Author: Teresa Rodriguez

Paper Outline: Final Project

The Men-Centered Society & its Relationship to the Human Body

I. (1-2 Paragraphs) Thesis Statement: This paper will explore the development of the realistic and idealized human body as it coexists with the philosophy of Humanism; this artwork begins to exist because of the shift from a God-centered society, into a men-centered society. In other words, the Greek philosophy of humanism reformed society into a man’s world rather than a religious world. This paper will also attempt to explain the “regression” of the mimetic idealized human body during the resurgence of cult religions.

II. (Historical Influences: 2200-2152 B.C-5th Century):

 A.The Old Kingdom Male Body:

Title: Statue of Tjeteti as a young man
Artist: Unknown
Museum: The MET


 In the Old Kingdom, the artwork was much more abstracted, with larger eyes and hands. The body is not as emphasized; in other words, lacking muscles. They used the eyes and hands as religious symbols (supplication).
    B. Archaic (6th B.C) Male Body:

Title: Bronze youth

Artist: Unknown

Museum: The MET

C.  The Classical Era (late 5th century B.C)

Title: Bronze youth

Artist: Unknown

Museum: The MET

Already from one century to the next the body becomes much more muscularized, and idealized. This shows the shift of a God-centered society into a humanism based civilization.

  • The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/04/eusb.html.

“Following a period of sporadic incursions and large movements of people, demographic and economic changes in the eighth century B.C. lead to overseas colonization, spreading Greek language and culture across the Mediterranean and Black seas.”
 This statement alone shows the development and inculcation of the Greek philosophy of humanism. This sculpture alone shows how this sporadic time inculcated this philosophy and in turn changed the image of the body by evolving into realistic pieces of artwork. The classical piece will show the further development of anatomical realism of the human body.

 

 

This is the most prominent piece of artwork that began the process into the realistic and idealized human body. The desire to improve began here or is widely known to have started with this art piece.

   III. Hellenistic Period:

A. Early Hellenistic

Title: Terracotta relief probably from a funnel vase

Artist: Unknown

Period: Early Hellenistic; late 3rd–early 2nd century B.C

Museum: The MET

This statue also shows the importance of the body using two nude males, one most likely a Gaul and the other Greek, fighting. This fight combats the idea of the essence of Greek humanism; the struggle and dominance of man, especially the civilized greek.

B. Hellenistic

Title: Terracotta statuette of a veiled woman

Artist: Unknown

Period: Hellenistic; 2nd century B.C.

Museum: The MET

IV. ca. 1000-1400

A. 1175-1200

Title: Virgin and Child in Majesty

Artist: Unknown

Period: ca. 1175–1200

Museum: The MET

56.54.1 379

The shift of humanism towards a God shift society results in the abstracted form of the human body. Rather than alluding to the earthly, the heavenly is inferred through the abstract.

B.     ca.1230

Title: Christ Enthroned

Artist: Unknown

Period: ca. 1230

Museum: The MET

This painting is to reiterate the shift religious status, resulting in abstracted human forms to allude to the heavenly. In other words when God is the center of civilization the body image is no longer realistic or idealized, but almost despised and forgotten.  

  • The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History,

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/07/euwf.html

“Between 1000 and 1400, the kingdoms of the Franks, divided among many leaders, become the kingdom of France, which emerges under the Capetian dynasty as one of the most prosperous, powerful, and prestigious in Christendom.”

The change of religious state and political state influence the change of realistic and idealistic body images to an abstracted style, retracting to iconographic works similar to Egyptian worship statues. This alone proves that the philosophy returns to a God-centered society, where man is not as important in this time compared to the of the Greek democracy.

 

“The expansion of royal authority is halted in the fourteenth century by an economic crisis, the loss of a third of the population to the plague, and, from 1337, constant military conflict with the English”

Also interestingly enough, the return of the realistic and idealized body is after an economic crisis and the Bubonic plague. Men and women are suffering and because of this incomprehensible suffering, they become skeptical of a God. In other words when the need to return to a humanistic mentality arises the art changes with it. In short, when this need arises the Renaissance epoch began.  

