Tag: Humanism

Humanism

Humanism is defined as a philosophy based on the importance and dignity of each human. Humanism started in Italy, due to their innovative way of life; the increase of trade stemmed new ideas. People who practice Humanism are called humanists. Humanists essentially believe that humans have control over their lives and have the ability to question everything around them. Humanists usually study classical art, government, architecture, language, history and poetry. Humanism in art refers to the change a person could bring to art. In Greek and Roman art, the primary focus is man, while in Egyptian and Mesopotamian art articulates around the art of a higher power.

This Greek sculpture of Discobolus depicts an image of a man. Compared to Ancient Egyptian art, this image compares to an image of a human being while Egyptian art makes little resemblance to a actual human. Also the techniques of the sculpture differ from Ancient Egyptian sculptures since they are from different time periods the different techniques display different images. This Greek art shows a masculine warrior, which most Greek sculptures portray. This sculpture illustrates an image of a strong and powerful man, the way the sculpture is presented shows the slight feminine touch of the sculpture.

Humanism

Well, humanism is basically presenting human characteristics upon artwork or sculptures. The modern day answer or definition for humanism is supposedly the belief of humans should be showing respect towards other humans because they’re human or basically respect towards humanity. There are many sculptures that create a aspect of humanism that captures the structure of humans and their anatomy. The Greeks and Romans created sculptures that captured humanism while also capture the well-defined features of a human with detail. Their sculptures emphasized more depth towards anatomy and sports of hunting and such. Ancient Egyptians showed some artwork expressing human characteristics on deities. Some of the deities had heads of animals while some would just have human characters overall.

Humanism

Humanism define reflects the ideas of people by sculpting of human figures. During a time of change from the focus from gods like deities to the more tangible body structure of the human body. The Greek and Romans ideology of the person and the idea that piece was to convey. compared to the Mesopotamian & Egyptian art.

Mesopotamian traders Lovely Sculpture

Mesopotamian sculpture shows a mythical creature with the body of a bull/lion, bird wings and a human. This was mainly a piece that shows a sort of divine protection for royalty and a ode to their gods.  Mainly putting this piece art at entrances to “protect” an estate.

Anubis was the god of embalming and the dead. Since jackals were often seen in cemeteries,  Egyptians believed that Anubis watched over the dead thus this representation of a godlike being that watch over them. even retaining a human body the jackal head shows more of  mythical being the people should fear compared to how jackals are hunters.

Greek and Romans art was most human like. They celebrated the human body and sports that resonated with their ideology during a period of time. Though the sculptures would slowly become more of a personal human idea they still had their gods and a representation of a more perfect body sculpted in marble/bronze and colored , which I can make a connection to the Egyptian pharaoh sculptures. the roman and the Greek being able to use bronze to cast these statues where better suited for these extreme poses and more “advance to be able to make these.

 

Humanism in Greek and Roman Art

Humanism in art is the era in which the main focus of art shifted from deities to humans. Unlike Mesopotamian and Egyptian art, which focused more on gods and served to honor/respect them, Greek and Roman art was focused more on humans and more importantly how humans are at the center of moral and social concerns. Humanism isn’t just about the shift from of focus from deities to humans but it is also about humans trying to understand the world around them, trying to find explanations as to why events such as natural disasters occur. An example of Humanism can be seen when comparing Mesopotamian and Egyptian art to Greek and Roman art such as comparing the Standing Male Worshiper from Mesopotamia to Polykleitos, Doryphoros  from Rome. Although they are both statues that represent humans they are completely different.

The Standing Male Worshiper is a Mesopotamian statue made to honor a deity, its is used as a stand in for someone who when they are unable to pray to the deity. Since it was used only for worshiping deities there was no detail that can really be seen in the physical sculpture, the only detail that can be seen is the stylistic waves of the beard, the abnormally large eyes and nose with its small mouth and the basic detailing at the bottom of its robe. Unlike the Mesopotamian statue, the Roman statue was used to honor and represent the ideal male. Since Polykleitos, Doryphoros focuses more on humans it has a lot of more detailing on the human body. The hair is less stylistic and more natrualistic, the facial features are not only proportional to each other but also to the entire body of the sculpture, these features also seem to express some form of emotion, something that could not be seen in Mesopotamian art. Unlike in Mesopotamian art, Roman art is used to honor humans which is why most Roman art works are of nude men, it allows the artist to add detail to the actually body of the person such as giving them abs and defined muscle mass. Another major difference is the stance or each figure. most Mesopotamian works or art are of people standing completely straight without any sense of motion in their body which is completely different in Roman art in which there seems to be motion in all their artworks such as  Polykleitos, Doryphoros in which the man is leaning on his right leg instead of standing straight up.

