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Influence of ancient egyptian art
Influence of ancient egyptian art
Compare and contrast egyptian and greek art
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It is thought by art historians that the Greeks took the idea of building these monumental stone sculptures, such as the kouros, from Egyptian art. Lysippus, the court sculptor to Alexander the Great, challenged the Classical canon of proportions previously used and began creating sculptures with smaller heads and more slender figures just as the Egyptians did. These proportions mimic the canon of ideal proportions the Egyptian artists used when creating their sculptures. The Egyptians employed the use of a standardized grid of twenty-one squares which lent a geometric and stiff appearance.
There are many similarities between the sculpture of the kouros and King Menkaure and His Queen. Since the Greeks used the same technique as the Egyptians, the statue of the kouros is posed stiffly with his arms straight down at his sides in the same manner that Egyptian pharaohs were often depicted. His left foot is slightly in front of the right, just as King Menkaure’s left foot is. Both figures are looking straight ahead, have their feet planted on the ground, and have long hair. The kouros represented the ideal form of a young male to the Greeks, just as the figures of King Menkaure and his queen depict the ideal notion of beauty to the Egyptians. The kouros emulates the stiff pose
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The kouros was sculpted out of marble and the statue of Menkaure was made out of slate. The kouros is completely nude while the king is clothed in a kilt and a headdress. King Menkaure is making a fist around an object in both hands and the kouros has his hands in a loose fist. The kouros also does not have as much of the stone around him for “support” as the statue of King Menkaure and His Queen do. King Menkaure and His Queen was meant to be viewed from the front and therefore two-dimensional, while the kouros is meant to be viewed from all sides and is a three-dimensional
The difference between an archaic statue such as Kroisos (fig. 5-11) and a classical statue such as Doryphoros (fig. 5-42) may not seem very great in a single glance. In fact, you may not notice any differences in that one glance. Yet, if you were to look at them closely, you can see that these two statues actually have very little in common.
While they might be in the same stiff stance, the Kritios boy is looser and more realistic. The Kouros Youth is thinner and very sharp. If you look at the legs of the Kouros Youth, you can see that the edges of the muscles are sharp in comparison to the very round legs and body of the Kritios boy. The Kritios boy is looking much more realistic and round. The hair between the two statues is also very different. While the Kouros Youth has long, stylized hair, the Kritios boy has shorter, fuller hair. We are getting closer and closer to the idealized Greek body with even the face on the Kritios boy, with the lips showing a Greek ideal. You can tell that the eyes in the Kritios boy would have been inlaid while the Kouros Youth would have
First, the portrait of Menkaure and a Queen was made in the Old Kingdom Egypt. The two figures are locked in place together in the frontal poses. They can be viewed from the front and the sides, but the back is flat and has no carved details. Although they do not stand in composite pose, their proportions are following the Egyptian canon. Thus, they have athletic bodies which are idealized from the shoulders to the waist to the hips. They were made to be the perfect symbol of human beings at that time to Egyptians’ belief. For this sculpture portray a royal family in a formal state, the two figures do not have face
The Statue of a kouros represents a Greek male. With one foot forward, the statue at the same time, represents movement and is able to stand on it own. This also gives the over life size figure, visible weight. In this early figure, geometric forms seem to predominate, and anatomical details, such as the chest muscles and pelvic arch, are presented with somewhat of exaggerated lines. Although the exaggerated lines show where these muscles belong, the detail is still missing. Looking up and down this nude body, at this miss proportioned and lacking of detail body, the hair is what grabs my attention. The hair is carved with detail not noticeable in the rest of the body. As well, although the fists are clinched and still bonded to the body, the legs and elbows are separated. The ability to move around and inspect the statue makes a big difference than if it was up against a wall, or just looking at its picture. The legs, which support the weight of the statue, have a visible strength which is seen in the knees. The head is what carried the most detail, the ears although to far back, are intricately designed. It is the ability to walk around the entire statue that allows me to see the different aspects and places where attention to detail was placed. However, he does not expand into three dimensional space; he has a closed-off, column-like appearance
...e of Knidos, created by Praxiteles, can only be found in copies today, but at the time was the first sculpture of a goddess nude. He had transformed marble into the soft and radiant flesh of the goddess of love and taking on a worldly sensuousness. Originally located in a rotunda where it could be seen from all angles. Female nudity was very rare to the Greeks, especially that of a goddess. The sculptor made it look like Aphrodite’s nudity was nonchalant, which made it more sensuous with a welcoming look on her face. With several copies, all being found to be slightly different, all still capture the goddess’s womanly beauty that is not too sexually aggressive. With he hourglass torso, sloped shoulders, large hips and thighs, slim calves and ankles, and small feet and hands, this statue is the polar opposite of any manly figure, which is why it is known to be luring.
