Terracotta Warrior: A Visual Analysis

When creating a portrait of the human figure, context has a big impact on the art piece. Knowing the when, where, how and why, are huge factors in how you perceive a work of art. When looking at portraits of someone you can pick out most of these factors without having any background knowledge.

Looking at these two sculptures, David and The Terracotta Warriors, you can see many differences. By looking at the person that was sculpted you are able to see they are from a different region and also a different era. You are able to see the Asian clothing designs in The Terracotta Warriors. On David, you can tell he was representing the biblical time. You can tell by the material that David was something well thought out and was going to be put on display because of using marble. Marble is harder to come by and is more expensive. When making The Terracotta Warriors, the unknown artists used clay to make them. This is most likely because of how many sculptures Qin Shi Huang Di wanted to have made. The clay could be found in their own land. In contrast, marble was harder to acquire then and would possibly have to be imported from another region or country.

According to the Bible, David was in battle against Goliath.

Goliath, a giant, had armor and a javelin whereas David only brought his sling and five rocks to battle. David triumphed and Goliath fell. People wanted to honor the biblical hero and had asked Michelangelo to make this sculpture in remembrance. While viewing the sculpture of David, you might not know exactly what era this was from. David was a part of a story in the Bible. In this era and region the people believed that this story was to be true. In the Renaissance era, they seem to have admired and appreciated the Bible a lot and were very religious

people.
The First Emperor of Qin, Qin Shi Huang Di had a tomb built for him. In his tomb he wanted his army of warriors to still protect him in his afterlife. He had thousands of Terracotta warriors and horses sculpted out of clay to surround him after they lay him to rest. These warriors were built to look like they were in war. This was shown with the warriors being placed in trenches and having weapons with them. When viewing the Terracotta Warriors, you can see that in this era they did everything to protect their leaders, even in afterlife.
These artworks are similar because they are both standing in remembrance of the people who built them and why. Even though the Terracotta Warriors was not a sculpture of the Emperor, by these warriors protecting him, it is still in honor of him. Everything should be interpreted when viewing portraits. In doing so, you will get more of an understanding of the person they are portraying. You might be able to relate to or understand them more by doing so.