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 Khafre is an example of how pharaohs utilized their wealth to elaborate the power they possessed while they were alive and to utilize while they were dead. They ordered statues to be made in their name to decorate the valley temple. The valley temple is a funerary setting in which Khafre ordered 23 statues to be made for it. In this case, Khafre’s statue was made and place near the
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Great Sphinx as gift to the pharaoh himself. Its original setting was in the valley temple. It was created between ca.2520- 2494 BCE, and it is now currently located in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The materials used to create Khafre consist of a stone name diorite, which is a hard dark stone that was imported from the Nile. The diorite gives an insight that the statue was costly to make but that they did not mind going the extra mile to build it. It is the only material used to build the statue, and the stone is finely chiseled. The sculptors that made the statue took quite a while to construct it due to the precise decorative carvings that surround it. He is wearing the royal false beard strapped on his chin and the royal headdress with the euraes cobra of kingship. He radiates such a state of serenity, which relates to the peacefulness of an afterlife. It is important for the statues to illustrate a sense of peacefulness because it allows the audience to enjoy the art, as well as think that they themselves will have a happy after life. If their ruler is at peace at death then so will they. However, that is a promise that cannot be held because every person is different and do not have the same power. Even though the statue illustrates serenity, it does not fully guarantee that Khafre is really at peace. He was build to demonstrate perfection, but that does not guarantee that he excel in everything he did. One of his hands is clenched into a tight fist while the other lays flat on his lap. He is sitting down with both his feet placed into the ground and close together. His posture is upright and his torso is full of flesh. His face expression is calm and there seems to be a slight smile. The sculptor portrayed Khafre in an idealized form with a perfect face and a flawless body. His image does not represent his actual age or real appearance. Therefore, the audience gets a sense that Khafre was a good ruler who took care of his people. The purpose they serve to the people is for admiration and to state that a great ruler once lived. On the other hand, Kroisos was a young man who died in heroic way while in battle. In honor of his memory his family erected a kouros statue over his grave. On the bottom of the statue there is a inscribed base that encourages visitors to “stay and mourn at the tomb of dead Kroisos, whom raging Ares destroyed one day as he fought in the foremost ranks”, (Gardner 113). It was created in 530 BCE, and it is six feet tall with four inches. It is located in Anavysos, Greece. However, it is currently located in the National Archaelogical Museum in Athens. It has been a tradition for Greek sculptors to carve out life size statues, and having them stand with one foot in front of the other. As seen with Kroisos his left leg is standing in front of his right leg. This effect creates a sense that Kroisos was always ready for anything that came his way. In short, he was ahead of the game when it came to taking on daily tasks. However, he was unaware of raging Ares’s plans and he passed away to a better life. His hands are clenched tightly to his sides with his thumbs sticking out. His posture is erect and stiff as if he is waiting to be hit or attacked. He is completely naked to the point that he is not wearing any drapery to cover his private parts. It is normal to see naked statues because it was a tradition that Greek men did. They would walk around naked The head is perfectly proportion for the body and his face is well rounded. His hair is perfectly stylized and placed over his back. His whole body looks tense at a certain point and uncomfortable. Gives out a vibe of uncertainty. His stomach muscles are shaped proportionally with one another. The biceps are big and excessively muscular, it is a representation of how Kroisos was a strong healthy man. Furthermore, the Khafre and Kouros are both statues, yet they differ in many ways.
The first difference is that Khafre is seated and is five feet with six inches, while Kroisos is standing and is six feet with four inches tall. Also, they are both made of different materials Kroisos was built of marble, and Khafre of diorite. The material they were made of shows how wealthy they were. For example, diorite is a very expensive and rare stone that had to be imported to Egypt to build Khafre. Therefore, it demonstrates that the Egyptians in a way went to farther extends to build their monuments than the Greeks. Most statues around the world are made from marble, but only a few quantity of diorite. Another major difference is the effect they radiate to the audience. Khafre emits a calm vibrance, while Kouros emits a
worry Another difference is the way in which they are decorated. Khafre is heavily adorned with many things in his head. He has a royal headdress and fake bear, enhancing his wealth in further detail.
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
The kouros was sculpted out of marble and the statue of Menkaure was made out of slate. The kouros is completely nude while the king is clothed in a kilt and a headdress. King Menkaure is making a fist around an object in both hands and the kouros has his hands in a loose fist. The kouros also does not have as much of the stone around him for “support” as the statue of King Menkaure and His Queen do. King Menkaure and His Queen was meant to be viewed from the front and therefore two-dimensional, while the kouros is meant to be viewed from all sides and is a three-dimensional
The difference between an archaic statue such as Kroisos (fig. 5-11) and a classical statue such as Doryphoros (fig. 5-42) may not seem very great in a single glance. In fact, you may not notice any differences in that one glance. Yet, if you were to look at them closely, you can see that these two statues actually have very little in common.
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 Egyptians created Ramesses’ statue 1279-1212 B.C. using granodiorite. The statue is currently being exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Its dimensions withouts a base are 59 3/4 x 23 1/2 x 30 inches (seems bigger than life-size). One must look at the statue from various sides in order to see its entirety. Ramesses II, known also as Ramesses the Great, ruled Egypt for over sixty years. there are thousands of statues made in his honor to proclaim his power and divinity.