Humanism

Humanism is a system of thought attaching importance to humans rather than divine or supernatural matters. It stresses the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasizing common human needs. Art of Greece and Rome. This is depicted in the behavior and personality of the Greek gods. The Greek gods, felt jealousy, anger, happiness, among other human emotions. This is different from many modern day religions in which the highest figure must be one dripped in perfection, non-human like in many ways. It allowed for believers to better resonate with the gods.

The art of Greece and Rome were more realistic and a better representation of an actual human. They made their works of art to show human rawness by incorporating facial expressions, body movement (or body in motion), and fine detail. Kroisos from Anavysos which was simply a human statue of a man. However, the detail included in the sculpture employs the elements of humanism. There was less focus on any divine or religious connection, and more emphasis on human features. Body parts such as fingers, toes, and muscles, as well as posture and expression all showed that this was an actual person who was most likely modeling for the artist. Nonetheless, humanism in this sculpture shows the difference in societal ideals the Greeks and Roman’s had in comparison to the Egyptians and Mesopotamians.

In comparison, Mesopotamian or Egyptian views art nude depictions of individuals as a taboo. Being nude was frowned upon and often used as a form of embarrassment. The ancient Egyptian statues often lacked movement, stood straight, and featured animal figures, usually the head, on the human body. Being part animal demonstrated that they were seen as divine and as superior to humans. An example of this would be Anubis, which has the head of a jackal and the body of a man and is the god of the dead. Anubis was the god of embalming and the dead. Since jackals were often seen in cemeteries, the ancient Egyptians believed that Anubis watched over the dead

Humanism and Art

The study of humanism is to understand the quality of human life. It’s a system of thought used constantly throughout the artistic culture where its main focus is on humans and their values, capacities, and worth. Humanism can be used in literature, art, and even in civilization, however, the Greek and Romans have made this concept their central focus in art and in life. In the Greek and Roman culture, when it comes to art, may it be the being of a man or woman, the focus is shifted upon the anatomy and pure physicality of that being. Individuality is clearly expressed through each line drawn of chiseled within, as well as, uniqueness. Both, the artist’s individuality is expressed along with the artist’s subject. In comparison, Mesopotamia and Egyptian art focus on the power of the deities, ancient civilization, and God-like representations. The Greek and Romans attention was highly diverted towards the physicality of the human individual.

From Mesopotamia and Egyptian art, comes The Standard of Ur. This is a small trapezoidal box with two sides. Each side is covered with figurative representations and mosaics of ancient life. When looked upon closely, there are three levels that represent life differently. The most lower level portrays the subjects as slaves working for their master, delivering something like a gift for their god. The upper level of The Standard of Ur shows a being larger than the rest of the subjects who breaks the barrier of the upper border. In Egyptian society, a God is commonly represented in art as the largest being visible, which is explains the unusually large figure in this art piece.  This God is presented as the almighty being, while all his subjects are kneeling and sitting before him.

Image result for the standard of ur

Although the tablet allows current society to take a quick look into past civilization and its views on culture, the Greek and Romans had a different belief of what art should depict. They thought that art should be more human-based rather than God-like to express the reality of being human. An example of this would be the statue of Kouros. This is an ancient sculpture representing the nude male youth in an upright stature. In Greek, the name Kouros even means ” youth, boy, especially of noble rank.”  The Kouros statue shows a nude male standing straight on both feet, one foot forward, and one foot backward. Anatomically when standing this way, it is quite uncomfortable, however, this was how the ideal male youth was depicted. It is also portrayed as nude because, in the Greek culture, nudity was deemed as prideful and as showing a sense of unimaginable strength. As noticed before, Kouros is standing up straight, but also has a very stiff and rigid stance to him.

This was believed to be the way of humanism in Greek and Roman culture as opposed to Egyptian culture that pertains to a constant higher power or worshiping.

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 & Roman Art

Humanism is used in Greek & Roman art and it glorifies man by emphasizing the body of a human. Humanism in different art sculptures tends to evolve as it puts more detailing on the body structures and face. Egyptian & Mesopotamian art focused more on deities & gods to honor them & put them at the center. On the other hand, Greek & Roman art focuses on humans and how they’re the the center of events. They put more of a focus on humans rather than gods and goddesses. In Greek & Roman art, they emphasize the body of man by making them have certain poses and different face expressions. In one of the best known Greek sculptures known as Doryphoros by Polykleitos (image on the right), the focus is shifted from gods to humans. This art piece depicts a built, muscular man standing in a confident pose in nudity. He is standing while being nude to depict equality & to represent that the physical structure of humans were the same regardless of their social hierarchy. The artwork below (image on the left) is a depiction of Anubis, who was the Egyptian god. In Mesopotamian & Egyptian art, gods were the focus in the art pieces showing superiority over human beings.  This is seen in the artwork below because Anubis is not portrayed as a human being. His head is instead, the figure has the body of a human but the head of an animal, a jackal. This shows that the gods were special because they were portrayed in a different kind of appearance compared to humans and were the focus in Mesopotamian & Egyptian art.