Category: 11 AM Class

Humanism in Greek and Roman Art

Humanism is a philosophical system that highlights the importance and value of human beings rather than divine/supernatural matters. It has various characteristics. First it sought rational thinking, to look for explanations in the natural world. Thus encouraging the use of critical thinking leaving space for new speculations. It also placed human beings in the center of moral and social concerns. In terms of art it focused on the beauty of humans mainly man. It did this through the use of nudity in art.

Greek and Roman art illustrates a major difference in art as opposed to Egyptian art. Humanism if greatly found in Greek and Roman art through the nude sculptures of young man and the occasional nude of Aphrodite all showing the real beauty in human anatomy. While Egyptian art is greatly God centered often showing human bodies with animal features. Placing emphasis on divine power rather human acts.

Riace Warrior A. 460 – 450 BCE

Horus

As seen in the images above there a big differences in the sculpture of a Race warrior there are real human features like muscle, hair, body structure. While in the image of Horus it a God with both human and animal features. A falcons head and human body. However the body is very lean no real muscles can be seen. There is a greater focus on the divine being rather than its human features.

Humanism Blog Post

Humanism is perspective of which an era of time valued the body’s capabilities. Most prevalent in the Ancient Greek Art era, the various sculptures carved had defining features only found within Ancient Greece. The idea that Man’s most valuable properties was their body’s structure and abilities became the main common feature among the large stone sculptures recovered from the area.

Ancient Greek and Egyptian Art share and differ in various ways. Among both groups of statues, both share similar human qualities like body structure and some forms of poses. They also differ in the way the body structure was modelled. In Egyptian Art, human figures were often sculpted and picture in a sideways view with some third dimension properties. This portrayed the figures to have their left foot in front of their right forming this semi-stable but uncomfortable position. In Ancient Greek Sculptures, male figures were sculpted in a form that they counter-balanced their weight with their limbs in different positions. This portrayal signifies the idea that humanism was highly valued. The body language of the male sculptures developed the form described as Contrapposto.

Humanism in Greek art

Humanism is a concept that emphasizes “attaching prime importance to human(s) rather than divine or supernatural matters”, it is the study of human beings. In art, Humanism manifested through paying more attention to Human detail to make them look more human, through highlighting and detailing humanistic traits such as giving hair more detail- making it more realistic, making bodies more big and detailed (highlighting things such as stance, genitals, muscles etc). This was very important in the ancient times because it was a large switch from encompassing life and its meaning to supernatural and divine figures. Humanism presented more realism in the people’s lives. Humanism helped not only improve the quality of art and sculptures; however, it also helped show the evolution of art and how it was done before and how it developed.

 

Greek and Roman art, portray Gods as more human;

(Statue of Kouros)

whereas, Egyptian and Mesopotamian Gods are portrayed in a more dehumanized way having animal heads etc, however only because they were seen as divine and not as equivalent to humans, but superior. Egyptian art had more of a mystical feel to it rather than a realistic one.

(Painting of Anubis, a God with a jackal head)

Here is a juxtaposition of Greek and Egyptian art:

 (Marble statue of Kouros vs. King Menkaure and Queen statue)

Clearly the inclusion of Humanism was revolutionary because “it valued humanity in that it began to place human beings @ center of moral and social concerns and gave more valoration to things such as the human body”.

Blog #8: Humanism in Greek Art

Humanism is the system or movement of human beings. In terms of art, humanism shifts the focus in where man becomes the agent for change. It emphasizes the value and individuality of humans. In Greek and Roman art, humanism is very common as it is the main focus in majority of the pieces of art. In Egyptian and Mesopotamian art, they focus more on a higher power that is greater than mankind where as in Greek and Roman art, they focus more on the human itself.

