World Art Overview
Introduction
Approach
Essential Humanities identifies nine civilizations, referred to as the nine global civilizations, as especially influential throughout world history (see Global Civilizations). By studying the art of these civilizations, one can achieve a well-rounded perspective on traditional art across the globe.
| Middle East | Mesopotamian > Persian > Islamic |
| Egyptian | |
| South Asia | South Asian |
| East Asia | East Asian |
| Europe and colonial offshoots | Western |
| Meso/South America | Mesoamerican |
| Andean | |
The "World Art" section of Essential Humanities is devoted to non-Western aesthetics; accordingly, this section covers each of the civilizations listed above (except Western). It must be remembered, however, that some parts of the world did not experience the rise of civilization until the modern age. Essential Humanities accounts for this by adding three regions to its survey: Sub-Saharan Africa, North America, and Oceania.
Main Article
Table Summary
| Mesopotamian | architecture | ziggurats, Ishtar Gate | |
| sculpture | statues (notably portal guardians), wall reliefs | ||
| Egyptian | architecture | Old Kingdom: tombs (mastabas and pyramids) Middle/New Kingdom: temples |
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| in-the-round sculpture | colossal statues (notably the Sphinx), statues, obelisks | ||
| painting and relief sculpture | wall paintings/reliefs, illuminated manuscripts | ||
| Persian | architecture | Achaemenid: post-and-beam palaces (notably the Apadana) Sassanid: arched palaces (notably the palace at Ctesiphon) |
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| sculpture | animal capitals, wall reliefs, metalwork | ||
| Islamic | architecture | mosques | |
| painting | calligraphy/pattern decoration, illumination | ||
| South Asian | Indus civilization | seals, figures | |
| Indian architecture | Buddhist stupas, Hindu temples | ||
| Indian sculpture and wall painting | statues, wall paintings/reliefs | ||
| Indo-Islamic art | architecture, illumination | ||
| East Asian | ancient Chinese art | sculpture (bronze ceremonial vessels, Terracotta Army), painting (tomb murals) | |
| medieval/modern Chinese art |
painting | figure, landscape, bird-and-flower | |
| sculpture | statues (notably the Forbidden City statues) | ||
| architecture | palace architecture (notably the Forbidden City buildings), pagodas, Great Wall | ||
| ceramics | monochrome Song ceramics, blue-and-white Ming ceramics | ||
| Japanese art | woodcut | ||
| East Asian Buddhist art | statues, wall paintings/reliefs | ||
| Mesoamerican | architecture | stepped pyramids (notably El Castillo), palaces, ball courts | |
| sculpture | colossal heads (Olmec), figures, stelae | ||
| painting | pottery decoration, wall paintings, illumination | ||
| Andean | Chavin | essential style of Andean art (stone sculpture, goldwork, pottery) | |
| Moche and Nazca | pottery decoration, Nazca lines | ||
| Tiwanaku-Wari | Tiwanaku (notably the stone gateway and pillar statues) | ||
| Chimu | Chan Chan | ||
| Inca | Machu Picchu, goldwork | ||
| all Andean cultures | weaving | ||
| Sub-Saharan | Egyptian-based art | ancient Nubia | |
| Byzantine-based art | Ethiopia, medieval Nubia | ||
| wooden sculpture | masks, figures | ||
| non-wooden sculpture | Nok clay figures, forest kingdom bronzes | ||
| architecture | rock-cut churches (Ethiopia), Saharan style buildings, Great Zimbabwe enclosures | ||
| painting | rock painting, weaving | ||
| North American | large sculpture | Northwest: wood sculpture (notably totem poles) | |
| small sculpture | Arctic: masks, figurines Southwest: Kachina dolls Eastern Woodlands: stone/clay figures, vessels, pipes; copperwork |
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| painting | Southwest: pottery decoration, sand painting | ||
| architecture | Southwest: Pueblo complexes Eastern Woodlands: mounds |
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| quillwork | Northeast and Plains: clothing, birchbark objects | ||
| Oceanian | wood sculpture | masks, figures | |
| other sculpture | Easter Island statues | ||
| painting | tapa cloth (Polynesia and Melanesia), rock painting (Australia) | ||
| architecture | wood/plant material buildings (notably Maori meeting-houses) | ||