It was in Getty Villa where I found the statue of Herakles a.k.a Hercules by the Roman term, a myth legend of ancient Greek, in pretty great shape that I can do the observation for this museum report. They were two statues represent Herakles, and I picked the one in pristine condition where Hercules is portrayed in younger age.
This statue holds a lionskin with lion’s head still attached in right hand and a club in left hand, lies on his left shoulder. However in other Herakles statue, the club is not present by the artist whose sculptured the statue. The nude Herakles statue reflects the ideal form of a man’s body, in proportional balance and exemplary height.
Although, I described in Fast Facts about the condition of this Herakles statue
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From the ancient Greek, Herakles is a character often told as a story personifies strength and greatness. Zeus, the king of the gods, begat Herakles from a human mother, Alkmene then made Herakles a demigod.
Herakles real mother was Alkmene, a mortal human made pregnant by Zeus and drove Hera, the queen of the gods, Zeus’ wife went furious. Although name of Herakles means “glorious gift of Hera”, since his birth, he was detested and Hera did anything she could to hurt Herakles, including sending snakes into his cradle when he was still a baby. Baby Herakles killed the snakes with his strength by strangled them.
In another event, Hera made Herakles went insane caused him murdered his wife, Megara and their children. Herakles was punished to carry out 12 impossible labors. Herakles finished the tasks with the help of Hermes and Athena, and attributed as Greek most prominent hero. Herakles killed the Nemean lion, a mystical creature with impregnable skin in his first labor of 12 as illustrated in the majority of Herakles
The Ancient Egyptian sculpture, “Statue of Nykara and His Family”, was sculpted during the late fifth dynasty. The sculpture is a depiction of Nykara, his wife, Nubkau, and son, Ankhma-Re. The statue is in poor condition with pieces of limestone missing and chips on the three subject’s faces and bodies. The painted limestone shows the conventional colors for the male and female subjects. There is a clear discoloration among Nykara and his son’s bodies. The brownish red color they once were has eroded to a light yellowish color, which resembles the purposeful color of Nykara’s wife. The hieroglyphs on Nykara’s seat insinuate that the sculpture is meant to be viewed from the front view. This is also evident by the way the three subjects are facing forward in frontal view. There are hieroglyphs on both the chair and base of the statue near Nykara’s wife and son’s feet.
The marble Statuette of Youthful Dionysos stands about 30 inches tall. The arms, legs, nose, and
Many art works such as statues are placed throughout the world in different settings. The most common setting for statues is found in funerary settings. The importance of statues in funerary settings is that they are use to project the power the person had before his death. The seated statue of Khafre enthroned from Gizeh, Egypt, illustrates the idealized pharaoh. Another sculpture is Kouros, from Anavysos, Greece that depicts the heroism of Kroisos dying in battle. The Kouros and Khafre are similar in the way that they both radiate power and serve the purpose of honoring the dead men, yet Khafre has a greater significance because it illustrates the pharaoh in a flawless form and the audience can tell that he was a great ruler by the perfect cut sculpture.
The statue of Hatshepsut seated down is made with the material limestone. This limestone is lightly colored, which created a larger contrast with the other statues nearby. Her face was carved bringing out her eyes, eyebrows and other facial features. Her eyebrows also come slightly together towards the middle. Her lips forming a slight archaic smile. The dimensions are larger than an average female size. The statue is of great size, yet still in proportion. The body and head fit well with each other overall. However, it is greatly exaggerated in size.
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
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
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
The statue is made of marble, instead of the bronze statue. This statue is one of the earliest marble statues of a human figure carved in Attica. The statue is a kind of symbol; he does not in any way a likeness. This is my first expression when I saw the statue: the statue is showing me a simple, clear action that was used by Greek youth sculptures throughout this period. Looking at this statue, he expanded into 3D space, because he is standing straight and facing forward without any exaggerated movements, thus the post makes him look closed-off and a column his limbs are locked in space. Therefore, the standing posture, the decorations on his body, his hair and knee’s texture and how the Egyptians impact Greek art, is what makes me interested in it. A question that has always been in my mind is
The abundance of works of art that depict the labors of Herakles certainly makes it a difficult task to select which work of art to study. The range of labors is vast and the depictions numerous. Thus, it is quite daunting to have to pick one work of art out of the seemingly infinite collection on the Classical Art Research Centre. The example chosen for the purpose of study here is from this database is a depiction of Herakles slaying the dreaded hydra. It is certainly one of the less well-known depictions of this particular labor of Herakles. If searched for either in publications or online in databases, it is not as popular as some of the other representations of Herakles with the hydra. Yet, it is a magnificent work of art with a certain
Hera did not stop there, though. Once Hercules was born, she sent two serpents to kill him. Yet, this didn’t go as Hera had planned. Even as a baby, Hercules had enough strength to strangle the serpents and cast them aside. After that, Hera left Hercules without disturbances for a few years.