In this paper I am exploring “Portrait of Augustus as general” and “Khafre enthroned”. From exploring and getting to know the Statues in my Art History Book I have compared these statues (Kleiner, 2013). The first and most obvious similarity between the two is in the artists’ idealization and immortalization of their subjects. Both Khafre and Augustus are portrayed in an idealized manner, designed to give the impression of nobility, timelessness, and divinity. The two statues were the political advertisements of their times that showed the public images of reliable leaders who one
Polykleitos of Argos, was a renowned Ancient Greek sculptor from 5th Century BC. He was considered by many as one of the most important sculptors of his time. During his century, Greece went through many wars (e.g. Persian War) and soon rose to become one of the world’s greatest powers. The Greeks recognised the naked male figure to represent strength, power and all that were important in the perfect Greek man. Many of Polykleitos' works reflect this idea of the male perfection and were therefore usually displayed in public areas to remind the Greek people of male perfection. His work Doryphorus, is shown as highly masculine and is correctly proportioned to further show the male perfection. Polykleitos' works, were however ahead of his time as he was one of the fathers of what is now recognised as the Classical Greek style. His works incorporated contropposto (the sculpture places one leg forward to portray movement) to try and emphasise the athleticism and strength of the male figure. Another of his works (Apollo of Mantua), reflects the beliefs of the Ancient Greek civilisation. Apollo, is in Greek mythology the messenger God, and is therefore sculpted to once again show, what the Greeks believed to be the male perfection. The sculptor is shown as fierce, well-built and...
Aegean art is very simple and plain but very beautiful. Their sculpture has very little detail carved into the art but that maybe because originally their statue was painted in very bright colors. The female figures are plainer and more compact the arms and legs are folded in there no gap in between their arms and legs. While the male figures like the “male harp player from keros, c. 260—2300 B.C.E., Early Cycladic period, marble, 22.5 cm high”, are more detailed but not by much. They are more rounded they aren’t as straight and stiff looking, like the female sculpture, the male statues head is tilted back like is he is singing along to the music he plays with his harp, the leg and arm are open and apart unlike in the female sculpture who is compacted into a rectangle like shape. But they must have looked much different and more alive when they were painted than they do now. But even without the paint they still look beautiful.
Around the time 530 bce a statue was carved out of marble and given the name Anavyos Kouros. It represents a male figure completely nude. It is a sculpture in the round and stands a height of six foot four inches. Starting from the top we see the man's head. His hair looks odd to that of a normal human, it does not look like it belongs on his head. Looking at his facial structure his eyes are large similar to art of ancient Egypt. His nose, lips, cheeks, and ears are well defined and proportional. His body is muscular and he looks to be in great shape. The sculptor who made this paid close
...ars after Khafre’s reign, the fourth dynasty was just the beginning. Monumental Egypt, although it existed in burial tombs before Khafre’s reign, truly became a traditional pattern in the fourth dynasty. Khafre’s seated ka statues were numerous and perhaps the beginning of the formulaic sculpting of Egyptian ka statues. The King Khafre Seated that is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art now is not only the best ka statue of Khafre in existence, but perhaps one of the best examples of classic Egyptian sculpture from the Old Kingdom.
The Greek believed the human body was the measure of all things, therefore the artists created sculptures in a very detailed fashion which made them very life-like although the size of
Let’s begin with what was going on during the time period for each sculpture. During the 2458-2446 BCE. Userkaf was thriving over his brother Sahure, and he became the new ruler of Egypt. In the start of 2446 BCE, Neferirkare beings his dominant over Egypt. King Sahure and Nome God is a high relief it is still attached to a surface of a stone. The Pharaoh sitting on his thorn wearing a Nemes headdress (it is usually blue and gold striped), fake beard. The king has an emotionless facial expression. It was made for a decoration for the king pyramid complex. The symbol behind this statue could be the gathering of the Nome gods form Upper and Lower Egypt around t...
The pieces of sculpture are both carved using the subtractive method of sculpting from stone. However, the types of stone used were very different. The sculpture of Mycerinus and Kha-merer-nebty II was carved from a stone called greywacke, a dark colored, very hard stone the Egyptians prized for sculpture despite the fact t...
Ancient Greece has set the tone for the standard of how great sculptures were crafted. Therefore, a classic example of this form is the Fallen Warrior from the East Pediment, taken from the ruins of the temple of Aphaia. With its mythology and architectural styles, Ancient Greece has undoubtedly changed the way sculptures were made and still inspires many artists to this day.
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