My favorite art cultures of the quarter

The topics and sculptures that interested me the most this quarter was that of the Aegean period. This period included Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean cultures. The reason I found this period to be the most fascinating is the significance each culture had on art in its own ways. Many of these art pieces stood out to me because they made me stare at them and analyze them. They seemed very interested due to the colors that were on it.

The Cycladic culture was also often called the Early Bronze Age. This culture excelled in pottery. This culture was known to develop pottery and other interesting things such as jewelry. In this culture were used and offered as grace offerings. These sculptures were called Cycladic idols. The Minoan Culture was also known to create good pottery. Not only were they well known just about pottery they introduced new aspects to pottery like spiral designs, rectangular or circular shapes.

Cycladic art that really caught my eye is the statues. They were not realistic looking. The arms of the people would be crossed in front. Their heads were all sorts of shapes, ranging from triangle to square edges. The legs were varying in shape. But the pieces were a great attempt to resemble the human figure.

The Minoan culture was known as the Middle Bronze Age. A lot of the art during this period showed that there was influence from other cultures invading the area. For example, pottery that was of horses shows that Indo-European invaders had influence. The Minoan culture had significant art in that it resembled naturalistic aspects. They used bright colors and smooth lines. They also began to create three dimensional figures, which influenced Greek mainland art that was eventually modified by their geometry.

From the Minoan culture the piece I liked the best was the Bull Leaping located in the text. I found this piece to be particularly interesting because it is hard to tell the meaning so it gets you thinking and leaves room for imagination. The fresco shows someone leaping over a bull and two women on either side. I personally think that it is for some kind of show or a way to win over the women’s love. He could win over their love by showing off his bravery and skill.

The Mycenaean culture was thought to be the tail end of the Aegean period. The style of this culture incorporated aspects of hunting and battle scenes. This culture’s art showed advancement from the previous cultures (Cycladic and Minoan). Advancements included geometric features and ideas.

The Mycenaean terracotta that I have added below is my favorite of this culture. This piece shows a battle scene of warriors riding in a chariot. It seems as though they are going off to battle and departing from their homelands. This piece does not display bright colors or anything but it is appealing through its drawings in scripted on the outer edges.

Stylized Art

 This week’s topic choice was to pick two pieces from the chapter and discuss how they are branching off from naturalistic to more of a stylized picture. I chose to talk about the piece about Christ washing his disciple’s feet from page 451 and the virgin and child with saints and angels on page 245. Both of these pieces involve more stylized artistic elements versus naturalistic.

First of all, naturalistic art is that of a realistic picture. This includes the aspect of innocence and honesty in people in a realistic place. Whereas, stylized art is more manipulation to the natural look and elements of people and the environment.

 The first piece that caught my eye is of Christ washing his disciple’s feet. This particular art piece is very interesting to me. The reason why it is very interesting is because the colors stand out a lot and it has to do with religion which I am very interested in. The color that I see a lot is gold which means this piece is valuable. This is more of a relaxed art piece because it has a religious belief and there is soothing colors around the main character of the art piece. On the left side of the art piece it looks like there are people in need of help with their lives. It looks like the people on the left side are giving them advice, bread, and water. The main character looks sacred and holy due to the people staring and hoping to meet him/her next. The people are not wearing shoes and it looks like the main character is also providing water to clean them out.

In the art piece of the Virgin the child and angels and saints, there are five people in it. The three characters look like the main ones due to them having the halos on their head. At first when you notice the art piece we think that the main character in the middle is standing while holding the baby. Then we see that she is actually sitting down due to looking at the gold looking chair on the back. This shows a stylized characteristic because the people sitting in the front are not painted shorter than the people standing behind them. The baby does not look as realistic as the rest of the other characters, due to the small head. The two other characters look very interested in something on the roof or they are just doing that for the painter. All the hair on these characters are very different. At first I thought these characters were somehow related but I think they are not by the texture of their face and their hair.

I personally liked both of these pieces, hence why I chose them. At first glance, the piece of Christ washing his disciples feet stood out to me because it has a lot to reveal and ponder on. And the Virgin and child piece is so simple that it makes you try and imagine possibilities of what it could be trying to reveal. 

Comparison of Commodus of Hercules and the portraits of Caracalla

The two emperors Commodus and Caracalla portray themselves as strong, powerful, and vain in the pieces Commodus as Hercules and the portraits of Caracalla.

According to the text book Commodus was all about the luxury in life. He had the perception that he is the reincarnation of Hercules, which this fact alone shows his vanity. With his obsession of luxury items he sponsored many artists, and had them create a sculpture of him as Hercules.

Commodus was killed by his associates in his own bath tub, and I am guessing it is because they were fed up with him being so into himself and thinking so highly of himself.

Comparing both the Commodus as Hercules and the Caracalla portrait we can see that they both have facial hair displaying maturity and wisdom with age. They both show an expression of knowing they have control over the people and power to keep the empire safe from invasions. Both of the pieces eyes are very detailed as if that is the focal point of the sculpture, showing their emotion. The emperor Caracalla eyes show anger and capability of hurting enemies to ensure his peoples security. Commodus as Hercules eyes look focused and determined as if he is thinking what his next move is going to be.

The message they are trying to get across is that men as rulers play a large role during this era because they play the leadership role of the empire. I believe this point of power gets across to the viewer because it is clearly sculpted into the pieces with strong depictions of emotion.

            Personally I think that the pieces do convey the message of strength and power because when I first viewed them I immediately thought they were sculptures of rulers and important people. I think the sculptor did a good job in capturing their vanity and belief of being all powerful. 

Controversy over the Parthenon Marbles

           I chose to write about the Parthenon marbles this week because it seems to be a hot topic of controversy among the art world. From what I understand the marbles originally were created in what is now known as Greece. Greece was first under the control of the Ottoman Empire. A man named Eglin was a ruler of the Ottoman Empire when the marbles were taken from Greece. Eglin had a strong passion and fixation with classical pieces. Eglin began “missions” to uncover and track down pieces from all over. This is how Eglin landed up with the Parthenon Marbles.

            After watching the video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGitmYl6U90) you can see that Eglin’s people during their missions took statues and things by lowering them with crane like tools, while doing this some pieces were dropped and crumbled to ruins.

            Eglin soon got his share of karma for all of these missions of taking classical pieces that are not essentially his, just his desire. Eglin caught a disease which landed him losing part of his nose. His wife also left him, probably because his attention was so preoccupied with gathering these classical pieces. She left him for his best friend and the divorce caused him to fall into even more debt. In order to dig himself out of a hole of debt, Eglin sold his marbles to the British government for a price equaling $4 million dollars today.

            In my opinion since the historical setting of the Parthenon marbles is in Greece they should be displayed there in one of their museums. One of the British arguments is that Greece does not have a good enough museum to display them in, and now that they have the idea or built the new museum it seems fitting that the Parthenon marbles make their way back. One proposal I have for the British to agree to send them to Greece would be to have a cut of any income of admissions from the museum in Greece hosting the marbles. I also propose that with the display of the marbles in the museum in Greece, they should clearly state that the marbles are British property in the description of the history of the piece. Over time I think that the British government would be thankful with this move because it settles the dispute of them having the marbles and they earn money on top of not having the controversy anymore.

            Recently, a Greek minister met with a director of the British museum for the first time over the controversial issue dealing with the marbles. The Greek government has gone out of their way to assure the British government and British museum that their intentions do not lie in owning the marbles just in the location of the marbles.