The legacy of Hercules began when Zeus, the chief god, fell in love with a mortal woman named Alcmene. When Alcmene’s husband, Amphitryon, was away, Zeus made her pregnant. This made the goddess Hera so angry that she tried to prevent the baby from being born. When Alcmene gave birth to the baby, she named him Herakles (Romans pronounced it "Hercules"). The name Herakles means "glorious gift of Hera". This made Hera even angrier. When Hercules was an infant, Hera sent two serpents to destroy him in his cradle. However, Hercules strangled them, one in each hand, before they could bite him.
Hephaestus, was one of the twelve Greek Gods, the lame God of blacksmiths, sculptors, metallurgy, fire, and volcanos. He is symbolised with a hammer, anvil, or a pair of tongs. As stated in Homer’s epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, he is the son of Zeus, the king of gods, and Hera, the goddess of women and marriage. Contradicting that, according to Hesiod Hera had Hephaestus alone; because she was jealous that Zeus bred Aphrodite by himself. Hera reportedly after Hephaestus was born threw him off Mount. Olympus because he was ugly, when he fell Hephaestus broke both his legs, leaving him crippled. He fell into the ocean and was brought up by Thetis and Eurynome, the goddesses of the sea. Hephaestus never forgave Hera. As revenge he fashioned
Hercules was a hero known for his strength and courage and for his legendary adventures. But there is much more to him. He was the son of the god Zeus and a human mother Alcmene, which is a huge thing because he was supernatural to tall others around him. He was a demi-god. He was wife was called Amphitryon. Hera was jealous of the human mother and decided to try and kill Hercules by putting two poisonous snakes in his c...
The sculpture is small, approximately 4 3/8 inches, and is carved of oolitic stone, a porous limestone. Since this particular stone is not found in the area, it is believed that the sculpture was brought from another region. The size and shape of the figurine fit comfortably in the hand, which suggests the figurine was meant to be carried. Witcombe, sec. -.... ... middle of paper ...
Throughout the Greek mythology, Zeus has been involved with many women and has faced many resistances from them. Zeus has faced many hurdles not only on his way to become the "king of olympians" but also after that with his relationships with women. Hera, Zeus's last wife , has been directly or indirectly involved in placing most of these hurdles. Of Zeus's seven wives, Hera, also known as Judo, has been the most quarrelsome and mistrustful of her hurband. She was frequently angry and jealous of Zeus's other relationships. In many instances , she has been the source of hurdles in Zeus's relationships with other women.Although described as a sacred marriage, one which was intended to symbolize and promote fertility of crops on earth, since the sky, represented as male, must fertilize the earth through rain in order for life to begin there, thier marriage has never been a smooth one and they have had some bitter fights. In one instance, Zeus hung her out of Olympus with two great weights attached to her feet,and her arms bound by golden chains,as punishment for her having plotted against Hercules.Homer, the author has potrayed the relationship of Zeus and Hera very much like that between a man and a woman. Homer shows how like men and women, even God's lie and decieve and are gullable. In one instance, he shows how , in order to borrow sexual allure from Aphrodite, Hera lies to Aphrodite about going to visit Oceanus and mother Tethys, not telling her original plan of seducing Zeus and making him fall asleep during the war. Then Hera goes to Sleep and asks her for his help and in return of her daughter Pasithea. Since Sleep has always been in love with Pesithea, the greed makes him give in to Hera's request. In this episode, Homer has shown that like humans, greed makes the immortals do things they would not have otherwise done. When Hera finally reaches Olympos, she lies to Zeus too and Zeus gets duped and falls into the trap of her seduction, this episode shows how the king of olympians gets decieved and is not able to foresee Hera's plan.