I chose to do my art discovery paper on the Nittany Lion Shrine. This well known and highly respected piece of artwork was created by Heinz Warneke. The completion of the shrine was in October of 1942 after a few months of chiseling and carving the 13-ton block of limestone into the masterpiece its known as today. It’s located in State College, PA but more specifically University Park. The shrine was created to represent the Pennsylvania State University mascot, and to also commemorate the senior class that came up with the idea. I always found this sculpture unique because growing up my parents always influenced my brothers and I with Penn State apparel. My mother attended Penn State when she was a student, and needless to say she loved it here and hoped we would one day …show more content…
feel the same. When I was younger, my parents took us to the campus so we could get a picture nearby the shrine. Although I don’t remember the picture, or even when exactly it was, I was too young to take in the experience. As I was deciding which piece of artwork on campus would interest me, this was a thought that came to mind and I knew after this many years I had to see the shrine in person. The Nittany Lion Shrine was definitely worth the walk, and I’m glad I got to look at the details of the sculpture. Since there were around fifty students taking graduation photos, I decided it would be easier for everyone if I took my photo from a further distance, then inspected the sculpture from much closer. This prevented others from having to wait for me to finish and I wouldn’t have to wait for them, but still got the meaning out of the project while documenting that it was completed. The first thing I noticed was the size, it was much larger than I originally expected, but it’s likely a little larger than the size of a real mountain lion so that makes sense. I thought the color and texture of the mountain lion was also different from what I expected. I figured it would be much rougher and less pleasing to the eyes because of rock impurities, but I was proven wrong. There also wasn’t extensive detail, but certainly enough that it had an almost life-like feel to the shrine. There were clearly visible muscles showing in the body of the Nittany Lion, along with the detail of a tendon between the stomach and kneecap. This was well done, because too much detail would draw away from the main picture of the Nittany Lion as a whole, since from the start it was meant for the university and to portray the community through a mascot. It reminded me of the Assyrian Lamassu sculptures that were discussed in class, the color and appearance seemed very similar. Not only that, but the way the Assyrians portrayed their sculptures was in a protective manner as if the statues could come to life and fight. I had a sense of that with the Nittany Lion. Its so much more than just a sculpture, its representative of the entire college. It shows that we have the capability to fight but won’t use it unless necessary. This refers to sports and even THON when students stand up for kids with pediatric cancer to help improve lives when we could sit back and do nothing. I also related the sculpture to Hellenistic sculptures from the Greece/Roman era of sculptures. Although this specific sculpture isn’t a human carving, it did portray expressionism in the same sense that its body was somewhat contorted and also shows an emotion. It appears as though the lion is in a prowling position, as if ready to strike when needed. I think this can be related to the way Penn State doesn’t back down and takes advantage of opportunities. Overall the experience visiting the Nittany Lion Shrine was well worth my time, I’m thankful for this assignment because it allowed me to in a way rekindle my childhood and visit a place I once was but had no memory of. The sculpture was very impressive, it’s hard to imagine how much time went into making the sculpture and the grueling hours to have every detail how the artist wanted it. The details were there but not too much in a way that it drew away from the big picture, which I felt was important for the sake of the purpose of the sculpture.
It portrayed similar characteristics to the Assyrian Lamassu sculptures we discussed in class, with the same color scheme and similar looking texture. Along with that it portrayed how the community operated, the Assyrians used these sculptures to show unity and have an intimidation factor, in the same sense we have the shrine and mascot to show the tightly knit community within Penn State. While the sculpture showed characteristics of a Hellenistic sculpture, I think its important to note that this specific artwork may be put in a category of its own. It was created for the people, by someone nominated by the people, and his intentions were to simply create a mascot to represent the college that he also respected. Since the sculpture represents the college mascot it can be interestingly attractive to tourists and even students. It can engage people on a level more than just a glance, it draws you in because Penn State is so well known for school pride and it makes you wonder how this lion can bring so many people together over the
years. It’s a great story, and I’m sure I’ll visit the shrine again before my time here at Penn State is up, but until I return I know there will be plenty of visitors with cameras in hand to memorialize this masterpiece.
The Sculpture Plan by Karl Bitter, Director of Sculpture." Pan American Exposition: Buffalo 1901. (http://panam1901.bfn.org/documents/sculptureplan.html).
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 Lamassu of the Assyrian kingdom was quite large in size as it guarded the the entrances to the throne room of the Assyrian king. The size of the winged bull with a human head was surely an important part in guarding the gates and instilling fear in all that passed it. It is a relief sculpture of mostly high relief elements as the wings are the only parts that appear to be in low relief. The
While the Votive Statue of Gudea may not have been crafted for a propagandistic purpose, the statue of Gudea presents a lot of the same ideals as the Augustus of Primaporta. The work presents Gudea as a strong and peaceful leader who was worthy of divine favor. This is a common theme for depicting rulers throughout art history and in modern times today. Rulers want to seem god-like, or at least prove that God is on their side.
