Christy Chan

Art 1010 Final Paper

Prof. Shaw

12/11/18

We all know that art is limitless, and can mean so many things to the artists. Art is not only just a simple 2-dimensional thing; it can take forms in other ways, such as jewelry. Nowadays jewelry is more of a fashion statement piece for us to show off our ensemble, but in ancient times jewelry had a more important role. In the ancient times such as the Hellenistic period, and ancient Egyptian period, jewelry was made to coordinate with their gods and goddess, and were used as either protective amulets or to glorify statuses.      

Previously jewelry was made from bones, animals, and other varies hard like materials, but due to the abundance of gems, metals, and gold in Ancient Egypt, a new type of jewelry was inspired by and created to worship gods/goddesses, royalty, and high-level position figures. Gold jewelry is a symbol of power, religion, and status, and Egyptians were fond of using colored glass, and it was expensive due to its rarity. Egyptians also love designs with scrolls, tigers, scarab beetles, winged birds, jackals, antelopes, and tigers.

“Protective amulets could be worn as independent pieces, but they were often fused into Egyptian jewelry. These amulets were talismans or charms that were believed to either infuse the amulet with power or to protect the wearer. The amulets were carved into various shapes and forms, including symbols, humans, animals, and gods. Additionally, the amulets were seen as equally significant protectors of the living and the dead. Amulets were made specifically for the afterlife, as memorial jewelry was customary for ancient Egypt” (Ancient Egyptian).

Take a look at the wreath, this piece belongs to the ancient Egyptians, the wreath is made with gold and was used to crown athletic victories throughout the ancient Greek time. This shows the symbol of victorious men’s through their accomplishment, and not only was this used during the Egyptian times; it was also used during the Hellenistic period.

The Ring of Cat and Kittens is used to symbolize as the “faraway goddess”, the cat is supposed to be a deity that ran away from the Nubian Desert and had to go back to the Nile Valley. This symbolism is to bring prosperity back to Egypt. Rings like this are most likely created to celebrate various festivals in honor of the deities depicted on the rings.

“In the Hellenistic period, the Greek world was flooded with gold. Greece itself had few sources of gold, and those had been depleted by the late Classical period. Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian Empire, which included Egypt, made vast resources of gold available for the first time. The various royal courts of Alexander’s successors, including the Ptolemais in Egypt, comprised a wealthy clientele with a taste for luxury, which, in combination with this new abundance of gold, led to an immense outpouring of gold jewelry” (Roadsrunner).

“In Hellenistic times, jewelry was often passed down through generation. Occasionally, it was dedicated at sanctuaries as offerings to the gods. There are records of headdresses, necklaces, bracelets, rings, brooches, and pins in temple and treasury inventories, as, for example, at Delos. Hordes of Hellenistic jewelry that were buried for safekeeping in antiquity have also come to light. Some of the best-preserved samples come from tombs where jewelry was usually placed on the body of the deceased. Some of these pieces were made specifically for interment; however, most were worn during life” (Ancient Greek Jewelry).

The Gold armband with Herakles knot is a gold bracelet inlaid with emeralds, enamel, and garnets. It was believed that any Hellenistic jewelry with a Herakles knot was known to have the power to thwart evil and cure wounds.   

This is a goat head earring during Hellenistic times. During the Ancient Greek time, they believed the goat is closely related to one of their God Dionysus later known as Bacchus in the Roman period (the god of wine and fertility). It was believed that the goat was related to men, and it was associated with burning sexuality and lasciviousness and lust. Since jewelry was made for mainly women and was used to appeal to the opposite sex, you can say that this goat earring is made to attract males to females, and to show that they can be fertile.

