Athough from two entirely different cultures and entirely different times, the Pantheon and the Parthenon share similarities, along with a world of differences, in form, function, themes, ideology, and messages about their respective civilizations. By comparing these two structures, it is easy to see why knowledge of context and culture is important to understanding and interpreting art.…
Bibliography: 1. "Krater [Greek, Attic] (14.130.14) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. .…
The Odyssey is the epic that has been read time and time again, by varying ages, digging its way into our hearts, becoming an instant classic. Odysseus and the adventures of his homecoming create a much different tale than Homer’s other work, the Iliad, provided. The epic is not about bloodthirsty men trying to get their hands on kleos anymore; it is about the homecoming of a man who uses his wits, not his weapon. In the Odyssey, the characters balance – Homer provides contrasting characters to show the readers the traits that Odysseus holds and how it builds his character development and even those who are foils to him. Odysseus’ own son, Trojan War companions, and wife create the man that is called Odysseus, highlighting the various facets of his personality throughout the epic.…
Three-dimensional statues harbor the ability to capture in depth scenes giving a powerful appeal to historical figures and allowing them to communicate both factual and fictional scenes. In Greek sculptor’s Athenodoros, Polydorus, and Agesander of Rhodes’ piece titled, Laocoön and His Sons (Fig.1), also known as the Laocoön Group, the artists created a three-dimensional statue of three men whose bodies are ensnared by two serpents, the man in the middle being the representation of the Trojan priest, Laocoön and the other two men on either side of him being his sons, Antiphantes and Thymbraeus, using marble as their medium. To understand the Laocoön Group…
Reflecting upon Olympia and Delphi, it is possible to highlight both similarities and differences between the two sanctuaries. In examining the location and the main attributes of each sanctuary, it is clear how they differ and how they are comparable in various ways. Whilst they clearly differ in their geographical situation, they are similar in that they both host their own games. However it is what occurs in these games that distinguish between the two. Both sanctuaries have considerable religious elements to them; however it is arguable that Delphi has more religious significance to the rest of the world, its main attribute being the oracle, and Olympia seems to prize itself more on its games rather than its religious significance, as the games had such an effect on the Ancient Grecian world.…
* Schironi, Francesca. “Philosophy, Scientific Enquiry and the Greek Artistic Canon” Classical Civilization 101 Lecture. Ann Arbor, Michigan. November 29, 2011…
Welcome to the Toledo Museum of Art. Today we will be going through the new exhibit on Ancient Greece. On this side, you will see a picture of Theseus slaying the Minotaur. Here on this side, you will see Achilles getting shot in the heel. Finally, here as we approach the next piece of art in our exhibit you see the ancient hero named Orpheus. In this picture, it depicts the story of when he had to lead his dead wife, Eurydice, on stairs, from the underworld to the earth after she had died. Hades had told him that if he could lead her up the stairs without looking at her - she would live again. He failed at this when he got anxious and thought that a little peek couldn't hurt. Therefore he turned around and took a small glance at her. As…
This is an essay that introduces a new perspective to us to decode ancient visual arts. The author reminds us that there are other ways of decoding visual figures alongside the “Beazley method” so we need to undermine stereotypes in our minds in appreciating ancient Greek vases.…
Whatever might have been be the basis for this dubious book, it must have been a question of the utmost importance and charm, as well as a deeply personal one. Testimony to that effect is the time in which it arose (in spite of which it arose), that disturbing era of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. While the thunderclap of the Battle of Worth was reverberating across Europe, the meditative lover of enigmas whose lot it was to father this book sat somewhere in a corner of the Alps, extremely reflective and perplexed (thus simultaneously very distressed and carefree) and wrote down his thoughts concerning the Greeks, the kernel of that odd and difficult book to which this later preface (or postscript) should be dedicated. A few weeks after that, he found himself under the walls of Metz, still not yet free of the question mark which he had set down beside the alleged "serenity" of the Greeks and of Greek culture, until, in that month of the deepest tension, as peace was being negotiated in Versailles, he finally came to peace with himself and, while slowly recovering from an illness he'd brought back home with him from the field, finished composing the Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music.…
Egyptian and Greek civic establishments have a long and great history and have availed in different fields like symbolization and structural orchestrating. In spite of the fact that there are a few similitudes in the middle of Greek and Egyptian craft, they have numerous solid contrasts between them. At the point when discussing Greek and Egyptian symbolization, it is the model and building design that rings a bell. Egyptian craftsmanship was more arranged towards religion. Unexpectedly, Greek workmanship was substantially more situated towards reasoning.…
Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt are two chief cradles of Western Civilization and their influences shape much of our everyday life even today. As the ancient pondered the world about them, they created stories, or myths, to explain what they saw, in terms that made sense to them. Even if they seem quaint or naïve to…
As the well known heroes’ tales end, crossing barren seas and going through mountains, one begins to compare Odysseus’s epic journey to Gilgamesh’s epic journey. Both stories are enticing and present a numerous amount of themes, some similar, some different. Both characters evolve; it is clear that the characters known at the beginning of the book have changed. Although both journeys involve growth as leaders, Odysseus is at the mercy of the gods, monsters, and powerful people and realizes his place and becomes humbled, while Gilgamesh the demigod becomes arrogant and selfish.…
Few early masterpieces so clearly express that every painter paints himself but scholars, convinced that artists tell logical stories that even a patron can understand, have long tried to deny the obvious: both heads represent the artist. This painting, like so many others over the centuries, depicts its own creation in the artist’s mind. Goliath, too, is not a symbol of evil, as conventionally claimed, but of chaos, the chaos so central to creative thinking. Art…
Leonard, S., & McClure, M. (2004). _Myth and Knowing. An Introduction to World Mythology_. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Company.…
In Ancient Egypt and other early societies, people believed in the omnipotence of Gods, with many aspects of daily life were carried out with respect to the idea of the divine or supernatural and the way it was manifest in the mortal cycles of generations, years, seasons, days and nights. Harvests for example were seen as the benevolence of fertility deities. Thus, the founding and ordering of the city and her most important buildings (the palace or temple) were often executed by priests or even the ruler himself and the construction was accompanied by rituals intended to enter human activity into continued divine benediction. Ancient architecture is characterized by this tension between the divine and mortal world. Cities would mark a contained sacred space over the wilderness of nature outside, and the temple or palace continued this order by acting as a house for the Gods. The architect, be he priest or king, was not the sole important figure; he was merely part of a continuing tradition.…