The Statue of a kouros and the Portrait statue of a boy both depict similar subjects, however are greatly different in how they accomplish this task. Through detail, or lack there of, the Greeks and Romans are able to display a certain value they have in its members. These two statues were made about 500 years apart and approach the sculpting process quit differently. The Greek statue seems to use geometric exaggerated lines to form the body while the Romans use a more realistic approach and sculpt the body with a more rounded finish. Statue of a kouros, from about 590 B.C and Portrait of a boy, from about the first century, do not share any great technical aspects and are basically nothing alike.
...nt through the women. The power to rule was passed from wife to husband. Kha-merer-nebty II is shown here presenting her husband, Mycerinus, as the pharaoh. Unlike the sculpture of Augustus, this sculpture also has a religious purpose. The Egyptians believed that in order for the “ka” (spirit) to live forever, the body had to be preserved which is why they mummified their bodies. As an extra precaution, sculptures like these were made to serve as a “replacement body” for the ka should something happen to their body.
Monumental architecture in Pharaonic Egypt is represented primarily by the funerary complexes of the pharaohs. The principal function of these elaborate complexes was to ensure that the pharaohs, who were exalted as living gods, would attain the afterlife they desired. This required that two basic conditions be fulfilled: the body had to be preserved from disturbance or destruction; and the material needs of the body and the ka had to be met (Edwards 20). Pharaonic burial complexes were also centers of worship for the god-king interred there and were designed to exalt his memory and deeds.
The statue of King Khafre Seated , from the fourth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, 2520 - 2492 BCE, was created by an unknown artist in the smooth permanence of graywacke stone. Although the statue is currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as number 56 in the Special Egyptian Exhibition, its true home is at the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo. The man being portrayed, King Khafre, ruled Egypt for approximately thirty years, during which he commissioned the single most recognizable monuments of Egypt, the a fore mentioned Pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx. These monuments of symmetry and solidity characterize the focus of popular architecture and sculpture from the Old Kingdom in Egypt.
It is clear that tombs and burial rituals were a key element in the Egyptian society and their way of life as it ties into almost all things they did on a daily basis. Whatever a person’s status was when they were alive followed them into the afterlife. Food and luxury goods were buried with a person so that they could have it in the afterlife. The tombs became a person’s new house after they died. Therefore, making it as nice as possible was really important. Art work and clay models were added to a person’s tomb as material goods needed for the afterlife. They were also seen as decorations that kept the tombs looking nice. Throughout the years, Egyptian artworks on the inner parts of the tombs and on the coffins show a development in the Egyptian customs. Each new development was created to better preserve the bodies and comfort of the dead.
Let’s begin with what was going on during the time period for each sculpture. During the 2458-2446 BCE. Userkaf was thriving over his brother Sahure, and he became the new ruler of Egypt. In the start of 2446 BCE, Neferirkare beings his dominant over Egypt. King Sahure and Nome God is a high relief it is still attached to a surface of a stone. The Pharaoh sitting on his thorn wearing a Nemes headdress (it is usually blue and gold striped), fake beard. The king has an emotionless facial expression. It was made for a decoration for the king pyramid complex. The symbol behind this statue could be the gathering of the Nome gods form Upper and Lower Egypt around t...
Over the centuries many statues of the Minoan and Greek empires have been created. Among these statues there are many similarities. The Snake Goddess statue was created in
The light-weighted archaic theriomorphic shrine was constructed using reeds and wickerwoods that was meant to represent a crouching jackal, which is also Anubis’s sacred animal. The artistic sketch of the shrine the author provided depicts a better understanding of the overall structure and representation of this shrine. However, he also suggested in addition to the representation of Anubis, the possibility of the shrine being just an animal where certain rituals taken place in. Similar in reproduction a certain object, the mortunary temple of Pharaoh Neterikhet Djeser at Saqqara has structural elements that tried to imitate reeds and woods by using limestone. By describing the different imitations in different structural components, such as the door resembles ajar, the author provided a vivid overview of the natural environment that the mortunary temple tried to reproduce. Because of its mesmerizing illusion, the concept of “illusionistic copying of plant elements” (Reference) was inherited, with better stylistic illustration, after the 5th dynasty in constructing different temples and funerary
While they might be in the same stiff stance, the Kritios boy is looser and more realistic. The Kouros Youth is thinner and very sharp. If you look at the legs of the Kouros Youth, you can see that the edges of the muscles are sharp in comparison to the very round legs and body of the Kritios boy. The Kritios boy is looking much more realistic and round. The hair between the two statues is also very different. While the Kouros Youth has long, stylized hair, the Kritios boy has shorter, fuller hair. We are getting closer and closer to the idealized Greek body with even the face on the Kritios boy, with the lips showing a Greek ideal. You can tell that the eyes in the Kritios boy would have been inlaid while the Kouros Youth would have
On Menkaure and Khamerernebty there are negative spaces between the two bodies which were not removed very much like the back of the head of Amun, this was done most likely to add support and structure of the statues. The statues sizes are both small in comparison to a normal person’s height or head size. The head of Amun and the statue of Menkaure and Khamerernebty both made of the similar dark granodiorite stone. The faces on both pieces have a straight forward facing look outward not capturing an action, but to install a sense of immorality. Other comparisons like expressions being plane and the balance of the ears nose and eyes which the carvers delicately etch from the rock.