Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Art, Love and Transformation: a Mirror of Classical Literature

Good Essays
981 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Art, Love and Transformation: a Mirror of Classical Literature
ST. SCHOLASTICAS COLLEGE MANILA

2560 Leon Guinto Street, Malate, Manila

Art, Love and Transformation: A Mirror of Classical Literature

By:

Katherine F. Jaramilla
BSP 201A

January 8, 2013

Professor: Miss Bethel Anne Batallones

Art, Love and Transformation: A mirror of Classical Literature

Publius Ovidius Naso was a known Roman poet. He was also recognized as a canonical poet of Latin literature. In his works, wide ranges of meters were used. Ovid believed that love can transform or change us, be it in good or bad way. Most of his works were about love and transformations and one of it is the popular book Metamorphoses that includes the story of Pygmalion and the Statue (“Literature of Ancient Rome”, n.d). This paper aims to discuss how art, love and transformation reflect the Classical period.
Art during the classical period was evident in Rome (“Classical period”, n.d). Although Rome was artistically influenced by Greeks, Romans originally invented the idea of realistic portrait sculptures. Roman sculptures were more detailed because wax death masks were often used for sculpting. Architecture was one of the greatest innovations of Romans. Nonetheless, paintings and sculpting were greatly exercised. Especially when Augustus ordered that monuments that proves the glory, influence and power of Rome should be build, and thus sculpting idealized bodies and poses were made (Freeman, 2011).
Pygmalion the main character in the story Pygmalion and the Statute is a sculptor. During the said period sculpting god and goddesses was evident; perhaps people do that for self expression, livelihood, to unwind or to spend their free time. For Pygmalion he created a statue for it was his hobby. The sculptures made in this period were also the model of spiritual and physical perfection and most of the time sculptures of gods are being made. In the other hand Pygmalion made an ivory maid.
During the classical period myths were the basis of religion. Romans conquered a lot of regions including Greece. Romans did not only conquer the region however, they also adopted its religion including its god and goddesses. Nonetheless, Romans named these deities differently and adjusted or enhanced their characteristics making them more belligerent compared in the Greek culture. Romans looked upon the deities as holy, respectable and powerful beings. So did Pygmalion: First, he offered sacrifices to Venus – the goddess of love and beauty “With gilded horns the milk-white heifers led, slaughtered before the altars, bled: Pygmalion offering, first approached the shrine” (Smith, 1921). Second, He prayed to Venus that she may give life to his ivory maid but he was ashamed to asked that kind of prayer rather he just changed his prayer to “Give me the likeliness of my Ivory maid” (Smith, 1921). It showed how powerful they saw Venus that even one asked for another prayer she will still know what ones heart truly desires.
Love was also evident, although it started from passion that turned in to desire and lust. At one point Pygmalion was already obsessed with the statue “His hand had made dint, and hurt is Maid: Explored her, limb by limb, and feared to find. So rude a gripe had left a livid mark behind” (Smith, 1921). Furthermore, He was not yet contented in lusting on the body of the statue, he also believed that the statute is alive that he even courted it “And now with gifts (the powerful bribe of love): He furnishes her closet first; and fills the crowded shelves with rarities of shells; and all the sparkling stones of various hue” (Smith,1921). As John Green (2012) says life can be really unpredictable and the future is unknown. For Pygmalion who never taught he would fall in love turned to a passionate lover.
Everything changes, If there is one thing that is permanent it in this world it will always be change or nevertheless transformation. From seasons that changes to the way we live, from government to the way we look at things, all of these changes time to time. Like the Roman republic that once had dictatorial government ruled by Julius Caesar but eventually changes to a monarchical empire under Augustus or the Roman imperial period- a period wherein Ovid was one of the known writers (Spiro, n.d). Ovid’s Book of Metamorphoses is all about transformation. Pygmalion who disgusted the obscene lives of woman before and despised the idea of having a wife changed in to a lustful man, he became the person that practiced what he hated before. He gave everything he can for his statue and most surprising he even thought to ask Venus to make his statue alive. And another transformation in story was when the statue really did turn to a real human being, with life, senses, and ability to give birth.
I believe that a work of literature is a reflection of a writer’s environment. The way a writer thinks, writes, understands, and perceives can be greatly affected by his surrounding, by the way he was nurtured. Making any work written in a specific literary period truly encompasses the characteristics of the said period. The Pygmalion and Statue can really reflect the life or culture during the Classical period. A culture were in art was abundant, where people were passionate and transformation that happens in every single aspect of life.

