"Because we are men, because we are curious, and because we are enormously aware of time and its relation to man in the universe....we have learned to reconstruct the complex features of lost civilizations from the buried fragments that have survived their ruin....to give man just this vision of himself, just this warning and even just this hope: that with a true knowledge of the past he may wander less blindly among the shards and attic rubble of past failures and perceive perhaps, the Utopia for which he seeks."

Loren Ellis, Professor of Antropology
Provost, University of Pennsylvania
From the Introduction to "The Epic of Man"

 

           In 1960, Alton Tobey was commissioned by Time-Life to create a series of paintings for a book that would be an encyclopedic survey of ancient civilizations. Tobey traveled the world to do research on the project, and completed over a dozen works for the book, some of which are shown here.

The Neolithic Period

Harvesting #129 Oil on masonite 22.5 x 18

Neolithic Villagers #192 Oil on masonite 17 x 48

ABOVE LEFT:  A neolithic man and woman glean wheat and barley on a spring morning in Mesopotamia around 5000 B.C. In the background stand the mud houses of their permanent village.

ABOVE RIGHT: Neolithic villagers busy themselves in front of pressed-mud houses in Mesopotamia around 4500 B.C. This scene was recreated by the artist after much research to include many of the daily tasks undertaken by primitive man thousands of years ago.

Forerunners of the Ancient Greeks

The Acropolis #537 Oil on masonite 20 x 40

           Agamemnon's capital, the Acropolis of Mycenae, crowns a craggy hilltop high above the rich Argive plain. Surrounding the entire citadel are massive walls, 20 to 35 feet thick and perhaps 60 feet high. The walls are made of huge, irregular limestone blocks. The towering royal palace was built in the 14th Century B.C. and remodeled in the 13th. This painting by Tobey shows only its state portion, containing the great hall, grand staircase and throne room. The residential section is beyond.

A Lion Hunt #425 Oil on masonite 20 x 24

Palace at Mycenae #745 Oil on masonite 21 x 18

A Royal Funeral #414 Oil on masonite 20 x 24

ABOVE LEFT:  A lion Hunt in the Greek highlands. Homer explained that it was vital to hunt lions in order to safeguard livestock: ". . . lions which as they prey upon the cattle and the fat sheep lay waste the steadings where there are men, until they also fall and are killed under the cutting bronze in the men's hands."

ABOVE CENTER: In the great hall of a Mycenaean palace, members of a royal household gather around the hearth to listen as a minstrel strums his lyre and sings epic lays about great heroes and their deeds. Tales of Mycenaean heroes, as told by Homer, inspired the classical Greeks, who came after the Mycenaeans. The room shown here is based on the great hall of the palace at Pylos, home of King Nestor.

ABOVE RIGHT: A royal funeral takes place in a Mycenaean tomb in the side of a hill. The bodies of the king and queen lie on the floor of the chamber, surrounded by mortuary gifts. Behind them stands a group of mourners, including a servant and a dog, who will be killed to accompany their rulers in death.

A Mycenaean Battle Private Collection

           Fighting as individuals, not as an army, warriors battle outside a Mycenaean city. In the foreground, soldiers fight over the body of a fallen attacker; his foes seek to divest him of weapons, while his friends (right) strive to preserve his honor and their own by dragging him off for burial. A number of preliminary charcoal studies for the Neolithic Age, Battle scene paintings and other preparatory studies on paper can be seen on Tobey's works on paper page. After visiting there, use your browser's "back" button to return here.

In the Orient - The Shang Dynasty

Shang Invaders #402 Oil on masonite 20 x 24

A Shang Banquet #130 Oil on masonite 16 x 22.5

ABOVE LEFT:  Shang invaders in red battle garb fight green-clad Tung-I, or Eastern Barbarians, on the plains of western Shantung Province. This painting depicts an imaginary incident in a three-year war waged by Chou Hsin, the last King of the Shang. The well-disciplined Shang used chariots and fought with bows and arrows, bronze spears and dagger-axes. The barbarians were skillful warriors, but were finally overcome by the superior military organization of the Shang.

ABOVE RIGHT:  At a banquet, perhaps celebrating a successful hunt, Shang lords and ladies dine on assorted meats and heady millet wine, and laugh heartily at a joke that their host has just told. The diners kneel on rush matting and eat with chopsticks, as the Chinese still do. The murals on the walls were suggested by wall paintings found in Shang royal tombs.

 

Guatemala - The Mayans

The Temple at Tikal #197 Oil on masonite 28 x 34

       In the temple city of Tikal, Guatemala, a priest on a pyramid unfolds a jaguar skin, and a red-daubed quetzal-plumed high priest prepares to raise his scepter as the assembled worshipers reverently watch the offering of copal incense in the sanctuary. This classic period city had an imposing Great Plaza dominated by the huge Temple of the Giant Jaguar (right) and the Temple of the Masks (extreme left). The plaza, flanked by lesser shrines as well as carved and plain stone time markers, was paved. Its massive temple buildings were made of lime concrete faced with cut limestone blocks, quarried in the hills nearby, and covered with dazzling white coats of plaster. A similar version of this painting, along with many other paintings of Tobey's dealing with archaeological subjects and ancient cultures were published by The World Book Encyclopedia around the same time.