As time goes on, the significance and history of jewelry get lost. The Greeks and Egyptians all had a religious belief and status to uphold making all jewelry important in their culture and looked up upon. Most jewelry nowadays does not have any symbolism behind them, no longer do we have a beautiful story or importance in our jewelry. How often can you be able to say that this piece of jewelry is made to protect you, thwart off evil, cure your sickness, or even to say it was based off a certain god or goddess? Is it important enough to be passed down generations to generations or make you stand out and show off your status? This obviously doesn’t apply to diamonds because diamonds are just an expensive gemstone now that will last forever, with its own distinguished statement, but for regular jewelry or common gold jewelry, it’s nothing more than a flashy statement piece.

Works Cited/Resources

“Ancient Egyptian Jewelry.” Gem Rock Auctions, 13 Feb. 2017, www.gemrockauctions.com/learn/did-you-know/ancient-egyptian-jewellery.

“Ancient Greek Golden Jewellery.” Poseidon the Greek God of Sea, www.greek-islands.us/ancient-greece/ancient-greek-jewels/.

“Ancient Greek Jewelry.” Ancient Greece, www.ancientgreece.com/s/Jewelry/

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/25429

“Hellenistic Jewelry.” The Roadrunners’ Guide to Ancient World, 11 Dec. 2013, roadrunnersguidetotheancientworld.com/hellenistic-jewelry/.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/256970

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/744564

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/242903

Some of the examples are

Two Earrings, from Brooklyn museum 1539-1292 B.C.E.

Single-Strand Necklace, Brooklyn Museum 13 32-1292 B.C.E.,

Ring with Cat and Kittens, MET Museum, 1295-664 B.C.

Wreath, Brooklyn Museum 3rd century-2nd-century B.C.E.

Ring in the Form of a Coiled Serpent from Brooklyn Museum 3rd century B.C.E. 

 Gold Necklace from MET Museum 4th-3rd century B.C.

Each piece goes in depth of what values that people hold, and the significance of each piece. Some are to help ward off evil and protect people, whereas some are to glorify the status of people. Not only do they go in-depth with details and meanings, but they also show the status and value of the wearer.

During my trip to the Met Museum, there were many tourists there which were surprising to me because it is the middle of winter yet there were still many people there. Upon going to the MET, it was so beautiful and somehow makes me feel like I’ve transported back to a different era. Although the met was beautiful, and with arches on the ceilings/structures reminding me of some of the paintings in the renaissances time, there were many people crowding around which annoyed me. I don’t generally like to go to places that are crowded with people, it feels like times squares which can be displeasing.

 

During my time there I noticed that Renaissance and Baroque art has many similarities. They both heavily emphasize on religions; both place an importance on Adam and Eve, Madonna, crucifixion..etc. Both arts portray realism, uses rich colors in the art and another thing I realize is that both arts have somewhat of a high importance in women, more specifically mothers. Take Virgin and Child (Renaissance Art) for example, the color displayed is extraordinary, and eye-popping, although there weren’t bright colors in it to make it stand out, the subtle hues of blues and reds can make this piece feel so live and eye-catching, yet it also displays the motherly and tender love she has for the child. Another comparable piece in the Baroque Art is the Madonna and Child with Saints, again it highlights the importance of Madonna and the motherly affection for the child. The Madonna and child with Saints piece also not overly exaggerated with color pigmentations yet display such realism and subtle colors that make it hard to look away.

 

Some of the differences that I have noticed is that Renaissance art pieces do tend to have more of a religious input and most paintings would have crucifixion, whereas baroque has a more important in musical instruments, and exaggerated expressions. I searched that both Renaissance and Baroque comes from European artwork, and the main difference is that if a painting or sculpture is made between 1300-1600s then it is most likely considered a Renaissance work, and if it was made between 1600-1750s then it was considered Baroque. Baroque artwork was also heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic Church around that time period hence the religious artwork with crucifixion and Madonna.  

 

In this unit, we focused on the artwork of ancient civilizations such as the Ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Mesopotamia. Although there are many similarities between these ancient civilization artworks, there are also many differences. During the Ancient Egyptian period, most of the artwork is revolved around on religions, god/goddess, and place importance in animals, as time progresses to Ancient Greek and Roman period, there is more emphasis on humanism art.  

