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The style of egyptian art
Compare western art to Egyptian art
The style of egyptian art
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Both, the Egyptians and the Greeks had a certain set of rules that a lot of their works were based on.
The Egyptian Canon of Proportions consisted of carefully planed square grid systems. The works that followed the Canon were executed by first laying out a grid with inked lines, and than painting or sculpting the figures. By using the grid, the artists made each human figure eighteen squares tall. The knees were six squares above the ground-line. And the shoulders were aligned with the sixteenth square and were six squares wide. The Stele of Userwer (fig. 1) is a great example of the Canon, because it shows the underlying grid and the beginning phases of sculpting. This technique shows that the Egyptians utilized proportions and mathematics
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Though historians still have not agreed on what that measure was, some think that it was the length of the head from the chin to the hairline, while others think that it was the length of the index finger. There are many works that utilize these principles. One example would be the Warrior sculpture (fig. 2) made around 460 BCE. The work depicts a very life-like figure. Because of the fact that there are many similar sculptures that survived from that time, it is clear that that specific body type was considered the “ideal” body. Now, roughly 2,500 years later, we as a society, still consider the same body type to be most desirable. The Canon from 460 BCE helped shaped our perception of bodies in the modern era, which is seen in art and the entertainment industry worldwide.
One of the differences between the Egyptian Canon and the Canon of Polykleitus is that the Canon of Polykleitus was a set of guidelines that was meant to help create a figure that is very idealistic, but also very life-like in the way that it is rendered. While the Egyptian Canon of Proportions aided the artist in creating a more abstract figure that is still recognizable as human, but is nowhere as realistic as the Greek
209-234. England, 1902 Olmstead, A. T. “The Babylonian Empire,'; in the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Jan., 1919). pg 65-100 Unknown. “A photogrammatic study of three Gudea statues,'; in The Journal of the American Oriental Society. pg 660. 1990 Encyclopedia.org Lagash.
The statue of King Menkaure and his Queen exhibits with clarity the Egyptian devotion of art to a cannon of proportions. Its strictly frontal view point, the rigid poses of the figures, and a faithful accordance to rules and established customs can be interpreted as manifesting the nature of the Pharaoh’s authority over his subjects while at the same time exemplifying the highly regulated, hierarchical structure of ancient Egyptian society. The measured grid of verticals and counterbalancing horizontals, the stiff artificial postures and the overall idealized anatomical shapes of the bodies combined with naturalism is indicative of Egyptian taste for art and a representation of the character of Egyptian culture.
Other than sculptures, the Egyptians influenced the Greeks to write on surfaces of buildings, it first started with Hieroglyphs. Then the ancient Greeks improved on writing, they wrote on large sheets of papyrus which lessened time and made recording events easier. With so much in common, the real differences lie beneath the surfaces of religion, power, equal rights and education.
Religion, an inseparable part of civilization, influenced people a lot. Both Egyptians and Olmecs were polytheistic, so in general they were quite similar. They had various gods and respected to them. The pharaohs and shamans were regarded as incarnation of gads, or they can intervene with supernatural world. Also people will had ceremonies for different purposes.
The Greek believed the human body was the measure of all things, therefore the artists created sculptures in a very detailed fashion which made them very life-like although the size of
‘The representation of the human form likewise served to stress essential data about the subject. The shoulders are nearly in frontal view to show the width of the body and not obscure the far arm, while the chest was represented in profile to show its contour…....
Mesopotamian and Egyptian religions shared two key similarities: polytheism and priestly authority. The religions in Mesopotamia and Egypt were both polytheistic. Their religions were polytheistic because Mesopotamians and Egyptians could not explain many things in that occurred in their lives. Therefore, they assumed that there are different gods for everything. This means that the religion had many gods for different things. In Egypt and Mesopotamia, priests were part of the upper class and were very important in the daily lives of civilians. Priests were part of the upper class because they were thought to have the ability to communicate with the gods. In Mesopotamia, the priests held the highest authority in the religious structure. Egyptian priests were not as powerful in government as Mesopotamian priests were, but they still had significant power. Egypt’s highest religious and military leader was encapsulated in the position of pharaoh. The pharaoh was at the top of all social classes and was considered to be a god-like figure.