References:
Freeman, G. (2011). An Introduction to Greek and Roman Art. Retrieved from January 3, 2013 from http://www.slideshare.net/gwfreeman/classical-art
Green, J. (2012). Abundance of katherines. United States of America: Speak
Ken Spiro. The Romans (n.d). Retrieved December 29, 2012 from http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/the_romans/
Literature of Ancient Rome. (n.d). Retrieved from January 4, 2013 from http://www.paralumun.com/romelit.htm
Pygmalion and the Statue, Literature two handout
The Classical Period. (n.d).Retrieved January 3, 2013 from http://www.theartfile.com/ArtFile/history/classicperiod.shtml

References: Freeman, G. (2011). An Introduction to Greek and Roman Art. Retrieved from January 3, 2013 from http://www.slideshare.net/gwfreeman/classical-art Green, J. (2012). Abundance of katherines. United States of America: Speak Ken Spiro. The Romans (n.d). Retrieved December 29, 2012 from http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/the_romans/ Literature of Ancient Rome. (n.d). Retrieved from January 4, 2013 from http://www.paralumun.com/romelit.htm Pygmalion and the Statue, Literature two handout The Classical Period. (n.d).Retrieved January 3, 2013 from http://www.theartfile.com/ArtFile/history/classicperiod.shtml

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the start of the 14th century a time period in human history started that lasted until the mid-seventieth century known as the Renaissance. A rebirth occurred that made this era captivating to study. This rebirth of intellect was in the form of a renewed interest in the classical form of thinking. This renewed way of thinking shifted the prime importance of culture away from divine and supernatural matters, to humankind now being the main importance. With this new culture based on classism, artworks started to become more common and wanted as the artists began to gain recognition. The scholars saw a new found interest in the studding of ancient Greek and Latin classics. The art work that was being produced showed increase detail in not only…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Enduring Cultures Cba

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Ancient Romans were practical people who used pragmatic features in their art to explain the world around (Speivogeol, 2005). The Romans admired Greek art and often borrowed, copied, and stole from their ideas. The Romans even placed Greek-style statues in their public buildings. However, they were original when they carved their sculptures. The Romans sculptures were more realistic, and detailed characteristics including, warts, mole, wrinkles, and other unattractive features.…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pygmalion and Pretty Woman

    • 2854 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The original Pygmalion story is found in Ovid. Pygmalion is the story of a gifted young sculpter who is a woman hater. Ironically, the sculpture that most fascinates him and that he puts all of his genius into is a statue of a woman. The statue is exquisite, but Pygmalion wasn't content. He kept tweaking the statue, working on it until it was so well-made that it looked real, and no other woman--real or sculpted--could compare. Pygmalion reached a point, however, where he could improve nothing else on the statue, and he fell in love with his creation. The poor sculpter tried to pretend that the statue was real; he caressed it, tried to dress it up, brought it the gifts he thought a real woman would enjoy.…

    • 2854 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    By comparing the two sculptures of Khafre, image 3-11 ca. 2520-2494 BCE (1), with the statue of Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), image 5-40 ca. 450-440 BCE (2) you get a true sense of the evolution of art, from Pharaonic Egypt to Classical Athenian Greece two millennia later. This was not just a revolution in art but also philosophy, which transported itself into not only the types sculptures created but also the style used by their creators.…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The death of Alexander the Great inspired the beginning of the Hellenistic era of the fourth century. The characteristics of this period marked a separation and divide from earlier Greek’s works. Hellenistic artist’s begun expressing their sculptures with such high degree of naturalism contrasting with the earlier religious sculptures that used the idea of realism. Another essential idea that Hellenistic artists used to convey their message on sculptures was the use of emotion, drama, lighting and dynamics poses. The foundation of the Hellenistic era supported many of the works created during the Italian Renaissance. Many of the sculptures created during the Italian Renaissance comprised of religious beings such as Mary or JesuThis paper will…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    SHELDON
NODELMAN
 from
 E.
D’Ambra,
ed.,
Roman
Art
in
Context.
NY:
Prentice
Hall.
1993
pp.
10‐20
 Like all works of art. the portrait is a system of signs; it is often an ideogram of “public’ meanings condensed into the image of a human face. Roman portrait sculpture from the Republic through the late Empire-the second century BCE. to the sixth CE -constitutes what is surely the most remarkable body of portrait art ever created. Its shifting montage of abstractions from human appearance and character forms a language in which the history of a whole society can be read. Beginning in the first century B.C., Roman artists invented a new kind of portraiture, as unlike that of the great tradition of Greek Hellenistic art (whence the Romans had ultimately derived the idea of portraiture itself and a highly developed vocabulary of formal devices for its realization) as it was unlike that of their own previous Italo-Hellenistic local tradition. This new conception, conferring upon the portrait an unprecedented capacity to articulate and project the interior processes of human experience, made possible the achievement in the ensuing six centuries of what is surely the most extraordinary body of portrait art ever created, and forms the indispensable basis for the whole of the later European portrait tradition, from its rebirth in the 13th and 14th centuries to its virtual extinction in the 20th. No clear account of the nature of this reformulation of the structure of representation or of its historical significance has so far been given. That the portraiture which it engendered is strikingly “realistic” in the sense of evoking the presence of an astonishingly concrete and specific individuality, to a degree previously unknown and rarely equaled since, has been the universal experience of every observer. But this question-begging term (first used to characterize Roman portraiture, in opposition to the “idealism” imputed to the Greeks, three…