Viewing the Lansdowne Hermes with a naked eye and what you will see is a larger than life-size statue depicting a man with an ideal body leaning with the majority of his weight on his right foot. His right arm is resting on his right buttock in an almost effortless pose. The left side of his body tells a different story. His left foot has barely any weight on it, and his left arm is supporting a pretty large portion of cloth wrapped so it perfectly wraps around the shoulder and rests just above the wrist. It appears that he was at one time holding some sort of sword or stick. To the naked eye that is what this sculpture seems to be, accepting a sculpture as a piece of art. Glancing at the Lansdowne Hermes you can appreciate beauty of art for beauty of art. However the sculptor had much more in mind when he created this figure from a large unscathed piece of marble.
This is an extremely high relief sculpture made of limestone. It is to be viewed from a frontal standpoint. It however does have a potential for movement. There seems to be a great deal going on in such a close space. It is very crowded, but dramatic. The figures are intertwining with each other all at once even though there are different things happening. It reminds me of a play with scenes. You can actually step in to it and feel as though you are a part of what is happening because of all the different directions each individual is facing.
The statue is made of marble, instead of the bronze statue. This statue is one of the earliest marble statues of a human figure carved in Attica. The statue is a kind of symbol; he does not in any way a likeness. This is my first expression when I saw the statue: the statue is showing me a simple, clear action that was used by Greek youth sculptures throughout this period. Looking at this statue, he expanded into 3D space, because he is standing straight and facing forward without any exaggerated movements, thus the post makes him look closed-off and a column his limbs are locked in space. Therefore, the standing posture, the decorations on his body, his hair and knee’s texture and how the Egyptians impact Greek art, is what makes me interested in it. A question that has always been in my mind is
The Art Bulletin, Vol. 57, No. 2 (Jun., 1975), pp. 176-185. (College Art Association), accessed November 17, 2010. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3049368.
Cothren, M. & Marilyn Stokstad. (2011). Art History, Volume 2, 4th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Learning Solutions.
I chose this sculpture because I was intrigued by the position of the man and the centaur. I was able to witness that the centaur is trying to invade the personal space of the man. The sculpture showed me that there is a strong relationship between man and creature. The quality of the sculpture made me realize that animals play a big part of a human’s life and can be seen as threatening to humans. It was interesting to see that both the man and centaur were created to have almost of the same structures. This statue has a metallic brown and green, bronze tone and appeared undersized. It has a height of four and a half feet, and six inches. It has long, thin, legs with calf muscles, and bulging thighs. The sculpture evolved from Olympia, Greece. The man and centaur sculpture was created in 750 BCE during an orderly time period. The colors used for this sculpture, proved that it has a longer lasting mold for statues. On the left side of the sculpture, the man has a wrap on his head, that can symbolize, he is some form of a god. On the right side, the centaur has the same head piece as the man, but the body of a horse. It can be seen that the man and
My reaction to the Marble statue of Dionysos leaning on an archaistic female figure was it looked amazing and I feel like I could have written more about it. I also felt like there more than one symbolic meaning behind it. The other symbolic meaning I see is that Dionysos is always watching the protecting the small figure. My reaction towards the statue of King Sahure and Nome God was that who was more important the king or the God. The reason I say that is because the king is more focused on that the God. I would think they will be equal, or that the god should be more focused on.
Sculpture has been a very important part of art history throughout thousands of years. For the past few months I have viewed many different kinds of sculpture, including Greek archaic sculptures, Greek classical sculptures, Greek Hellenistic sculptures and Roman sculptures. All of the sculptures that I have seen and analyzed have very interesting characteristics, but the one that I have analyzed most recently was the most fascinating. Hermes carrying the infant Dionysos, by the artist Praxiteles, was sculpted circa 350 B.C., and the copy that I analyzed, circa second century B.C. This sculpture was from the Greek classical period and is originally from Greece. The original can be seen in the Olympia Museum in Greece, and the replica that I have viewed is in the Sojourner Truth Library on SUNY New Paltz campus.
It shows how the Egyptian culture has matured and grown throughout history. They do this through displaying growth of artifacts and the growth of information and technology as the display gets closer to present time. The display shows that there is plenty of information readily available on things that go back to hundreds and thousands of years ago. I really like the fact that they broke it up into two different parts. One section that contains information on a multitude of aspects from Egyptian history. This goes anywhere from geography, myths, royalty, temples. Then they have the section that goes in order of time. I felt like this was a very effective way to go about informing people on it Egyptian history. It enables you to easily find the specific information that you're looking for on a specific time or a specific aspect of their culture. The display was able to give me a good feel for how Egyptians lived and the history of Egyptians. I got to see some of the tools that they used for hunting. I was able to see their writing and how education grew through periods. I was able to see how they build things and sculpted objects. The display really helped me to grow on what I already knew about the Egyptian culture from various history classes that I've taken and was not overly
Lewis, R., & Lewis, S. (2008). The Power of Art. Connecticut, United States: Cengage Learning.
The sculpture of Augustus of Primaporta shows the importance of Greek steal and Roman style. The art style is very similar but there is a specific difference between each culture that makes themselves special. The sculpture has very dramatic details of the man which is very similar to how Greek style is like for their sculpture. Augustus is a very powerful man and seen as a respectable man to the Romans. Another style that is very similar to the Greek is the posture and the body proportion of Augustus. He seems very sports like the man with this feature.