Midterm
Topic # 1
The Ancient Greek Culture
Historically,
the Greeks and he Egyptian share many characteristics in common. However the
ancient Greek culture created a big impact on the western civilization,
establishing its classical tradition by the development of its art and other
stuffs.
Egyptian culture was consider, one of the most
of the advanced culture of that time and today also. The great quality of its
art was real admired by other cultures. They didn’t created masters pieces because
at the time the term art didn’t exist for them. The Egyptian uses their art for
all purposes, as for example in religious and funerary, art played an import
role in the cult of the gods and the dead. The walls of the tombs of the
pharaohs were decorated with colorful paintings and reliefs of them and their families.
The Egyptians also expressed themselves and their culture in many artistic ways,
which can be seemed in their sculpture and painting. Egyptians were in a prosperous
age that they activities such as politics, periods of economic prosperity,
social, and religious values influence art, even more. But as any civilization,
the Egyptian civilization decline when the king Tutankhamen and the last
pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty ruled Egypt after the pharaoh Akhenaten, because
of the loss of the imperial power, competing dynasties, and various invasions
from part of other civilizations. Alexander the great conquered the Egyptian Empire,
and it becomes part of the Greek Empire. This creates many changes in Egypt and
their society. As the Greeks took control of them, they decided to take some
ideas of the Egyptian art to make it better and give some transformation to it.
The Egyptian art played an import role in the development of the Greek art and
its sculptures.
There are share several
characteristics in common with the Egyptian and Greek art, but there are also many
stronger differences in terms of styles and characteristics between them. One characteristic
that both civilizations have in common is the way that they have adorned the
early human civilizations with their sculptural and architectural art. They
also had knowledge of mathematic, medicine, economic and politic that they used
on art. But when we talk about art of both civilizations, existed more
differences than similarities in this case. For example, the Egyptian artists followed
some laws in their art especially in the creation of their statues. The Pharaohs
made them work with strict rules and regulations regarding art that they must
followed. On the other hand the Greek artists had more liberal expression
compared to the Egyptian art. They don’t follow strict stylist rules, if not;
they were encouraged to follow the style that suited them. Greek art gave more
importance to the mythology in the creation of their art work. They observed
the world and proceed according to what they saw. They depicted painting on the
pottery work to show their expertise and freedom, which the Egyptians rarely
performs in their art because of their rules. The figures were very large with
large heads and plump faces with no expression. There was no trace of emotion
in the faces. However, the Egyptian artists worked hard to get the objective
representation, which was the primary importance of their work of art. Egyptian
art may be lacked of emotion, but is often highly
realistic. On the other hand, the Greek art represented the reality rather than
objective truths. The Greek statues showed human expressions which give the
primary importance. The Greek artists brought out the true emotions of human
beings. The statues also exhibited the muscles and the organs of the human body
as well. The Egyptian artists only used nudity in statues of children and
servants, while the Greek artists used nudity more in male and female. In fact,
Greek artists exhibited their interest in the human form. In the Egyptian art,
the human form was not their primary interest. Egyptians were interest in the
religious nature like their gods. Another difference between the Greek and
Egyptian art is that the Greek art was laden with movement, while the Egyptian
art was lacked of movement. Sculptures and paintings done by the Greek artists
could catch movement as well, show some kind of action. The Egyptian artists
did not capture any action in the creation of their sculptures and paintings.
As you can see, there are many things in
difference between the two cultures, but this entire have to do with the
ideology that each one had. The ideology of the Egyptian art was inclined
towards religion. The early artists from Egypt believed that their kings were
divine beings that came from heaven. They portrayed the kings in a bid to honor
them. However,
there was not create an image of things as they appear in reality, but rather
they capture the essence of a person, animal, or object for eternity. Egyptians
focus most of the time to the life after death. Egyptians also are known for
their architecture, for the perfection of their pyramids in which they adored
to their gods and important people. In the other hand, The Greeks artists
created their art inclining more towards philosophy. Unlike Egyptian art, Greek
art examined the world as it was and explored the various concepts of life. The
Greek culture is noted for its government, art, architecture, philosophy, and
sport, all of which became foundations for modern western society. It was
admired and adopted by others, including Alexander the Great and the Romans,
who helped spread Greek culture around the world. Greeks are seen by many as
the one that bring the western traditions of art and ideas. The Greeks are known
for their sculptures, their temples, and their vase paintings. They art work shows what the Greek
civilization is made of. Nowadays, many of America's governmental buildings
have been designed with Classical Greek structures. But not only art and
architecture had been taken from the Greek culture. They also left a great
knowledge of government, economic and Mathematics that we use in today’s world.
In conclusion, the Ancient Greek art
culture had being an important civilization for the development of our society.
Since they took some of the ideas of the Egyptian art and make it better, to
the point of create more things that will help to the development of new civilizations.
The Greeks created another form of art giving to it some expression such as,
movement, emotion and realistic, making the Greek art remarkable and
unforgettable. Greek art develop the politic by the build sculptures in courts and
the government. It led to the development of a democracy society with a great
knowledge in philosophy, sports and all that is necessary for a modern society.
Nowadays, a great example of this is the United States that has a democratic
government with power and many advanced thing, which make it consider a modern
society.
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