as you read this chapter:
o
o
o

What is an earth work? Give an example of an artwork of this kind

created in Utah.
Do you know what is the difference between a minotaur and a centaur?
What is a shaman?

Lecture 15

Art100 Quiz 15

EXAM 3
Take Exam 3 as soon as you can!

Review the procedures for taking exams in the Syllabus section. You can take this exam
whenever you are ready. You should call the testing center first, however, to make sure
that it will be open long enough for you to complete the exam, and to make sure that the

network is functioning properly. You must take a photo ID and the appropriate Exam Pass
with you to the testing center.
Good luck on your exam!
Exam at Home option

For this course, ELI is offering you an opportunity to take your proctored exams
at home. You schedule the time you'd like to take your exam.
Each exam costs - $ 7.50 (payable by credit or debit card).
You must have a Web camera and microphone.
For more info click on this link: Guidelines for taking Exams at Home.docx

Interactive Exercise-optional extra credit

Go to the Student Companion Site. Select from Chapters
12-16. Select any of the interactive activities listed. This can be new virtual
museum tours, artists, flashcards, art links. Your choice! Now go to the
Discussion Board, Add a thread and post what category enhanced your
learning the most. Then, go and respond to another classmate s entry.
(Optional extra credit-5 points)

Companion Site Assignment

Click on the link to 'Book Companion Site' for your textbook Edition - 2nd or
3rd. Select current Chapter from the drop-down list and take Practice Quiz.

Go to this Student Book Companion Site for the 2nd Edition book.
Go to the Student Book Companion Site for the 3rd Edition book.

Practice Quiz
1. The Mask of Hanuman from Thailand pertains to the Hindu story of a:
a. heroic monkey who helped rescue Rama's wife from a demon.
2.
Kiefer's Breaking of the Vessels suggests several interrelated ideas about the:
a. introduction of evil into the world.
3.
Ukeles' project of The Social Mirror includes a mirror on the side of a garbage
truck to:
a. glamorize the sanitation truck.
b. reflect the images of the general public.
c. raise the status of the sanitation workers.
4. Which art forms are combined in Chinese compositions such as the Apricot
Blossoms?
a. poetry, callligraphy, and painting
5. Which composition conveys the artist's perception that dreams are at least as
real as the ordered world in which humans function?
a. Dali's Persistence of Memory
6. Chinese landscape paintings may often reflect the beliefs of:
a. Daoism.
7. Which culture depicted brutal treatment of hunted lions in relief sculpture?
a. Assyrian
8. Smithson's Spiral Jetty is a prime example of which art form?
a. earthwork
9. Walter De Maria's project of The Lightning Field consisted of:
a. 400 stainless steel poles.
10.Nam June Paik's Megatron is composed of 200 screens that display:
a. digital images.
b. animations.
c. video clips.
11.Intuitive knowledge and concern for the metaphysical have absolutely no
relevance to the visual arts. False
12.In Hunter and Kangaroo, an Australian Aboriginal artist used an "x-ray" style
of painting that shows the external silhouette and internal organs of figures.
True

13.Mark Rothko created abstract compositions with soaked and stained "veils" of
paint because he felt that figurative art was too limiting. True
14.Jan Breugel's Little Bouquet in a Clay Jar was painted from observation within
one day to capture the freshness of the floral arrangement. False
15.Claude Monet was a famous Impressionist who painted almost exclusively
outdoors. True
16.James Audobon created ornithologically accurate watercolors that were
published in Birds of America. True
17.The English word "paradise" was derived from the _________________
Persian word for a "walled garden."
18.The _________________ Buddhist religion had a major impact on the design
of the Japanese Zen Garden of Contemplation in Kyoto's Daiju-in Monastery.
19.A _________________ unicorn is a fantasy creature that is depicted as a
composite of a horse with some goat features, and a long single horn
projecting from its head.
20.Ansel Adams was famous for landscape _________________ photography of
remote wilderness areas in the American West.
21.Among the Northwest Coast people, a _________________ shaman is
recognized as a person with supernatural powers to transform between the
human, animal and spiritual worlds.
22.Jean Tinguely's Homage to New York: A Self-Constructing, Self-Destructing
Work of Art was presented in the courtyard of _________________ The
Museum of Modern Art.

23.