On the left we have the Sumerian art of the Standing male worshipper and on the right we have the Greek art of the Kouros of Kroisos from Anavysos. In the Sumerian art piece, it represents a religious standpoint.  The figure is a sign or a symbol of a higher power. The figure is covered and has detailed lines below (almost like a dress or a robe). In Mesopotamia, nudity was a sign of humility which is why the figure below isn’t nude. The eyes in the male worshipper piece are wide and distinct and is one of the first things that draws your eyes. In the Greek art piece of the Kouros of Kroisos from Anavysos, the figure has more features of a human than of a higher power. It has one foot in front of the other and is completely nude. For Greek, nudity was a sign of culture and pride. The men and boys that were sculpted all appeared nude as it was a way to show strength and power. The eyes in the pieces aren’t as distinctive as the male worshipper.  In both art pieces, they have very intricate waves and beads/braids to represent the bread on the Standing male worshipper and the hair on both the Kouros of Kroisos from Anavysos and the male worshipper. Both pieces are also proportionate in symmetry and are stiff.

 

MD: Humanism

Humanism emphasizes an importance to human culture, our values, problems and needs rather than supernatural entities.  This was a philosophical breakthrough, because humans were the now center of attention, rather than God and Goddesses.  These supernatural beings were actually brought down to human actions, emotions and ideals, which is seen through the variety of Greek artwork.  Gods were able to have human like attributes. Additionally, Humanism focuses around the idea of thinking critically in terms of empiricism, the idea that human knowledge and thought derive from sensory experience.  The environment and interactions with sensory stimuli dictates what you think.

The Kouros figure was made to emulate a human. It stands on its own two feet, a human attainable action.  Even the other sculptures resembling body-builder highly muscular body types, resemble humanistic qualities.   The sculpture may have emulated this male physique because of their participation in the military, and  their love of sports  as well.  The artist  chose to show that they are physically fit, and “God like”, yet have human values and passions.  Additionally, nudity was a major factor in Greek humanism. They embraced nudity, which was a sign of Greek culture, showing that they are all equal, and allowing the focus to be on the individual rather than their status in society, unlike in Egyptian art.  In Egyptian art, the figures were boxed in creating a sense of separation and distance between humans and gods.  Additionally, they were clothed indicating their hierarchy, as nude figures were looked down upon in society.

Blog #8: Humanism in Greek Art and Roman Art

 In your own words define humanism. What is it? And how does the Art of Greece and Rome illustrate it when compared with Mesopotamian or Egyptian Art. Use an example of Greek or Roman art and compare/contrast it with an example of Mesopotamian or Egyptian Art.

Humanism is the interest in the human body and anything regarding Mankind. Humanism also strays away from religious beliefs and figures being at the center of the universe to now Mankind and their interest. While both Greek and Roman civilizations hold a strong bond with their Gods and mythology, through their art they continuously explore human anatomy and even incorporating humanism into the depiction of their Gods.

Despite the Greek civilization creating art during the same periods of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, both groups could not be any more different in terms of their subject and art style. While the Greeks experienced four periods of art, each one progressively more realistic and complex than last, they all focused on the human body and how it moves, the Egyptians maintained a consistent art style for the thousand years of their existence where only royalty and the Gods were the subjects and the Gods depiction were more detailed. For example, in the “Last Judgement of Hunefer,” the Egyptians depict the process a dead individual faces to join the afterlife and despite the piece focusing on Hunefer the piece attracts the viewer to intricate details given to the Gods and the way their depicted as more not simply a human but a hybrid of the best characteristics found in creatures roaming the earth. In the Greek pieces,  “Korus” and “Doryphoros”  both subjects are men and both pieces focus on the appearance of a  young, healthy,  and strong body. Both pieces from different periods, archaic and classical respectively, demonstrate not just progress in art styles but the progress of artist understanding how the body moves, and, mastering the portions of the human body to create a realistic depiction of mankind. In,    “Hermes and the Infant Dionysus”, the artist depicts the Gods as almost humanlike and the artist even creates a more realistic depiction of a human body than the last two pieces by perfecting the proportions of the body and carving a more slimmer and trim body that through the right amount of effort can be achievable.

In Conclusion, it is apparent that despite both civilization existing during the same time period and only separated by a relatively small body of water, their art is completely different. Their art is not only completely different because of non- existent change in styles In Egyptian art and the constant progress of Greek art, but they also differ in the way they approach art as Egyptians never cared to change because to them the style was already perfect enough to distinguish people, royalty, and Gods, and, the Greeks became more interested in analyzing the human body and its limitations which ultimately led to constant progress of the art. The element of humanism is ultimately the difference and because of it, art pieces gain much more depth as they are not a simple piece depicting an individual but a piece focusing mankind as a whole.

