Great Periods of Art

I thought this class was amazing.  To see the progression of art, beginning with the wall paintings in Prehistoric art to the Gothic art we are now studying, is quite impressive.  There are definite periods where the art seems to regress from naturalistic to highly stylized art.  An example of this regression would be from the lifelike figures of Greek and Roman art, to the stylized story telling narratives of medieval art.  My favorite works of art came from ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, Roman art and Romanesque art.

The art of ancient Egypt is remarkable for many reasons.  One reason is the enormous structures that were made and survive today.  Of course, the Great Pyramids at Giza come to mind, with Khufu’s pyramid reaching 450 feet made out of 2.5 ton stone blocks.  The Funerary Temple of Hatshepsut is another monumental structure, with the massive ramps and colonnades.  I am drawn to this artistic period not only because of the massive structures, but also in the way they represented themselves.  The hierarchy of scale and the canon of proportions that were used throughout their time, along with their other artistic conventions that remained unchanged for hundreds of years are impressive.  They seemed to live for death, with all of the tombs and relief carvings and funerary monuments placed in the tombs.  My favorite piece of art from this period is the Judgment of Hunefer Before Osiris.  This painted papyrus scroll from a Book of the Dead is a very telling piece of art.  It shows just how much the Egyptians thought about and cared about the afterlife, almost looking forward to it.  The scroll illustrates how they thought about judgment in the afterlife.  The bodies are shown in the typical Egyptian convention composite pose, with the torso in a frontal view but the head and feet shown from profile, with the eye again in frontal view.  The scroll tells the story of Hunefer being questioned and then judged by weighing his heart against the feather of truth and then passing the test and being accepted into the afterlife, with Osiris, Anubis, and ankhs all present in the depiction.

Much of the Greek and Roman art seem naturalistic, a complete contrast to the Egyptians.  Although not totally naturalistic, the Spear Bearer is progressing more towards natural features with the contrapposto stance, showing the weight-bearing and relaxed arms and legs perfectly balanced and truer to life.  Still stylized and idealistic, the Greeks were very interested in representing the human body in a more natural way than the Egyptians.  The Greeks did like to build monumental structures like the Egyptians, my favorite being the Parthenon.  The huge columns are impressive, but the pediment sculptures and the friezes are what draw me to this structure.  The Parthenon marbles are very detailed for something that was sitting high on the pediment.  Before I took this class I had no idea that most of the Greek statues were painted.  It must have been a wonderful sight to view the Parthenon in all of its glory when it was first made.

The Romans also seemed to want to represent the human form more naturalistic.  The head of Caracalla is one of the most naturalistic sculptures up until this time in history.  The marble head of Caracalla seems angry and tense, but in a lifelike manner.  The detail of his furrowing brow and scruffy beard are very realistic.  After the Roman period, for instance Byzantine and Romanesque art, seemed to be more interested in getting a message across than they were in making the images naturalistic.  I find those periods fascinating as well, but they seemed to regress in the details of the human form.

The most fascinating part of the Romanesque period to me was how the artist told the story of the bible in their artwork.  It is fascinating how art evolved from the depiction and worship of many gods, as with the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, to the worship of one god.  The churches of this period are fascinating as well, but I will leave that for another time.