V. The Renaissance

A. Protestant Reformation

  • Raphael M. Huber. (1941). Recent Important Literature regarding the Catholic Church during the Late Renaissance Period, 1500-1648. Church History, 10(1), 3-37. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3160724

The reason this article is so important because a common argument to my thesis would be:
 During the Renaissance, Catholicism was very prominent, and yet the body image is highly idealized and realistic in the artwork. Well here is my point, the realistic and idealized body makes a comeback for two reasons; one is to give the Christian hope of heaven on earth; two, is because the church became extremely wealthy. The second point is important, the Protestant Reformation was because of the accusation that the Church’s distribution of wealth to create prominent and monumental Renaissance artwork was one of the many corruptions. Also, the use of the Catholic Hierarchy was another form of corruption. This hierarchy can be argued to be extremely narcissistic and places men in the middle of this societal circle once again; and not just any man but the Papal and clergy members.  God was no longer in the center of this circle, but money was (money only serves man in order to survive).

B. Secular Government; Man-centered society

  • Rule by Natural Reason: Late Medieval and early Renaissance conceptions of political corruption. (2012). In Barcham M., Hindess B., & Larmour P. (Eds.), Corruption: Expanding the Focus(pp. 53-72). ANU Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24hbwc.8

“Conflict over lay investiture and the accompanying charges of simony (the act of buying or selling ecclesiastical benefices or emoluments) led Pope Gregory VII to declare sacerdotal and secular supremacy over all princely sovereignties.”

 

Simony, or like we spoke in class indulgences, were seen as a sign of corruption in the church. I also agree with this perspective because if the Pope and all clergyman have supreme sovereignty, then they no longer follow the belief of the church; Clergyman are a representation of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ was the last and servant of the lay people according to Catholic philosophy. Therefore this portrays the shift of a God-Centered society into a Man-centered society, where the Pope and Clergyman (who are men) make themselves Gods.   

Works Cited

The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/04/eusb.html.

Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, “Anavysos Kouros,” in Smarthistory, December 15, 2015, accessed December 10, 2018, https://smarthistory.org/anavysos-kouros/.

The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/07/euwf.html

Raphael M. Huber. (1941). Recent Important Literature regarding the Catholic Church during the Late Renaissance Period, 1500-1648. Church History, 10(1), 3-37. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3160724

Rule by Natural Reason: Late Medieval and early Renaissance conceptions of political corruption. (2012). In Barcham M., Hindess B., & Larmour P. (Eds.), Corruption: Expanding the Focus(pp. 53-72). ANU Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24hbwc.8

Bibliography

Citation: Timeline of Art History

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/04/eusb.html

“Following a period of sporadic incursions and large movements of people, demographic and economic changes in the eighth century B.C. lead to overseas colonization, spreading Greek language and culture across the Mediterranean and Black seas.”

This statement alone shows the development and inculcation of the Greek philosophy of humanism. This sculpture alone shows how this sporadic time inculcated this philosophy and in turn changed the image of the body by evolving into realistic pieces of artwork.

Citation: Timeline of Art History

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/07/euwf.html

“Between 1000 and 1400, the kingdoms of the Franks, divided among many leaders, become the kingdom of France, which emerges under the Capetian dynasty as one of the most prosperous, powerful, and prestigious in Christendom.”

The change of religious state and political state influence the change of realistic and idealistic body images to an abstracted style, retracting to iconographic works similar to Egyptian worship statues. This alone proves that the philosophy returns to a God-centered society, where man is not as important in this time compared to the of the Greek democracy.

Citation: Protestant Reformation

Raphael M. Huber. (1941). Recent Important Literature regarding the Catholic Church during the Late Renaissance Period, 1500-1648. Church History, 10(1), 3-37. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3160724

The reason this article is so important because it speaks of the protestant reform during the Renaissance that can be used against my argument. 

Citation: Secular Government; Man-centered society

Rule by Natural Reason: Late Medieval and early Renaissance conceptions of political corruption. (2012). In Barcham M., Hindess B., & Larmour P. (Eds.), Corruption: Expanding the Focus(pp. 53-72). ANU Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24hbwc.8

“Conflict over lay investiture and the accompanying charges of simony (the act of buying or selling ecclesiastical benefices or emoluments) led Pope Gregory VII to declare sacerdotal and secular supremacy over all princely sovereignties.” In other words, an argument for a man-centered society rather than God-centered is found in this article. 

Citation: Smarthistory.org/anavysos-kouros/

Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, “Anavysos Kouros,” in Smarthistory, December 15, 2015, accessed December 10, 2018, https://smarthistory.org/anavysos-kouros/.

This is the most prominent piece of artwork that began the process into the realistic and idealized human body. The desire to improve began here or is widely known to have started with this art piece.

Final Outline/Background

Title: Statue of Tjeteti as a young man

Artist: Unknown

Period: Old Kingdom; ca. 2200–2152 B.C.