 

Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian art was mainly focused on the Gods and Goddesses, and certain animals which heavily depicted around their religion. They believed in how in the afterlife the god/goddess can help guide those who passed, and the more important a person is such as a pharaoh or the more decorative their coffin is. During this period Ancient Egyptian art mostly consist of statues, tablets, amulets, little trinkets with animals such as the hippopotami, baboons, calves, cats, dogs and more. Most of the Egyptian artworks were made to appease towards the afterlife, and there is a heavy emphasis on using gold, and colors that reflect with their belief. Although these some of the Egyptian pieces may have resembled humanism features, they were more oriented towards religious belief.  

 

In Roman art, they place heavy emphasis on bronze, metal, marble, glass…etc, and they also believe their art is not the depiction of an idealized man, but it was the depiction of a man in the truest sense, which is called Roman Portraiture. The Roman Portraiture also features an accurate portrayal of a person’s face, and appreciate older face because it reflects on wisdom gained through long hard years. An example of that is the Roman marble sculpture of a man head. A bust is an old man with wrinkles, and this portrays the realism and humanism in their art. The Romans also took inspirations from the Greeks, and many of their artwork are forms for sculptures, architectures, paintings, and mosaics.

Ancient Greece is the most similar to Egyptian arts because of the emphasis a lot of god/goddess, although that is mostly where their similarities end. While the Egyptians display harsh and fierce looks on their statues/sculptures, the Grecians have a more softer and feminine feature. The Greek artwork also had a more philosophical and idealistic approach towards their art and sculptures. The Ancient Greek sculpture also shows a dominant male with feminine characteristics with no harsh features, and although the Ancient Greek art likes to show a more feminine feature for their sculpture, they also put a humanism twist by making the body portions and features manly and accurate.

During my trip to the Brooklyn Museum, I went to look at the Egyptian arts and Soul of a Nation. My time at the Egyptian art section was interesting because there weren’t many “paintings”, instead there were many cravings, sculptures, and little trinkets. One of the artworks that took my attention was Mummy Cartonnage of a Woman. This sculpture is made of gold, and with small colors of blue and pink in it. It stood out the most to me because as I wander around the museum, many of the sculpture was carved in stones, but this is in gold. Gold is actually not uncommon during Egyptian time so I was relatively surprised by this piece. The artist put a lot of details in the headpiece, and the serpent armlets, in order to make this piece stand out and give it a pop of color, the artist added blue color mainly on the face. During Egyptian times, the blue color is a symbol of fertility, rebirth, and power of creation which is really fitting for this sculpture of the Egyptian goddess Isis. The color blue is also mainly associated with gods and goddesses. I believe the artist put in a lot of thought and preparations into this piece because he thought about what the colors mean during that time, and the details to portray his piece of the goddess, he made it obvious with the blue color, and the flowers that represented Isis.

The second part of my trip was to go look at the Soul of Nation artworks, and to my surprise, there were many colorful and big pieces that stood out to me. The one that stood out the most was the Archibald Motley piece. This piece is such a brilliant artwork portraying the hardships and times of slavery in America. The more I looked at this artwork the more emotions I can feel emitted from it. The colors of this artwork are mostly blues and red/orange with some whites. Immediately at first glance when you look at it, the colors of the blue seems very ominous and gloomy portraying the tough times. Within the art you can also see a man being lynched, the statue of liberty [representing freedom], the Confederate flag, the Ku Klux Klan, skull and devil, Abraham Lincoln and MLK’s head floating on the tree, and the broken stained glass on the tree. This is such a powerful piece because it shows the artist trying to put in all the troubles that the African Americans suffered through. The brightest part of this whole painting is the white clouds that looks like it’s on the horizon with the crosses out of the clouds, but right in front of it is the protest for freedom and a crucifixion on fire. This is one of Motley’s last piece after finishing within the span of 10 years, and I would say this a great last piece of his to portray the Black social life.

