Sebastian Stephenson – Fall 2018 Art 1010 at Brooklyn College

Final project

The Egyptian civilization is one of the most influential periods in human history. However the award for the most influential falls in the hands of the Greeks/Romans. The difference in Greek/Roman and Egyptian views of humanity in the world shows how humanity change overtime. Through more and more human discoveries, the more humanity moves into the center of the world. Humanism has changed how humans and other animals are depicted in Art.

Figure of a Cat, Saqqara, Egypt, 350 B.C.E. – 1st century C.E – Brooklyn Museum

This is a figure of a cat called Saqqara from Egypt 350 B.C.E. This cat would have been seen as a god or close to a god. Cats were handled with care and given the utmost respect from the people in Egypt. This cat was most likely treated better than the peasants and slaves. The reason for that was how people envisioned the world back then. There was nothing special about a human if they weren’t the Pharaoh. Cats, dogs and other animals were seen as high beings due to the fact that these gods were mixed with features of different animals. It is a great example for my theme because it shows how in Egyptian society, Humans were centered as much.

Statuette of Anubis, Egypt- 332–30 B.C.- Met

This figure is of the Egyptian god of embalming and death, Anubis. As I said before, certain animals had a certain importance because they had connections with gods. This is one example of an animal humanoid mixture. Anubis has a body of a human, but what anyone would recognize first would be head of a jackal. This is important to my theme because with the head of a jackal Anubis shows no real human emotions and is seen to be set apart from what a human being would be. The Egyptians made their gods so different from a human because they didn’t understand the world yet.

Roman statue of bearded Hercules- Met by Brandon Falls- Brooklyn Museum

This is statue is an image of Hercules. This is important because of what Hercules symbolizes. He symbolizes Humanism itself and how humanity has changed. He is the son of Zeus and Alcmene. This means his father was a god that mingled with human beings and had the same emotions of love and courtship as a regular human. This is a change from the past Egyptian beliefs of gods only having children with other gods. This shows that a god can come down and share the same emotional space as a human being. Obviously different from the past where gods showed no emotions to humans. Their best guest was that they angered the gods. This new system put humans in the center of the world along with the gods.

Sardonyx cameo fragment with Jupiter astride an eagle- 1st century B.C.–1st century A.D.- Met

For this figure i’ll be pointing out the animal representation in this piece from the Egyptian pieces. Unlike how animals were praised in the Egypt we see a change where animals are mere tools instead of worshipped. This has to do with Humanism. People believe themselves to be in the center of the world and more important than animals. Animals aren’t seen to be important until they are useful to be used by humans.

Latona and Her Children: Apollo and Diana- Met by William Henry Rinehart

This is the most important symbol that shows how Humanism changed the depiction of gods, people and animals. Here’s Lotana the mother of Apollo and Artemis, two powerful olympian gods. The reason this is important is because of the way it depicts these gods. This sculpture shows how humanism brings that gods down to a human level. This implies that gods came into existence through something like childbirth. Not only is Lotana caring for her children, if you look closer you can almost see the emotions in the picture. You can see her face admiring her children. Makes you feel as if those children were actual humans and not powerful gods.

Bibliography

Smarthistory- Pergamon altar;

This was about the Pergamon altar, where Athena and Zeus Fought together to take down 2 attackers. The reason I chose it for my project was because of the human emotions that gods and powerful beings show. It’s important because it significantly proves what I want to show with the project.

Met’s Timeline of Art History;

I chose the Met’s timeline of art history because it helps me organize my artwork. I can use it to add credibility if I show how the timeline of history changes over time. It was mainly about Egyptian gods and how they differ from Greek humanism.

Brooklyn Museum website;

I will use this site for insight on statues and representation of gods throughout time. It was mainly about a god named Serapis and how his existence is in correlation with both cultures.

Encyclopedia Britannica;

I will use this site to show how humans change overtime. This article was mostly about the effects of humanism on the world and how it sparked our scientific growth. This is useful because it help wraps up my theme on the difference between the Egyptians and Greeks.

Huffington post- 12 Gifts Ancient Greece Gave To The World;

I use this article because it shows how the Greeks affected our world today. I can get key information on specific effects that they have left us. This also adds credibility as I can point out important things in our society that have came into existence because of humanism.

Met Visit

The first painting is called “Master of Saint Augustine”. It shows a congregation of people around a powerful Christian figure( I think the pope). This image has very strong colors. The painter uses lighting to show show and focus everyone eyes into the the center, which hosts the Saint Augustine. Not only does the human eye naturally focus to the middle, but also the painting tricks our mind to see space as well. We can draw a 3D image in our head about how the real scene took place. The gold in the painting around Augustine shows how much of a heavenly figure he is. It makes him look above the average human. A being of all righteousness. The second painting is a painting of Saint Jerome. It also has strong colors. Again lighting is used to direct the people at his face. With Saint Jerome reads a book it shows that he was intelligent because most people could never read. They highlight the differences between the Renaissance the the Baroque because they focus on 2 different topics. The baroque art depicts a religious focused painting, showing that in those times they were focused on religious righteousness. However, Saint Jerome is a good representation of the Renaissance because it showed how people were more focused on education.