Graded Quiz 15
The Mask of Hanuman from Thailand pertains to the Hindu story of a:
heroic monkey who helped rescue Rama's wife from a demon.
Kiefer's Breaking of the Vessels suggests several interrelated ideas about the:
introduction of evil into the world.
Which art forms are combined in Chinese compositions such as the Apricot
Blossoms?
poetry, calligraphy and painting
Nam June Paik's Megatron is composed of 200 screens that display:
video clips
digital images
animations
Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty is a prime example of which art form?
earthworks
Which composition conveys the artist's perception that dreams are at least as
real as the ordered world in which humans function?
Dali's Persistence of Memory
Lightning Field by Walter De Maria is regarded as a(n) ________________ piece,
since most people have seen it through photographs rather than in person.
conceptual
Many Islamic gardens stood for
paradise
Ansel Adams' photographs emphasized the beauty of nature as
unaltered by humans
Fantastic creatures such as those portrayed in The Unicorn in Captivity or the
Serpent creature in the Relief from La Venta, are the product of
desire
fear
human imagination

Study Guide
Online Study Guide Chapter 15

Art imitates, admires, and judges the world around us. This chapter will consider art
relating to nature, knowledge, and technology. Art helps record and further our study of
the natural world and of technology. Modern inventions have made our lives easier, but
artist have also begun to look at the negative impact technology has inflicted on our
planet.

The cave drawings at Lascaux (Figure 7.1, page 142) are among the oldest
existing drawings made by humans.
1. Sacred Places: Lascaux, France
2. The Sistene Chapel of Prehistory: Lascaux

Nature includes all of the earth's flora and fauna.

Animals
The first known example of art made by humans feature animals. Animals are studied,
admired, feared, and used for food and human companionship. Animals have been widely
used in all cultures as symbols for humans, human nature, and other aspects of the world
at large. Humans have also invented fantastic creatures for these same purposes.
Fantastic Creatures
Fantastic creatures are usually amalgamations of human and animal features, and are

created from the human imagination out of desire and fear.

Examples of fantastic creatures appear in previous chapters. They include

serpents (Laocoon and His Sons, Figure 13.16, 348), human-headed winged
bulls (Lamassu, Figure 11.8, page 282), and totem animals (Interior House
Post, Figure 14.14, page 378)

Figure 15-1, Relief, Olmec culture, Mexico, 6th century BC, Basalt, 38.5 inches high.
A warrior or priest wears a helmet resembling the fierce serpent-bird hovering over him.
1. Olmec standing-figure relief
Figure 15-2, The Unicorn in Captivity, from a series of six tapestries entitled "Hunt of the
Unicorn," French or Flemish, from the Chteau of Verteuil, late 15th century.
The unicorn was a popular creature in Medieval religious and secular folklore. Unicorns
symbolized Jesus Christ as well as chivalrous love.
1. Another image from the Unicorn series
Figure 15-3, Shaman's Amulet, Tlingit, Alaska/British Columbia, ca. 1820-1850, Sperm
whale tooth, 6.5 inches long.
The Shaman's Amulet serves to symbolize and augment the holy man's power as a link
between human, animal, and spirit forces. Qualities of the various animals depicted on
the amulet are imparted onto the wearer.
1. Tlingit Shaman's Mask
Figure 15-4, Mask of Hanuman, Thailand, mother of pearl, gilt, gems and other materials.

In Thailand, monkeys often are metaphors for humans, who aspire to be gods. This
magnificent mask represents a monkey hero from Hindu legends.
1. Mask of Hanuman, Thailand, from the National Museum of Bangkok
Figure 15-5, Chris Ofili. Monkey Magic Sex, Money and Drugs. Acrylic, collage, glitter,
resin, pencil, map pins, and elephant dung on canvas, 96" x 72". Great Britian, 1999.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
1. Chris Ofili on Artnet
Observed Animals
The depiction of animals without embellishment in art is sometimes created for the
admiration of their beauty and their abilities. At other times, art about animals expresses
the desire to dominate other living creatures.
Figure 15-6, Ashurbanipal II Killing Lions, Assyria, from the Palace of Ashurbanipal,
Ninevah, c. 650 BC, limestone relief, approximately 60 inches high.
Reliefs of royal lion hunts lining the Assyrian palace walls boast of the king's skill and
bravery. The lions are skillfully rendered, conveying strength and majesty even in death.
1. Arts of Archaemenians
2. Ashurbanipal Hunting Lions, from the Palace of Ashurbanipal, Ninevan
Figure 15-7, Spider. Large drawing created when brown surface rocks were scraped away
to reveal yellowish surface below. Nazca, Peru, c. 200-600.
1. Other drawing from Nazca, Peru.