In our unit one for Art History, we learned what is art, what it means, Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy and Power, banking model, and formal analysis. In the beginning, as our first assignment, we were to write what art means to us, an and most of us wrote how it is a form of expression to oneself, it can be music, it can be choreography, and how it can be literally anything.

As I read The fundamentals of interpretation: formal and contextual analysis, I learned how art is also used as a form of advertisements and how it can have a powerful impact. For example in the reading, they mentioned the Dior ad, it was a simple photo of a lady sitting with the Dior bag, with the Central Park as a backdrop, and within this photo, there is no headline promoting sales and discounts. This photo is powerful in a way because it captures the thrive of New York City, with a gorgeous and stylish lady who is Gwyneth Paltrow, this ad is literally screaming “Dior’s not outdated, its retro cool”.

When we learned about formal analysis, I realize it’s more than that criticizing an artist work, it’s about understanding what the artist is trying to convey visually. There are many kinds of formal analysis such as analyzing the colors, the lines, the space and mass, scale of the work, and the dimensions. It had made me realize there is a deeper meaning to the art, and appreciate the techniques that the artist puts into their work.

Paulo Freire’s banking concept of education is basically that the teachers “teach” and the students are “taught”. The problem with this model is that the teachers have the authority over what is being taught to the students, and the students have freedom in their own thoughts and opinions. We are to aimlessly learn and memorize on what the teachers are teaching and retain this information without an objective. Freire objects this kind of concept and instead believes that students should work together with their teachers to come up with solutions, to have dialogues to interact with each other, thus allowing the students to be able to think more freely and come up with their own ideas and opinions.  

To sum up, what I learned so far in unit one, it is how to have a better mindset, to have a deeper judgment/critic on things and to appreciate on how much effort people put into their art. It’s almost like the popular saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover”, get a better perspective on things. I thoroughly enjoy what we have learned so far in unit one, and cannot wait to see what unit two can teach me.

Paolo Friere banking concept of education is basically that teachers “teach”, and students are “taught”. Teachers basically have the power to choose what the students will be learning. The problem with this is that the “teachers” have the authority to choose what to fill with students minds, and the students are forced to memorize and learn these things without knowing why. “Teachers confuse authority of knowledge with their own professional authority, which they oppose the freedom of the students.” Friere disagrees with this banking concept and believes that students should work together with their teacher to come up with solutions, and have dialogues to interact with each other, thus allowing students to be able to think freely and independently.

As students, we encounter the banking concept when we are at school. We are constantly being filled with knowledge that we get from teachers from a young age until we graduate, and constantly being retaining this education yet most of us don’t understand it all or remember it. Although the banking concept can be applied to our education, it also helps us build our own thoughts when we get older. We start questioning things about the time we get to middle school/high school and are always asked about our thoughts on the topic, which gives us a freedom to build our own thoughts and opinions.

 

To learn how to use the Cuny Academic Commons Site you first go to

1. commons.gc.cuny/edu
2. log into your commons account
3. click on the group tag and look for Art 1010 Fall 2018, the 9:30 am class
4. click on the post or media tag on the upper left side corner
5. click on post
6. create your title, in this case, you would put whatever topic is being discussed
7. type in your discussion/topic in the white box
8. you can attach files if you want
9. submit once you’re one!

And you’re done!

So what is art? Art is a vague and broad topic when people hear the word art, they mainly think of doodles, pictures or art museum. When I hear the word art, I think differently. I think of art as one’s expression. It can be messy, it can be a portrait, it can mean dancing/choreography, music, it can be doodles and graffiti. Art is limitless.  In my life, art is everywhere, whether it be from the doodles on my books and papers, or graffitis on the street, there’s no way of avoiding art in your daily life. I hope to learn about how different artists view their arts, and what they were thinking and feeling when they create their masterpiece. I would also love to learn about the skills and techniques that were developed over time!