Outline

a lion’s head gargoyle from the Late or Ptolemaic Period

The Goddess Isis as Magician, a bronze statue from the Roman Period – Brooklyn Museum

Figure of a Cat, Saqqara, Egypt, 350 B.C.E. – 1st century C.E – Brooklyn Museum

Roman statue of bearded Hercules- Met by Brandon Falls

Latona and Her Children: Apollo and Diana- Met by William Henry Rinehart

These images relate to my theme because as you can see Humanism has an effect on how artwork show humans. From the Egyptians all the way down to the Greeks and Romans there’s an obvious difference in how humans are seen.

Humanism has changed of how humans and other animals are depicted in Art.

Unit 2 summary

Egyptian and Mesopotamian sculptures and art

Both Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt have many things in common. Both are considered two of the very first civilizations and both have similar beliefs and systems. The similarities between their artwork is even more astonishing. When looking at their artwork you can make out the similarities. Their artwork tells a story of how they lived their lives, their believes and even events that took place. The most obvious thing to point out would be the way that they depict their gods. Both show their gods towering over the people and/or striking enemy to show strength and power. Another thing someone can have no problem pointing out would be that no matter how powerful the king was, the gods were always sculpted to be looking over the King. Essentially they were showing how the gods were watching over the gods were watching over the King. One important thing about the gods were the way they were depicted in these times. The gods were more resembling of a mixture of creates than actual humans. This was to differentiate between gods and humans because gods were seen to be the the center of the world. Meaning we should never compare ourselves to such beings.

Greek and Roman art

The Romans and Greeks have a lot in common too. Mostly due to the fact that the Romans literally copied the Greeks when the Greek empire fell. Both civilizations are a change from the Egyptian and the Mesopotamian empires. One change is the way gods were depicted. Gods were depicted to be more human like to put men in the mix of being in the center of the world. The change was more obvious in the way art of humans were done. Unlike Egyptian and Mesopotamian art, Greek and later Roman artwork portrayed a full 3D model of a human.

Greek

During the Hellenistic period one of the first popular sculpture of the Greek would be the “Kouros”. The Kouros was a sculpture which depicted what an ideal male body would have looked like. It had a very muscular body and athletic body. One interesting thing about the Greek was that overtime the artwork got more realistic. An example of this would be the Doryphoros done by Polykleitos. This shows a magnificent change in artstyle for the Greek. The Doryphoros shows you all the muscle tone and each detail of the body. This shows realism for it is to depict a real man. The most realistic thing about to sculpture would be the way the it stood like a real human. Most sculptures before were built in an awkward positioning. The Doryphoros stance is called the contrapposto. This is the stance of all humans.

Romans

After the the Greek empire fell the arise the Roman empire, who were so obsessed with Greek art that they copied it for themselves. The Romans continued the same path of the Greeks in terms of artwork, where it gets more realistic overtime. One example would be “ the marble bust of a man.” This sculpture almost looks real life as it’s stone face looks almost like real flesh and soft to the touch.

Humanism in Greek and Roman Art

Humanism is the belief in human beings. Essentially that human emotions and actions are outside the spectrum of nature. Even God or gods were brought down to the standards of human emotions. Humanism can be described using art by looking at the different pieces of art that the Greeks and later the Romans have done.

These are images of Gods. The first sculpture is Ares and Aphrodite. The second sculpture is of Hermes. One important thing you can get from these two sculptures are the almost humanest features that Gods share with Humans. Humanism is captured in the images by how Gods are portrayed as little as human beings. Of Course Gods are stronger than the average human, but like people Gods had emotions and feelings. Having emotions are considered a trait of a human. In the first image, the Gods are showed to show love for one another. This brings Gods closer to humans, showing a human centered world.

Compared to Roman and Greek art, Egyptian art illustrate humans as weak and nothing like the Gods. The God seen in the image is off Anubis. As you can see, the only thing that resembles a human would be the humanoid body, but the head shows how different gods are from humans. Anubis has a dogs head and is Gigantic compared to regular people. This is used by the Egyptians to differentiate and show the power of their gods. The Gods weren’t brought down to be or have any trait that would connect them to humans.

Putting them side by side shows the overall difference. The first image is of Aten and the second is off Zeus. They are said to be the strongest of each civilization. Humanism is illustrated through the fact that even the most powerful god still looked more human, unlike the Sun disk of a god that the Egyptians showed.

