Art of the ancient world is an expression of the different cultures. The way the statues and art are made differ depending on what the culture deems important. For example, Mesopotamian and Egyptian art focus on Gds and Deities. While Greek culture is entirely different their art focused on Humanism. The idea that humans play an important role in society. This Humanistic belief is carried on to Roman culture with slight differences in the nuances.

Mesopotamian and Egyptian art are both very expressionless and their figures are formed in a way that makes them seem aloof. They lack the curvature of a natural body and their figures lack movement. Formal frontality is used to describe the forward facing stance of most Egyptian sculptures. Most sculptures were used for ritual purposes often their hands are clasped and eyes wide which represents their attentive attributes towards the Gds. Ready to listen, pray, and perform for their Gds, all for the purpose of an afterlife. You can see in the image of King Menkaura his and Queen that although they have one forward in a sort of motion the rigid positions they are in lacking

the feeling that they are realistic.

The art coming from Greek culture takes a completely different turn from what we know Ancient art to be from the Egyptians. They introduced the idea of Humanism, Where people were not a nuisance to the Gds as previously believed rather an important and vital role. The Greek period is divided into four stages; Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic. The Geometric and Archaic art more similar to the Egyptians as depicted in the sculpture of the Kouros. They imitated their marble carving technique and the sculpture stance is similar to what we already know. The Classical and Hellenistic period is where Greek art gets most of its fame. Their sculptures represent an authentic version of the human body. Trying to imitate and even idealize what humans are meant to look like. Their fame for little or no clothing and the Olympics further show their appreciation for humans. Even their Gds have human 

characteristics, unlike Egyptians. As seen in the Bronze sculpture which is believed to be the Greek Gd Zuess (missing his lighting bolt) looks to have a completely human with unrealistic and idealized features. The Greeks were also famous for introducing contrapposto pose that many sculptures have which shows philosophical thinking and are meant to make the sculptures come to life.

The Romans continued this Hellenistic belief and their sculptures furthered this idea by making them even more Naturalistic. The sculpture of Augustus the first Emporer of Rome has many fine details including the Gds portrayed on

his armor. Although he was meant to be a fierce warrior his muscular build doesn’t stick out as unnatural rather a more relatable strength. A common representation of Roman art is Portraiture. It shows the fleshy naturalistic style the which was most common in their culture. They often used Portraiture for ancestry worship and had large funerary processions displaying ancestors.

 

Both Greek and Roman art have similarities in the way that they both usually make art that represents their leaders such as sculptures. They both also have many different monuments that honor history that have been made after a significant event.

Something that differentiates Greek and Roman art a lot is that Roman artists did not strive to create perfect representations of human forms. They created sculptures of emperors exaggerating their art to show power of the emperors however something that Romans did was they put into consideration all of the flaws that the rulers had whether it had been saggy skin, skinny, or modest build.  The Greeks also made their rulers look very powerful and made them look great however, they made the rulers look perfect like they gave them clear skin a good lean build made them tall and they were also symmetrical.  I thought that this Separated them the most  because it showed how the Greeks wanted people to look back on them like they were this great genetically perfect species that were powerful and perfect. The Romans wanted people to look back and see exactly what their rulers look like and they wanted people to remember more than anything. This is why roman art felt more genuine when looking at Greek art it makes you say yeah right and you doubt the authenticity of the people that are in the piece of art.

Something that they both have in common is that aesthetic aside they both want to make their rulers look powerful they like to make their rulers the center of attention. Something that looks as if similar is the material that was used to create these sculptures they both look as if they used limestone or marble in order to craft their monuments. Both of these places thrived around the same time period so a lot of their work looks similar and can be mistaken to be from either side.

Both of these look as if they take influence from each other after doing a bit of research Roman art was considered “copied” from the Greeks and that is why it is valued as less than the Greek pieces.  I also discovered that both the Greeks and the Romans like to depict the gods although they go by different names in each culture such as Neptune and Poseidon.

Something that these culture have also shown is that they are both very fierce and they are not afraid to show violence in their works and depict how merciless they were in war and how they kill the prisoners in war. Both of these places loved to show how powerful they were and flaunted their power in their works of art they wanted to seem powerful so they would both dishonor the other works of art from other countries by defacing them and making their own pieces of art over them they might even change the face of the pieces of work into the faces of their emperors. Often they would make the most powerful people the biggest in works of art and they would emphasize this so that people can assume the most important people.