    • 3461 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    One of the most influential artistic styles in western culture is the Classical Style. This term describes the art and architecture produced in Ancient Greece between the late sixth and early fourth centuries B.C.E. The harmonious order that governs almost all the aspects of Ancient Greek Civilization, including politics and philosophy, was the basis of this rich artistic period which has always had a strong influence on Western culture. Nevertheless, there have been some periods in history where the Classical influences were more prevalent. This influence could not be more evident than in the Renaissance, which refers to the rebirth of the Classical Style. The Renaissance which spread through Europe started in Italy around 1300 C.E. and lasted though the seventeenth century. In this period, the artisans did not just copy the Greek’s but also revived their principles of harmony, order, proportion, and realism. In this paper, I’m going to exam one sculpture and one building from each of these two periods to identify the similarities and differences between them.…

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Roman portraiture was one of the most significant periods in the development of portrait art. The characteristics of Roman portraitures are more modest, realistic, idealized, and natural. Also, the body compositions, muscles and facial expressions of portraits and sculptures are more advanced. Many roman portraits are directly linked to specific individuals, such as gods and emperors. They were often used for propaganda purposes and included ideological messages in the pose, accoutrements, or costume of the figure.…

    • 1308 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pygmalion derives its name from the famous story in Ovid 's Metamorphoses, in which Pygmalion, disgusted by the loose and shameful lives of the women of his era, decides to create a beautiful statue more perfect than any living woman, named Galatea. Pygmalion goes to the temple of the goddess Venus and prays that she give him a lover like his statue; Venus is touched by his love and brings Galatea to life. Pygmalion and Galatea marry.…

    • 1277 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    It is hard to think of the ancient world without looking at the Greek and Roman empires. Although similar, the Greek and Roman empires are two different cultures. They existed from 500 B.C.E. to 500 C.E. (Fiero, 2006). One constant in both cultures was their pursuit of perfection in their art and architecture. This paper will examine this pursuit of perfection in both cultures and how their impact is felt in the modern age.…

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Trajan’s Column

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Romans had great achievements in the field of art. Especially in the sculptures and architectures. The emperors of Rome were filled with ambitions. They wanted their name be written in the history and be remembered by their posterity. So they warred around and build all types of monument to celebrate their military victories.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Book Of Myths

    • 5335 Words
    • 22 Pages

    In the language of our own day, we should call him “wedded to his art.” In woman he only saw the bane of man. Women, he believed, lured men from the paths to which their destiny called them. While man walked alone, he walked free—he had given no “hostages to fortune.” Alone, man could live for his art, could combat every danger that beset him, could escape, unhampered, from every pitfall in life. But woman was the ivy that clings to the oak, and throttles the oak in the end. No woman, vowed Pygmalion, should ever hamper him. And so at length he came to hate women, and, free of heart and mind, his genius wrought such great things that he became a very perfect sculptor. He had one passion, a passion for his art, and that sufficed him. Out of great rough blocks of marble he would hew the most perfect semblance of men and of women, and of everything that seemed to him most beautiful and the most worth…

    • 5335 Words
    • 22 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ovid or Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman philosopher known for his work titled Metamorphoses. In this book, he created numerous amounts of poetry containing characters from different eras. Some of the characters used are either fictional, mythological, or real world figures. His poems give readers a series of emotions making them judge their lives. Ovid writes his poems with careful precision. He romanticizes his poems in the hopes of displaying a clear message to the reader. In this collection of poems, translated by Rolfe Humphries, readers can observe that Ovid is trying to teach lessons that should be considered in their everyday lives.…

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To start, his devotion towards the perfect looking god Aphrodite is big enough for him to create one hundred clay figures of her each in a different pose solely because she is flawless. The imagery comes into play because as Pygmalion works his hands around the clay, it is easy to visualize the poses in which Pygmalion is making those clay models in. In addition the fact that Pygmalion is going to use marble, a grand and great material in terms of sculpture his desire to make the statue of the god an artisan work. It is easy to foresee in the mind what the sculptor, Pygmalion will do with his…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays