Greek Art Vs Roman Art Essay

Throughout Egypt, during the middle empire art evolved as a symbol for power and permanence featuring straight lines and powerful figures; as time passed art evolved again morphing from simply representational images of man to the more idealized and anatomically correct style of Roman art. As art became more and more prevalent through the late 3rd and early 4th century’s artists began to focus more on anatomical perfection and realism borrowing artistic elements from other cultures such as the Greeks. Though the artistic styles of ancient Egypt and early Roman art vary widely, the underlying symbolism remains the same. This is clear in both the Egyptian Sculpture Vizier (Figure 1) and the Roman sculpture Bust of and Unknown Man (Figure 2). Where the ideas and concepts of both sculptures are essentially the same, their vastly different styles are evident of the time periods in which they were made. During the 12 Dynasty, otherwise known as the Middle Kingdom, Egypt was a hotbed of political conflict and general upheaval. However, this was also good for art and writing
With the advent of the Roman arch towns became cities and the population bloomed. The amount of people living in one area grew higher than it had ever been. With this rapid growth came a strong military presence. This allowed for Roman conquest and expansion, this lead to a wealth of different styles of art and architecture being brought back and adopted. As cities grew so too did the amount of artisans who were creating art. Some artists often created miniaturized versions of original pieces which could be taken home and put on display. People often commissioned portraits or idealized versions of themselves. Most art tended to be a reflection of what Rome was going through at any point in time; the styles tend to range from classical and reminiscent of Greek art to realistic representations of age and