Humanism is an ancient idea that is still very current today. It is the idea that man is the center and everything revolves around it.  Man is basically the sun.  Humans’ needs are the most important.  This idea is very obvious within Roman and Greek art. Their art is very different than the art of the rest of the world, specifically Egyptian art.

Since Humanism is all about man, their [Greeks and Romans] art was made to honor man.  Egyptian art was made for after life and Deities, they served a purpose for a greater being(s).  One of the major differences between the two types are that the Greeks and Romans honor and love the human form, which means that most, if not all, of their art has people naked. They enjoy the look of the nude body so that’s what their art is; many, many naked people.  The Egyptians are making art for a higher power so they don’t need to show off the body, especially since being naked wasn’t as amazing as it was in Greece and Rome, who literally did everything in the nude.

Egyptians also used a lot of animal figures for higher representation of things, but Romans and Greeks believed that there is nothing higher that a human body.

For example, the Egyptian painting of Anubis.  He is clothed and portrayed with the head of a dog to signify something.  Many times he was painted on the inside of a coffin to protect the soul.  Then the Greeks/Romans had Kroisos, a nude sculpture of a boy.  It was also used for a death, but was shown loud and proud to mark the grave.