Related image

http://deity-divinity.blogspot.com/2006/07/judgement-of-hunefer-before-osiris.html

Image result for kouros greek sculpture period

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/253370

Image result for doryphoros

https://www.art.co.uk/products/p9634407729-sa-i5503170/doryphoros.htm

Image result for hermes and the infant dionysus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes_and_the_Infant_Dionysus

Blog Post #8: Humanism in Ancient Arts

In the times of the Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian, it was believed that everything on Earth should be based around God. Whatever you do in life, God should be your influence from what job you should have to what tree you should plant. As time passed by this ideology was tossed over for the idea of humanism. The idea that the world revolves around the man. No longer should your doings be based by gods but you decide what you do. This gave man more value and more independence from a higher power.

From the perspective of art, Mesopotamia’s human sculptures usually depicted an ordinary man with a normal physique. But due to the Greeks love of sports and athletes all of their human sculptures are men with god-like attributes, a nearly inhuman physique due to their humanism.

The gods of Mesopotamia were deities who were never compared to human and don’t live among humans. As well only priests were allowed to serve them directly and others would have to come to a place of gathering to ask things from them. Unlike the Mesopotamian, the Greeks saw gods as human-like featured creatures with extraordinary abilities. There are stories that these gods would assimilate with the humans even become animals, also they have human emotions and desires like every other human. Any Greek could pray to the gods from any place. Through the Greek’s adaption of humanism, they were able to focus on the world versus the deities they worshiped.

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.

Humanism in Greek and Roman Art

During Ancient Greece art work defines humanism as man being the center of the deities. Although worshiping gods was still an important aspect of human beliefs, the belief that man was at the center of everything that happened around them became more practiced. In contrast, during Mesopotamian art they believe that gods where the reason for everything that happened around them, therefore men would worship gods the majority if the time and they would respect their divine presence. In Ancient Greece gods would be respected only for limited people. Men thought that gods were the same as them because they were able to have sexual intercourse with them. In both periods of time it is illustrated how art differs from each other, one worshipping gods and the other focusing on the beauty of men.

In the image below we can see the “Standing Man Worshipper” sculpture where it represents the idea that man could not possibly be worshipping gods all the time. Therefore they decide to create sculptures like the one below so that it represents an everlasting prayer. This is an example of Mesopotamian art,

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In the image below we can see a muscular man, the  “The Discobolus of Myron” about to throw a disc across a big field, we could imagine. This is an example of Greek art where the work of art is more detail and naturalism is more present compared to the sculpture mentioned before. The life-like features such as toned muscles, long strong legs, and toned abdomen demonstrates that art focused on the beauty of men. The beauty of strong men who in this case play sports and the art work has captured a specific moment before he throws the disc. This specific work of art demonstrates that gods were no longer the center of their lives but man on their own had to be worshipped as well.

SN: Humanism

Humanism signifies the value of human beings, their needs, and potentials. The art in Greece and Rome illustrate humanism very differently from Mesopotamian or Egyptian art. For Greek/Roman art, humanism emphasizes human experiences in all complexity such as psychological and morally. Their emphasis on physical beauty and athleticism represents a military advantage. For Greek art, the gods take the shape of a human and show the beauties of a human. Humanism in Mesopotamian/Egyptian artwork is mainly found in sculptures and is more of a traditional work of art focused on glorifying gods/kings.

Man with a Helmet is an original Greek sculpture created around 440 BC. In this sculpture, you can see that the man is very fit and muscular and the helmet could be an indication towards involvement with military. The way he is standing, the weight of his body is on his right leg as his left leg is extended. It shows a humanistic figure in a natural position.

The King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and Queen sculpture is an Egyptian sculpture is less humanistic where the King and Queen are in a strict pose with a straight posture and a non-relaxed look. The Queen is holding the arm of the Kings’ with a one foot forward position and a serious face. They were designed to show their power unlike in the Man with a Helmet sculpture.