Furthermore, both the Greeks and Egyptians were convinced of having more power once they were dead. Egyptians theory was that when a pharaoh died he became a god, and the Greeks notion was that the heroes they worshipped that were mythical humans became very powerful after they died. Therefore, with there being so much to Egyptian and Greek mythology, there are actually very few similarities between the two.
The first similarity being the succession of rule. The Greek story starts with Gaia and Uranus, then the Titans, then finally Zeus; and, the Egyptian story starts with Atum, and Osiris and Isis, then Finally Horus (Buxton). Another similarity is Osiris not being able to rule because he became incompetent. This is similar to Cronus castrating his father, after he does Uranus is not able to rule anymore (Buxton). Both stories start out with chaos in the beginning (Buxton). Also, in both creation myths brother and sisters are married. For example, Hera and Zeus in Greek mythology and Isis and Osiris in Egyptian mythology (Buxton).
According to history there existed two of many important ancient civilizations that left a significant mark in the history of human development that even today leaves modern society in awe of its greatness. In spite of being distant civilizations, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece share similarities and difference in terms of how they practiced religion,political structure, everyday life style, and how they built the monumental architectures that continued to amaze the modern world of today. These comparison and contrast explain their difference in history and their dynasty's long term success. Through the early developmental age these two ancient civilizations contrasted in many ways perhaps due to the geographical location that helped shape their diverse cultures.
a shift can be seen from idealized and nearly perfect sculptures to sculptures that had a natural and real feel to them. These newer statues were sculpted with the notion of Realism weighing more than the concept of Idealism. The subjects’ body was not in a state of military attention, they were placed in a more natural, yet still graceful position. Realistic sculptures also did not embellish the muscular physique of the subject; the muscle definition was displayed more subtly and naturally. The weight of Realistic statues is not distributed in a balanced, geometric fashion like the Ideal statues. The Realistic statues balance their weight just as a real person would in motion which gives the sculpture a more graceful and natural
Ancient Egyptians tried to understand their place in the universe. This is why their mythology is centered on nature such as the earth, sky, moon, sun, stars, and the Nile River. There are many Egyptian myths of creation, but the Heliopolitan Tradition, Hermopolitan Ogdoad, and the Memphite Theology are the most commonly used. They all have some common elements and gods. For example, many of t...
There have been many prosperous civilizations throughout the history of the world. Many of them became very large, and lasted for a countless number of years. The most successful and large scale civilization, however, was that of Ancient Egypt. Although it lies in the middle of the largest desert in the world, egyptians were able to use their intelligence to utilize the Nile River and cultivate the surrounding land for farming. They came up with very unique conceptual ideas that benefitted them greatly, and discovered many new things that would impact society around the world to this day. For all of these reasons and many more, Ancient Egypt was the most advanced civilization of its time.
In modern society, Greek pottery is considered an art which is regarded as much for its aesthetic splendor as its historical significance. However, the role of pottery in ancient Greek culture was far more functional as its primary use was for the transportation and storage of such liquids as water and wine (Encyclopedia Britannica). Due to the durability of the fired clay material, Greek pottery is the only remaining art form that allows us to explore the evolution of this ancient culture. Through that examination, three distinct stylistic periods have been unveiled: Geometric, Orientalizing and Archaic. This analysis will detail these distinct periods as well as three design techniques prevalently used: black figure, red figure and white ground
The Egyptians are one of the earliest known and most well documented people to inhabit the Earth. They were one of the first people to respond to practical needs within agriculture, business, and industry. Moreover, archaeological and historical artifacts suggest that the Egyptians were among the first to develop the study of mathematics. This paper will discuss the development of mathematics in ancient Egypt, focusing on the use of hieroglyphs, the decimal system, and hieratic writing and numerals to demonstrate that the Egyptians made notable contributions to modern day understandings of mathematics.