Figure 15-8, Vessel in the Form of a Monkey, Veracruz, Mexico, 800-900, clay, 8.5 inches
tall.
This sculptural vessel features a spider monkey that has a rattle inside the vessel to
imitate the monkey's chatter. Mesoamericans kept monkey as pets, and they are
mentioned in many of their myths.
1. Examine the Veracruz polychrome jaguar from the Late Classic period

The Land
This section will focus on four types of art featuring the land: 1) land imagery in painting
and photography; 2) planned gardens and cultivated flowers; 3) earth used as sculptural
material; and 4) art that addresses ecological concerns.
Landscape Imagery
Landscapes in art are often idealized and carry social or religious significance.
Landscapes became increasingly popular as urbanization spread.
Figure 15-9, Beyond the Solitary Bamboo Grove, from an album of six leaves, Sheng
Maoye, Landscapes inspired by Tang Poems, China, 1625-1640, ink and colors on silk,
11.25" x 12".
Landscapes became popular among the wealthy and the middle class living in crowded
cities. Chinese landscape paintings are often paired with poetry and are enjoyed for its
reflection of Daoist principles.
1. Autumn Landscape, Sheng Maoye
2. Landscape Painted on the 40th Birthday, Tang Yin, from the Ming Dynasty
Figure 15-10, The Haywain, John Constable, England, 1821, oil on canvas, 51 x 74 inches.
Constable's painting reflects ideas about healthy country living, private property rights,
scientific study of light and weather, and Romanticism.
1. The Haywain, John Constable, England
2. Another version of Constable's The Haywain
Figure 15-11, Claude Monet. Water Lily Pool. Oil on canvas. France, 1900. The Art Institute
of Chicago.
1. Biography of Claude Monet.
Figure 15-12, Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California, 1944, Ansel
Adams, U.S.A., Photograph.
United States artists focused on the uncultivated, untouched majesty of the American
frontier. Adams was a virtuoso in producing grand and romantic prints of the West, and
his work helped create support for national parks.

1. Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California, Ansel Adams

Flowers and Gardens
Flowers and gardens have many symbolic meanings. Art about flowers often represents
fertility, fleeting beauty, mortality, love, peace, sexuality, or nature. Gardens are living
sculptures that express harmony or control of humans with or over nature. They also
often symbolize wealth or paradise.
Figure 15-13, Apricot Blossoms, Ma Yuan, China, early 13th century, album leaf with ink
and color on silk, height 10 inches.
Ma Yuan was a court painter. This painting was paired with a poem written by the
EmpressYang.
1. Other Song Dynasty Artworks
Figure 15-14, Little Bouquet in a Clay Jar, by Jan Bruegel, Flanders, c. 1599, oil on panel,
20 x 15.75 inches.
Bruegel may have masterfully recorded the likeness of flowers observed in real life, but
this bouquet never existed. He combined flowers that did not bloom at the same time or
grew in different locales in his compositions.
1. Collection of Jan Bruegel images
Figure 15-15, Babur Supervising the Layout of the Garden of Fidelity, Bishndas, with
portraits by Nanha, Mughal India, c. 1590, manuscript painting, gold and gouache on
paper, 21.9 x 14.4 cm.
Emperor Babur built many gardens throughout his land. Islamic gardens often represent
Paradise. A waterway channeled water in four perpendicular directions, dividing the
garden into squares. (See also figures 2.20)
1. Detailed image of Babur at court, from a Mughal manuscript
2. View of Babur Supervising the Layout of the Garden of Fidelity

Review the discussion of the Taj Mahal (figure 10.18, page 260) for more on
Islamic gardens symbolizing Paradise.
1. Lost gardens of the Taj Mahal

Figure 15-16, Ryoan-ji Zen Garden of Contemplation, Daiju-in Monastery, Kyoto, Japan, c.
1488-1499.
The Japanese Zen garden reflects the Zen Buddhist concept of the cosmos. Visitors do
not enter the garden but view it from the edges for meditative purposes.
1. Ryoan-ji Zen Garden
2. The Zen Garden at Ryoan-ji
Earthworks and Site Pieces
Figure 15-17, Serpent (or Snake), near Locust Grove, Ohio, Native American, c. 900-1300,
earthen sculpture, 1,400 feet long.
North Americans created large-scale ceremonial sculptures of mounded earth.
1. Image of the Great Serpent Mound, Ohio
Figure 15-18, Spiral Jetty, Robert Smithson, Great Salt Lake, Utah, U.S.A., 1970, black
rocks, salt, earth, red water, algae, 1,500 feet long.
Earthworks make the surrounding environment part of the artwork. Smithson constructed
a huge, earthen spiral extending out into the Great Salt Lake. He was interested in
moving art outside of traditional venues.
1. Spiral Jetty, Robert Smithson, Great Salt Lake, Utah

Figure 15-19, Lightning Field, Walter de Maria, New Mexico, U.S.A., 1971-1977, 400
stainless steel poles, averaging 20 feet tall, in a land area one mile by one kilometer.