Brooklyn Museum Assignment Part 1 and 2

For the first part of the Assignment, I decided to enter the Ancient Korean Exhibit. I fell in love with these art pieces. This was my 3rd time into the museum. Everytime I go to the museum I check on this section because everything seems so expensive. From what I noticed about each art piece, one thing that all stood out about all of them were there sizes. They were all small and in my mind this means something of a decoration or tool. A figure such as the mini Buddha was considered to be both a religious piece. you can tell it was a religious piece by the position it was in. It was in a position of meditating and you can also make it out as religious because the hands are clasp together in a way that shows prayer. Like a divine being. it also looks decorative because it was made of gold, either owned by a wealthy family or an Emperor. The snail art piece looks to be a kettle. This kettle was a special kettle because of the designs it held that had drawings and other symbols. The museum didn’t provide any information on the kettle, but like the Egyptian makeup tool we discussed in class, this was probably just an everyday item that is considered a work of Art in today’s world. One thing I can say about it is that it seems to be representing someone because of the braided hair roped down it’s back. Finally my favorite piece of all, the Dragon holding what I think is a bucket. This Dragon was most likely a decorative piece because it doesn’t have any sign showing that it would mean anything more than just a Dragon holding a vase. It was most likely owned by someone wealthy because it’s made up of gold. In my opinion and best guess, I would say that the winding of the Dragon serves a purpose of showing immense strength by holding up the vase. Korean history is very rich. One important thing I must point out is the feeling I felt in this exhibit. These different pieces all brings out a tranquil mood because everything looks peaceful and clean. It just doesn’t show a history of battles. It shows a history of peace and tranquility.

This art piece was at the entrance of all the exhibits. I don’t know what exhibit it belongs to. But one thing to point out is the obvious symbolism of what innocence is. This picture uses a clear sky to symbolize freedom and uses the white clothing to symbolize innocence. One look at this image and it creates a warm and nice feeling to accommodate the innocence and beauty of the women in the picture. The 3 women all look away to make you feel and ask what are they looking at in the distance. The way the lighting is in the picture create the women to look like angelic figures.

Unit 1 Summary

What I took away from this unit was what formal analysis was and its significance to art, what art is, Ancient art and what it tells us about the word and how education is making oppressed people less likely to face their oppressors.

From what I’ve learned, in my opinion, Formal analysis is analyzing the elements that make up a piece of art and explaining their significance to the art. For example, when we analyzed paintings like the Manet Olympia, we get a grasp of what the artist was trying to show us. The brightest objects/things would be the most important and the focus of the painting, while the darkening and everything around the bright object/thing would be darker to help guide our eyes unto the the the important piece. Just like how bright the woman was in Manet Olympia. Whiter colors always tend to be more visible out of a darker background.

Formal analysis goes into what we learned about ancient “art”. For example; during the Egyptian and Mesopotamian times, the king was usually made to look bigger than everyone. People who were usually smaller and some who are cowering help get our eyes on the King/Ruler. One of the most important analysis on ancient art would be the attention to detail to something important. Usually the most important person or object would be the one who have been detailed enough to almost look 3D out of the 2D artwork. What the detailing and size tell about the ancient world was that their was a hierarchy. Going down an Art piece like the Egyptian make up holder showed that the King was always on top of all humans, but most importantly the Gods were always on top of the kings watching down. What we consider as Art now was likely considered just a piece of work back then, but reading and trying to understand Ancient art, we can understand their world a little better.

It was my second time reading Paolo Friere’s, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” because I did read it in High school, but I was able to go more in depth to what he was talking about. The most interesting lesson from him was the banking model. This is where he compares students to being banks and just take in information to just spit out information on a test. The students don’t find it interesting and it eventually loses it’s efficiency. Meaning students will stop caring to actually learn and just try to remember information for a test or work. The sad part is that this model is the basic model for public schools in America and most of the world.

Blog 4 : Formal Analysis

Formal analysis is basically explaining a form of art from your personal interpretation, or the creators point of view, it can be analyzing a piece of art for a different meaning than it was intending to be. It can either be different features of the art or the significance of the art piece in correlation to the time period it was made. From the size, shapes, colors and lines, you can analyze an art by looking at what makes it special and what meanings does it have.

Blog post #3: Pedagogy and Power

The banking model that Paolo Friere is refers to the knowledge that students receive are only for filing and storing deposits, meaning that students are expected to sit up straight and act a certain way to accept the knowledge that the teacher is giving them, essentially the teacher has the choice and power to put anything in the minds of students, with the students having no control on what they are learning. Just like banks whose job is only to take what is being deposited to them.

This model is mostly disempowering students at an early age and getting them used to not standing up to authority figures. Friere highlights that fact that since students are thought to sit down and just take what they are giving, that they will become people that won’t stand up to Authority, even if they aren’t treated with respect, they would always have to respect the Authority who acts over them. This type of actions empower the people already in charge as people won’t rebel against them, people like Government officials, Employers and teachers.

Like most students I’ve had most of my life spent within this banking model, where you have a set of rules and the lessons were just copy and paste of one another. This negative experience about the model was the fact that it was boring and basically set everyone up for almost the same or similar boring life, However it’s also positive because it creates order and organization of the population, plus it makes sure the population is quite equal.

Author: Sebastian Stephenson