Museum: The MET

In the Old Kingdom, the artwork was much more abstracted, with larger eyes and hands. The body is not as emphasized; in other words lacking muscles. They used the eyes and hands as religious symbols (supplication).

Title: Bronze youth

Artist: Unknown

Period: Archaic; 6th century B.C.

Museum: The MET

This figurine shows the beginning of the importance to the body, but it is still very abstracted. This figure depicts much more motion and versatile perspectives, allowing the viewer to see the full body.


Title: Bronze youth

Artist: Unknown

Period: Classical; late 5th century B.C

Museum: The MET

Already from one century to the next the body becomes much more muscularized, and idealized. This shows the shift of a God-centered society into a humanism based civilization.

Title: Terracotta relief probably from a funnel vase

Artist: Unknown

Period: Early Hellenistic; late 3rd–early 2nd century B.C

Museum: The MET

This statue also shows the importance of the body using two nude males, one most likely a Gaul and the other Greek, fighting. This fight combats the idea of the essence of Greek humanism; the struggle and dominance of man, especially the civilized greek.


Title: Terracotta statuette of a veiled woman

Artist: Unknown

Period: Hellenistic; 2nd century B.C.

Museum: The MET

The importance of realistic body, with idealized anatomy, extends to much more than just the man. The woman is also used to show the beauty of the body and shows the parallel between humanism and the distorted (even if idealized) body.

Title: Virgin and Child in Majesty

Artist: Unknown

Period: ca. 1175–1200

Museum: The MET

The shift of humanism towards a God shift society results in the abstracted form of the human body. Rather than alluding to the earthly, the heavenly is referenced through the abstract.


Title: Christ Enthroned

Artist: Unknown

Period: ca. 1230

Museum: The MET

This statue is to reiterate the shift religious status, resulting in abstracted human forms to allude to the heavenly. In other words when God is the center of civilization the body image is no longer realistic or idealized, but almost despised and forgotten.  

MET visit ( Renaissance and Baroque)

All I have to say is that there is a reason the MET is widely known and regarded, and well you can tell. In other words, it is packed especially Friday afternoons. But, despite the foot traffic, the museum in itself is both externally and internally beautiful and eloquent. The entrance to the museum almost reminds me of European style architecture, and the large stairs are inviting and enticing, almost asking for someone to enter this historically charged, beautiful world.  Also, other than the fact that it is difficult to navigate through the museum, you can literally and figuratively get lost in it. Between trying to find renaissance and baroque artwork, added to the many distractions (in other words collections) it is impossible to only spend an hour in the MET. It’s basically a sin not to spend more than two hours admiring.

The two artworks I chose to represent either Renaissance or Baroque art are Gerard David’s, Archangel Gabriel; The Virgin Annunciate (Renaissance) and Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich’s The Adoration of the Shepherds (Baroque).

Other than the dates, the Renaissance piece is much more simplistic and technical. It is very simpler to ancient classical Roman and Greek artwork. It focuses much more on the mimetic representation and anatomical correctness. In other words, it is much more linear and lacks motion, along with emotion. This transition from medieval, abstracted artwork is notable because of the application of heavenly (outer world) figures, such as saints can now be found on the Earth, and is applicable to the working man.

The Baroque piece is much more dramatized and can almost be mistaken as chaotic. In other words, it is much more life like or what modernly we call an off-guarded moment. This style is most simpler to the shift of classical artwork towards Hellenistic artwork. Rather than static, baroque artwork is much more dynamic. It depicts both emotion and motion.

     

Blog Post #9: Final Project Topic

The topic that I have chosen is one we have talked about often in class, which is the philosophy of humanism. I want to talk about the development of body image in parallel to this philosophy, and how it correlates to both the progression and regression of artwork in the timeline of ancient Greece and Rome into the Renaissance and Baroque epochs.

Blog Post #8: Unit Summary 2 (Ancient World)

The Ancient World showed the progression of art beginning with Egypt, onto to Greece and then into Rome. In Egypt, animals and human were much more “abstract” in comparison to the progression of human sculpture in Ancient Greece. Egypt revolved around pleasing the Gods, so naturalism, although present, was not as accurate or important in their artwork. In fact, if you compare Kouros of Attica (Egypt Sculpture of a young boy) in comparison to Greek Anavysos Kouros, the Egyptian sculpture is much more rigid and less anatomically detailed. Anavysos is much more refined and progressively naturalistic. This reflects the philosophy presented by the Greek and later adopted by the Romans, known as humanism. Humanism was the shift of a God-centered society in a Man-centered society.