This installation looks very different dependent upon seasonal and weather conditions.
Lightning strikes only occasionally on the remote field, making the piece exist primarily
through photographs and conceptually as an idea of electrifying potential.
1. Lightning Field, Walter de Maria, New Mexico, USA
Ecological Concerns
Figure 15-20, The Social Mirror, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, U.S.A., 1983, New York city
garbage truck covered with mirrors and reflective acrylic trim.
By installing large mirrors to the sides of a New York City garbage truck, the artist used
the city streets and residents as his material to literally reflect upon urban waste.
1. The Social Mirror, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, USA

Art contributes to a civilization's body of knowledge about ourselves and about the world.
This section will look at informative images, images about intuitive knowledge, and
critiques of knowledge.
Informative Images
Figure 15-21, The Fourth Plate of Muscles, from De Humani Corporis Fabrica, Andreas
Vesalius of Brussels, Flanders, published 1543, engraving.
Vesalius' detailed anatomical illustrations of human dissections are considered the
beginning of modern medicine. The Classically posed figure stands as if still alive,
producing a beautiful and gruesome image.
1. Images from De Humani Corporis Fabrica, Andreas Vesalius
Figure 15-22, Carolina Parroquet, Original for Plate #26 of Birds of America, John James
Audubon, U.S.A., 1827-1838, watercolor, 29.5 x 21.25 inches.
Audubon's book of birds is based on his original watercolor paintings. Carolina Parroquet
is an example of an aesthetically beautiful print that also educates viewers.
1. Carolina Parroquet, from Birds of America, John James Audubon, USA

Figure 15-23, Hunter and Kangaroo, Oenpelli, from Arnhem Land, Australia, c. 1913, paint
on bark, 51 x 32 inches.
The aboriginal painting serves as an educational and perhaps a spiritual aid. Indicating
the location of a kangaroo's internal organs helps hunters with the kill.
1. Hunter and Kangaroo, Oenpelli, from Arnhem Land, Australia

Other Aboriginal paintings transmit knowledge from one clan member to

another, as we saw in Paddy Carrol Tjungurayi's Witchetty Grub Dreaming
(Figure 7.2, page 143)
2. Aboriginal Art Gallery
Figure 15-24, Current, Bridget Riley, Great Britain, 1964, synthetic polymer paint on
composition board, approximately 58.5 inches square.
The undulating curves of Riley's disorienting pattern demonstrate the scientific principles
of optics.
1. Splice, Bridge Riley

Georges Seurat also relied on the science of optics in his work. Take another
look at La Grande Jatte (Figure 14.28, page 390).

Art and Intuited Knowledge

Knowledge includes an exploration of the personal, internal realm of the mind and spirit.

It is not necessarily rational or ordered.

Figure 15-25, The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali, Spain, 1941, oil on canvas, 9.5 x
13 inches.
Surrealist artists like Dali tried to give form to the dream world of subconscious fear and
desire. Watches, humanmade devices used to keep order, lie limp and useless in this
fantastic yet plausibly rendered landscape.
1. The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali, Spain
Figure 15-26, Green, Red, Blue, Mark Rothko, U.S.A., 1955, oil on canvas, 81.5 x 77.75
inches.
Rothko layered thin"veils" of paint to create abstract patches of color that seem to glow.
Rothko attempted to express the sublime through color.
1. View another Mark Rothko work
The Critique of Learning

Figure 15-27, Gods of the Modern World, Jos Clemente Orozco, Mexico, 1932-1934,
Fresco, located at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 126 x 176 feet.
Orozco satarizes the sterility and esotericism of academia.
1. Gods of the Modern World, Jose Clemente Orozco, fresco at Dartmouth College,
Hanover, New Hampshire
2. Katharsis, Jose Clemente Orozco
Figure 15-28, Breaking of the Vessels, Anselm Kiefer, Germany, 1990, lead, iron, wire,
charcoal and aquatec, height 17 feet.
Breaking of the Vessels alludes to the fact that all human endeavors are cyclical in
nature, and subject to periods of decline. The installation also references the
Kristallnacht, when Nazis destroyed Jewish communities in riots in 1938.
1. Nachtschatten, Anselm Kiefer

