The Cycladic Female Figurine, located at the Walter’s Museum of Art in Baltimore, is a small sculpture originating from the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea sometime between 2500 - 2400 B.C. The sculpture depicts the nude female figure covering her stomach with her arms, with little to no facial features. The nose and breasts are protruding out of the figure while the rest of the figure remains flat. The neck of the figure is long and slender, which connects to a half circle with a nose that extends beyond the flat surface. The color of the piece is a greenish brown, and the material of the sculpture is made of marble with a very smooth surface. While the figure itself is mostly bare, the harsh and continuous lines carved out in parts of the marble indicate that it was important to portray her …show more content…
The lines carved into the figure and the body parts that extend beyond the sculpture are significant to capturing the detail and importance in the figurine, but it is in the scale and composition that we start to decipher the purpose in the figurine. This Cycladic figurine is relatively small, at around sixteen inches tall, four inches wides, and one and a half inches in depth. It is displayed in such a way that the figure appears to be hovering over the pedestal when it is actually positioned upright in a vertical position, held in place by a pole. This implies that the original figurine was meant to lay on it’s back horizontally, and not vertically. Position on the pedestal is one suggestion that the figure it only upright so the viewer can see the piece, but the way in which the arms are folded as well, as if signifying burial after death. The Cycladic figurine lacks dimension; it is highly stylized and contains little to no detail that could be found in other ancient Greek art, which suggests that this figurine is commonplace and not one of a
22. a) there is an understated nudity and detail in anatomy. b) it indicates the period from which the statue came. c) the icons are biblical figures associated with Christ. d) it signals the departure from pagan iconography to Christian.
Mark Twain, one of the most memorable American writers of the 19th century, coined the term “The Gilded Age” to describe the period from 1870 to 1900. This term was derived from the deceiving facade this era wore—the glamorous, glistening surface. This mask was only a thin layer, coating the various shades of corruption pervading beneath.11 The tranquil beauty of fine arts provided an outlet for people to escape from the suffocating grandiose nature of a tainted society ruined by the age of monopolies and corruption. During the momentous Gilded Age, a time period of rapid economic growth which generated vast wealth, new products and technologies were created that improved middle-class quality of life.
On our field trip to the Getty villa this semester, we had to choose an art piece that stood out to us among the many there. The task at hand seemed easier than it was, as there were many art pieces that held my attention. One thing I kept in mind was that many of the Greek art pieces were either recovered from the bottom of the sea or were Roman duplicates. This meant finding background and details about them would be challenging. Of the art pieces, the Statue of Hercules or the “Lansdowne Herakles” was the one that I chose to write about.
He is a marble statue found in the ruins of the Athenian Acropolis, a bit smaller than life-sized, and is dated at 480 BC, a transitionary period from the Archaic to Early Classical era of Greek art. He is an emerging youth nearing the cusp of puberty, with a weight shift characteristic of this artistic period. Overall, the piece displays an incredible understanding of human physiology, and has moved away from the twisted perspectives and unnatural stiffness of earlier art. An anatomical chain of events occurs with the weight shift, and his overall musculature and skeletal structure are unforced and lifelike. He is the most famous Early Classical statue.
I have chosen to compare and contrast the Dipylon vase c. 750 BCE by an artist known as The Dipylon Master, and Achilles & Ajax playing Dice c.540-530 BCE done by the artist Exekias. Both works share many similarities, but there are also many differences between the two. Both of the pieces of art are vases, but they are from different periods. The Dipylon vase is from the Greek Geometric period, while the Achilles & Ajax playing Dice, or Amphora of Achilles & Ajax, is from the Greek Archaic period. The Dipylon vase is made out of terra-cotta, which gives it a brownish-red color.
Uncontrolled emotionalism and shameful truth were now common characteristics to most of them. Still throughout the hellenistic, many sculptures were distinguished by their calmness, grace, and compassion for human suffering. The Ancient Greek sculptures were commonly made from stone or wood and very few of them are still existing to this day. Many were made to reflect the image of a freestanding human form even when the statue was of a god, and for this reason many of the sculptures were naked, the Greeks saw nudity as something beautiful. Other of the sculptures showed athletic figures, to essentially portray what the Greeks perceived as an ideal human and what it should look
The statue was not placed in a tomb but rather in a temple dedicated to the gods, where it served as a votive offering or a symbol of the ruler's piety and devotion. Consequently, the statue depicts Gudea seated in a relaxed and natural pose, in contrast to the stiffness seen in the "Statue of Memi and Sabu." Gudea is shown with his hands clasped on his lap, conveying a sense of authority and contemplation. The sculpture's attention to detail, such as the intricately carved clothing and the inscriptions that describe Gudea's achievements and religious activities, highlights the ruler's connection to the divine and his role as a representative of the gods on
Another example of Etruscan funerary art is Cinerary Urn. This piece displays the common convention of creating a model of the departed reclining atop the lid. Once again mythology was incorporated, and the front displays a battle between Greeks and
Sometimes, caryatids, or statues of girls, were used as columns, a humanistic practice in
The Herculaneum women (Fig. 1 & 2), dating from the Late Republic period to the second century CE, well display these features: they
The Greek sculptures reach the new height of beauty, not only because the mastery of the technique, but also the fascination of human body. Greek art uses the outer appearance to reflect the inner power, it is the representative pattern of western art. The myth inspires the creation of sculpture. The fantasy of nature and society and the admire of god’s shape and personality makes the sculpture more multiple and abundant.
It is the sculpture of a handsome and young ruler, namely, Augustus, sporting an ornamented cuirass and a tunic, with the figure of Cupid riding a dolphin on his side. The face reflects a youthful emperor, even though Augustus was about forty years of age when the statue was built. The Prima Porta style of facial composition comprises of, an expansive skull and slim chin, sharp-ridged eyebrows, hooked nose and a plump mouth and his hair is crowned with what is termed the Primaporta hairstyle. The breastplate is adorned with characters and is a composite of the narration of the Augustan and Tiberian propaganda, while he is barefoot. His right hand is
Fiorella D’Amico Yarianna Colon-Lopez ARH2050 27 May 2023 Famous Greek High Classical sculptor Polykleitos pursued perfection in his work by adhering to a set of rules that directed his creative process. The idea of symmetria, a harmonious balance of proportions and dimensions in the human body, was essential to Polykleitos' pursuit of perfection. Polykleitos thought he could create an idealized picture of the human body by paying close attention to mathematical ratios and exact anatomical dimensions. The idea of the "canon," a set of fixed guidelines or requirements for artistic creativity, was one of the essential foundations that underpinned Polykleitos.
In both sculptures the hair is deeply carved and is a vivid feature of the busts. The detail of realism in David’s left hand we can see his veins on his hands when he is holding the slingshot and his ribs near the chest. In the bust of Commodus we can see the similar detail of his hands especially the joints above the knuckle area and how realistic it looks when he’s holding the apples and Hercules club on his. In both busts chest, arms and face are sooth. In both busts these sculptures have the portrait of emperor Commodus and the small town hero David as musculant where as in real life they weren’t this is done because Romans believed that the god made us humans and by showing David and Commodus as being musculant hey are portraying them as gods and God were portrayed to be musculant and strong.
There are a lot of stories and mythologies that deal with moral and virtues around the subject with masks, which could be the case with this sculpture. A mask could be a disguise in order to hide its true identity. One can think that the young woman rejects the old woman with a haggard appearance, and then the old woman reveals that it is a beautiful young man. A bit strange perhaps.