The fixated interest on naturalism, especially of the male body, reflected these beliefs and caused a trend of improving this naturalism of the human body in their artwork. Although there are few Greek bronze sculpture left to show this progression, Romans exclusively transduces Greek bronze artwork into marble. This marble showed a much more human-like posture known as contrapposto and the increased use of the S-curved body that help push this idealized body. In fact, this desire to push the limits of idealistic bodies progressed into the famous Hellenistic period which shifted from perpendicular art into diagonal and emphasized emotion, action and the humanistic ideas. In fact, it was beyond an ideal body and control, but the naturalism of a human in both body and psychology. This can be shown in the major difference between The Dying Gaul and the Doryphoros. Although the Doryphoros tries to capture human psychology and has contrapposto, The Dying Gaul captures the emotion of a dying man, leaning on one hand while almost lying down and in a diagonal position. This is a much more theatrical storytelling piece than the Doryphoros which is just a showing of an athletic idealized man.

Romans then move on from copying Greek sculpture and progress into portraiture, in order to show that art is much more than deception, but can show the truth. This is called Verism and was developed after the criticism of Plato in Plato’s Republic in which he calls art deceitful and fake. Therefore, artwork progressed into a tool for many customs, but always in a naturalistic form. In fact, much like the Egyptians, Romans used art for funerary rituals. The difference was that Roman artwork was the epitome of naturalism. The Roman Patrician with the bust of his Ancestors, in comparison to Tutankhamun’s Death Mask, is much more naturalistic and representative of the man holding his ancestor’s death mask. Tutankhamun’s Death Mask is much more symbolistic. It is not to say that Romans did not use are in to idealize or refine an idea. Much like Greece for humanism, Augustus Caesar used art to portray power; almost as propaganda with a political purpose. I could continue on (Roman Art Paintings, Ara Pacis Augustae), but in conclusion, although art did progress there was a period of regression when many cult religious were introduced as the Roman empire increased in size.

Blog Post #7: Humanism in Greek and Roman Art

Humanism is a philosophical ideal found in the Classical Era in Ancient Greece, later copied by the Roman empire. This philosophy referred to as humanism, was a major shift in society in which society was no longer “God-centered.” The function of society as we have spoken of in the Mesopotamian and Egyptian epochs was religious centered on pleasing and gaining the favor of the Gods; everything revolved around the Gods. Humanism is the shift of this societal function to revolve around men (literally).

In Greek and Roman art, this philosophy was easily distinguished in their marble and bronze sculptures of nude males. These sculptures are highly mimetic and naturalistic in an attempt to be faithful to the human anatomy. In fact, these sculptures, during the classical period gave little importance to emotion or cognitive expressions. Also other than being faithful to the anatomy they idealized beauty in these artworks. This is shown in the comparison we spoke of in class.

The first the Kouros of Attica, a sculpture from Egypt (as a precursor for Greek’s bronze works) is rigid and not as mimetic as the Greek’s adaption of the nude male. The anatomy is not as detailed although it is as rigid as the Anavysos Kouros. This Kouros, derived from the Egyptian Kouros, is much more evolved in terms of anatomy and idealized beauty. This ideal is then adapted into artwork such as the Doryphoros, in which muscle is toned and polished almost in a modern athletic manner and the man is much more idealized. His face is slightly thoughtful and his poise is contrapposto. The evolution of this philosophy through history is shown through these sculptures.

Blog #6: Brooklyn Museum Analysis Part 1 and 2

Stela with Bes and Tutu

In this limestone stela, two deities are present; which like we talked about is shown in the hierarchical size. The two deities are a big portion of this stela showing the significance of power Gods have in ancient Egyptian society. On the left corner are seven small figures that similar to Tutu and Bes are animal and man alike. These small figures are the seven demons that Tutu controls. Also, there is a form of hierarchy in this work, making these seven demons enclosed in a box with clear lines that divide them for Tutu and Bes. These lines also navigate the eye towards these two deities. It is also important to note that both Gods are depicted as animals. Animals that are powerful, not donkey’s or mice, but half man half lion (sphinx) with a snakehead’s tail (Tutu) and another half bull half man (Bes). Bes is shown holding a sword, which can be a symbol of warfare and fighting, which is representative of what he is a God of.  These pieces were intended to appease the deities to be less hostile and aggressive. In fact, this piece, in particular, was intended for the temple as a sign of gratitude and protection. Similar to what we have learned in this units appeasing these aggressive Gods was a religious aspect of Egyptian life, it was necessary in order to live moral and fearless lives.