Technological Advances
Technology brings positive and negative consequences.
Figure 15-29, Farm Scene, China, Sung dynasty, c. 1000-1240, ink and color on silk.
Inventions of human innovation have existed for a long time. Water pumps, bridges,
boats, and fishing poles harmoniously exist with humans and the natural environment in
this Sung dynasty painting.
1. View a similar image from the Sung dynasty
2. A Scholar in His Study, a Sung dynasty painting

Figure 15-30, The City, Fernand Lger, France, 1919, oil on canvas, 90.75 x 117.25
inches.
Inspired by the forms, sounds and rhythm of the Industrial Revolution, Lger painted a
tight jumble of geometric shapes and bright colors reminiscent of a big city.
1. The City, Fernand Leger, France

Figure 15-31, Cubi XXVI, David Smith, U.S.A., 1965, steel, approximately 10 x 12.5 x 2.3
feet.
Smith uses industrial materials and fabrication techniques to produce heavy, geometric
sculptures of simple, precise forms. Cubi XXVI suggests the impersonality and movement
of machines.
1. National Gallery of Art Sculptur Garden
2. See CubI XXVI from another view
Evaluating the Constructed World
Figure 15-32, The Fighting "Temeraire" Tugged to Her Last Berth To Be Broken Up, Joseph
Mallord William Turner, England, 1838, oil on canvas, 35.25 x 48 inches.
Turner eulogizes the passing of archaic sailing ships. The romanticized seascape is
marred by the blackened smudge of a newer steam-powered ship.
1. The Fighting"Temeraire" Tugged to Her Last Berth To Be Broken Up, Joseph Mallord

William Turner, England

Figure 15-33, Homage to New York: A Self-Constructing, Self-Destructing Work of Art, Jean
Tinguely, Swiss, 1960.
Junkyard machine parts are rigged together to create a useless machine that
unpredictably self-destructs. Tinguely backhandedly celebrates the frenetic dynamism of
the most populous city in the United States. (See also figure 2.327)
1. Homage to New York: A Self-Constructing, Self-Destructing Work of Art, Jean Tinguely,
Swiss

Homage to New York was both an environmental sculpture and a happening.

For more on the late twentieth century trend that de-emphasizes art as an
object and emphasizes art as an event, see the sections on "Engaging All the
Senses" and "Chance/Improvisation/Spontaneity" in Chapter 2.

Figure 15-34, Megatron (three views), Nam June Paik, in collaboration with Shuya Abe,
Korea, 1995, eight-channel video and two-channel sound installation in two parts, overall
size 3.62 x 10.1 x .6 meters.
A barrage of dislocated images is flashed on over 200 television monitors. The abrupt
juxtapositions of modern sensory overload are also potentially liberating and
constructive.
1. Megatron mediascape view by Nam June Paik

Glossary
Glossary
Chapter 15
bestiary

A type of medieval natural history book with actual and mythical

animals, along with descriptions and moral and religious

interpretations.
centaur

A half-man, half-horse creature, from fables.

dymaxion

A term invented by R. Buckminster Fuller by combining the words

dynamic, maximum, and tension, to describe his view of
architecture that is economical and does more with less.

Environme
ntal art

A form of art that surrounds and affects the viewer; it may be in

an interior space or out in nature.

French
An art movement in early-twentieth-century France in which
Impressioni artists sought to capture the changing effects of light and color as
sm
the eye perceives them.
Impressioni A late-nineteenth-century painting style, originating in Western
sm
Europe, that attempts to capture subtle light qualities with small
strokes of strong color.
Minimalism A nonobjective art movement in the twentieth century in the
United States in which artists reduced their images and objects to
pure form. These images and forms were called primary
structures.
Op Art

A 1960s style of art that created unusual visual vibrations with

contrasting colors or closely placed lines.

pathos

The power to provoke compassion.

Precisionis
m

An art movement in the United States in the first half of the

twentieth century that was concerned with rendering humanmade environments and the beauty of precise and perfect
machine forms in a clear and concise manner. The style of
painting was flat and decorative.

roach

A Native American headdress made of animal fur and worn on a

shaven head.

Zen

A variation of Buddhism, practiced mostly in Japan, Vietnam, and

Korea, that seeks intuitive illumination of the mind and spirit,
primarily through meditation.

Study Guide
Glossary.