Masked and veiled dancer is a bronze from Hellenistic period in Greek culture. It is a statuette, much smaller than life size. The motion of the dancer is quite complicated. Several layers of dress cover her body and a mantle covers her head. The mantle, however, goes over her head and the body as well by the pressure forms her right arm, left hand and right leg. Her half face is concealed behind veils. In general, the woman is really charming and in precise proportion. Audience can find many curves over the volume. Her activity is so impressive that it remind me of the real performance I watched before in East country (although the sculpture is from Greek culture). Generally, it is a really infectious figure. She is identified as one of the professional entertainers, a combination of mime and dancer.
Mourner is a sculpture made of alabaster, so the color of the figure is totally different from the Dancer. It is a little higher than the Dancer. The sculptor in Spain invested time and energy in taking advantage of the white and smooth features of the material to carve out the sadness of the figure both on the face and body language. This sculpture is a gift of Irwin Untermyer in 1964 and comes from the tomb of Fernando de Antequera, king of Aragon, in the royal pantheon at the abbey of Poblet near Barcelona. Obviously, as many carving works during that specific period, the Mourner is applied into a funerary use.
Take more further observations on these two pieces of work, I find more attractive things to compare. First of all, the most fascinating thing to me is drapery carved to cover both figures. Thanks to the drapery, different figures have their own activity features. When I was observing them in the museum, I was totally...
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...e's Tortoise: The Veiled Woman of Ancient Greece. London: Classical Press of Wales, p. 64, figs. 72, 73, and frontispiece.
Hemingway, S. 2007. "From Gods to Grotesques: Hellenistic Bronze Sculptures at the Metropolitan Museum." Apollo 166 (May): 50, 52, fig. 2.
Picón, C. A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 451, no. 237, ill. pp. 202-3.
Schultz, P. and R. von den Hoff, eds. 2007. Early Hellenistic Portraiture: Image, Style, Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 65, n. 14.
This sensitively carved mourner comes from the tomb of Fernando de Antequera, king of Aragon (d. 1416), in the royal pantheon at the abbey of Poblet near Barcelona. In 1417 the Catalan sculptor Pere Oller, who was also active at the cathedrals of Gerona and Vich, was commissioned to carve the tomb.
McClees, Helen, The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1933
From the front view, the sculpture seems like a growing tree. The color is dark brown and the whole body is mainly in the same tone. In this view point she is mainly in a straight line, the top seems larger than the base. We can see that although the sculpture is pretty thin but the weight is well balanced. Her two vividly hands are gently open reaching
In my examination of the works, I came across a particular sculpture that portrayed both beauty and craftsmanship. A 15th century sculpture (1490), made in Venice, Italy by Tullio Lombardo, shows a life-size figure of Adam. Titled Adam, the work is the most prominent in the gallery mostly because of its 6-foot standing. It immediately caught my attention and gave me a very realistic impression. One beige color and made of marble, Adam is depicted simply, yet the statue has intense emotions. His meaningful glance is seen in the upward and tilted head position. Adam has almost lifeless looking eyes and seems to be staring into the distance. With these sagging eyes, parted lips, and lacking posture I feel Adam’s guilt is displayed in this figure.
To better compare the sunken relief of Horus and the Torso of Aphrodite, the backgrounds of these pieces must be first taken into account. Each piece of artwork can be broken down into two parts: the type of art which it is and its subject matter. The sunken reli...
Nothing is promised in life except for one thing and that is death! Everyone has to eventually die but in African cultures they believe that there is life after death and this where ancestors reside. Art works are there to help serve as a point of contact between the living and the dead. In the country of Gabon in central Africa the Kota people have a guardian figure made to hold, honor and protect the bones on their ancestors. “The traditional religion of Kota centered around ancestors who are believed to wield power in the afterlife as they had as living leaders of the community.” Ancestors are respected elders who have passed away and who continues to serve as an extension of a family and community. In the image below I will explain some of the parts found on the figure. If you have noticed there is no mouth on the figure and that is because the ancestors no longer communicate with words. Below the neck there is a diamond shaped part of the figure which happens to be the arms, these are used to tightly hold onto the remains of the ancestor’s bones. “Wooden sculptures covered with sheets of copper and brass, known as reliquary or guardian figures, were attached to the baskets containing bones. Some believe that the figures were an abstract portrait of the deceased individual, while others argue that they were merely to protect the spirt of the deceased from evil.”
Both of these pieces of art have much in common. Their functions are almost identical. Both were used to mark burial sites and to honor the deceased buried there. The body language of both the pieces’ figures are similar, with one seated and several others standing around them. Neither has color, but unlike the grave stele, the funerary banquet does show some degree of emotion. The figures in the banquet scene have slight smiles. These pieces played an important role in their times, honoring those who had passed on to the afterlife. For both of these people, it was important to memorialize them very similar to our practices today.
Both Man Without Ties and Diskobolos , as mentioned, portray a vigorous, athletic figure, dancing theatrically in dramatic actions and gestures. Whereas Diskobolos is rendered in sculptural, life-size, three-dimensional form, Man Without Ties is rendered in a two-dimensional, black-and-white photograph. Nevertheless, both mediums further express Greek High Classical and Hellenistic arts' concern for a more expressionistic figure, one that conveys and appeals directly to the senses through this lustrous glistening of surfaces and emotions.
Kleiner, Fred S. A History of Roman Art. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.
An analysis of Mycerinus and Kha-merer-nebty II and Augustus of Primaporta, reveals that there are many similarities, but also many differences between these two pieces of sculpture. These similarities and differences are found in the subject, style, and function of both works of art.
...r. "Ancient Greece." Gardner's art through the ages the western perspective. 13th ed., Backpack ed. Boston, Mass.: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. 101, 123,129. Print.
Scott, Michael. "The Rise of Women in Ancient Greece." History Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2014. .
Both the shape and body of the Reclining Woman sculpture totally tear down our standards as Golden Age Greeks. Not at all can I make out whom this sculptor is representing. Sure I can make out the basic female figure. However the head is way too small in proportion the rest of the body. Maybe Henry Moore has not yet finished this piece. Did he make a mistake in the development of the chest area? This could be the case. If still this is a finish piece of “art” in no terms by us Greeks' is this considered Art.
Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. "Hellenistic and Roman Art." A World History of Art. London: Laurence King, 1999. 179-213. Print.
Even the few sculptor’s names known to us, usually by chance, from the imperial period are Greek names and seem to confirm the assumption that these artists’ work should be regarded simply as a late phase of Greek art” (Hanfmann, 12). The Greeks were the first western culture to figure out how to accurately depict the human form which they did through the use of geometric ratios. It is also widely accepted that it was even Greek artists who first made marble portraits for the Romans as the Romans originally had no skill with the stone. “It was certainly at first Greek artists who were entrusted by eminent Romans with the execution of portraits of themselves and of important personalities in the Roman state, just as it was Greeks who depicted Aemilius Paulus victory at Pydna and later were largely responsible for the portraits of the emperors” (Kahler 16). The Romans mainly used terracotta for their sculptures and it was only when Augustus reigned that the marble quarries at Carrara were opened and marble was used on a large scale. The Romans inherited the use of realistic proportions, the sense of movement (contrapposto), and the overall beauty of Greek sculptures. A great example of Roman sculpture that was clearly carved by a Greek artist who was familiar with the Hellenistic styles of Greece, is the Relief of the Wedding of Amphitrite and Neptune. It “shows a mythological