Fairbanks or Garvey by John T. Riddle

The reason I chose this piece is because of the obvious division between choosing a destiny or resigning to one already decided, specifically for the African American culture in the United States of America. On one spectrum, (the left part of this piece) you have what looks like a brand of detergent for clothes in the form of powder. The phrase on the bottom of “Gold Dust” states in Spanish, “WARNING POWDER: Powder to clean.” The use of dividing this artwork into two allows for the emphasis to be on both messages. In the center of the right, we have a man in a marching band outfit who unlike the two boys on the left, looks empowered. He is dressed lavishly and not just defined but his color of skin unlike the two young boys on the left. Also, this piece states, “Up you mighty race,” with a message on the bottom, “What will you accomplish.” Opposed to the left part of this piece this message empowers and embraces, rather than stereotypes a race.

I think this united the exhibition, showing not only the history of what was expected onto this culture; but also shows the empowerment of each individual allowing them to change the destiny placed onto them in this nation. The exhibition had historical pieces and individual pieces of cultural pride, which in turn was embodied perfectly by this piece (in my opinion).

Blog Post #5: Unit Summary

Unit one explored the ancient world by using art to understand the importance and significance of a civilization. Before entering the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras, we first scrutinized art and its meaning. Art is many things, but it can be defined as a form of human expression that often is a visual cue and aesthetically composed to create an emotional, social, political, and religious statement. As we discovered in the early classes, to understand an artwork we must understand formal analysis. Formal analysis is best described as using the elements of art to read and understand the story or meaning an artist places onto a canvas. This technique uses, line, color, shape, value (chiaroscuro), texture and space and form, to create empirical questions that help to understand the artwork’s statement.

In the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) era we spoke mainly about the cave paintings and the Venus of Willendorf (fertility figure). The cave paintings mainly introduced us to not only the first artwork discovered but the idea of sympathetic magic. This can, in fact, be thought of as a religious ritual, which is one of the main themes of this unit. The figurine also is a form of art used to appeal to the fertility deities. This theme is extended into the Neolithic era. In the Neolithic age, society becomes highly stratified into what is commonly known as an agrarian society. The placement of government and administration creates divisions that we commonly know as social classes. This is especially seen in The Standard of Ur, which divides social class into three sections. The 3 sections are placed much like a hierarchy, the king and the priest on top, middle class (rams rather than donkeys) in the middle and slaves/labors on the bottom. The King is the largest figure in work, which is a commonly used technique to symbolism power or importance.

In the Cylinder Seal of Adda (Sumerian society), the continuity of religion is seen because the figures in the cylinder are often seen on deities. The main reason they are seen as deities is due to the crown and difference in size between them and a small man in the middle of the work. In this specific artwork, the deity of water is visible because water is increasingly important for agrarian societies (irrigation=increased agriculture). Another religiously affiliated art pieces are the miniature statues of people praying. They were used as stand-ins, with supplicating hands and large eyes.

There are many more artworks we spoke of but most were commonly associated with war, power, and religion, which easily is related to politics. The use of art created visual cues to express the history of Mesopotamia, Sumeria, Babylonia, and Neo-Sumeria in the primary perceptive of the people. The common technique used during this time were large proportions to emphasis power  (which in itself has a political agenda that during this time is often intertwined with religion), special symbols (crowns, clothing, powerful animals) to symbolize social status and importance and many other techniques. In shorter words art using formal analysis and contextual analysis are primary sources of history, that give us a clarified understanding of eras.

Blog #4: Formal Analysis

Formal analysis is the most commonly used technique in art. This technique, using the elements of art, allows the individual scrutinizing an art piece to understand what the artist is trying to convey through his/her work. A formal analysis is not an interpretation but a deep understanding of what we see through the basic elements of art. These elements are line, color, shape, value (chiaroscuro), texture, space and form (3-dimensional shapes). These basic elements allows an individual to generalize simple findings into larger questions. In other words, in class we were discussing Titan’s Venus of Urbino and noted that Venus is drawn with soft lines, and that she is a large portion of the painting. This is a small faction of what we can analyze and of what we did analyze, but with these finding we can ask “What is the artist trying to accomplish with these soft lines, or why is Venus (other then the fact that her name is the in title of the artwork) such a large portion of the painting?” Other then just saying, “What color’s are in the painting,” we can ask in depth, “Are the colors highly saturated, or less saturated; Are they warm or cold?” These simple elements answer a great scheme formed by the artist or in better terms simplifies the composition to understand the painting in depth.  In short, formal analysis is us reading the story told by the artist through these elements.