week #5

For this week’s assignment I decided to choose option one in picking a piece of art from the Mycenaean culture called the Gold Death Mask. This mask was found in 1874 by a man named Heinrich Schliemann who completed a complete excavation of the Greek sites. While completing his excavation of the Ancient Mycenaean ruins a dead man was found under a Gold Death Mask. Schliemann claimed from this sight he had seen the face of Armageddon.

The Gold Death Mask dated back to 1550 BCE is an amazing piece of art that shows the ability to mend and change the shape of solid materials. Made out of solid gold the ten inch mask remarkably shows how technology didn’t stand in the way of making something so precise and evenly distributed at such an ancient time period. A man’s face appears beaten out with a hammer in this piece of gold. The face doesn’t resemble the shape of a face we see in the present time. The roundness is more of a circle then an oval as most people’s today are. This brings to question on what people of the past may have looked like. Although the shape is not there, there are other implements showing the same features as present humans such as the placement and size of eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and facial hair.

When looking at the differences between this piece of art from Mycenaean culture against that of Early Medieval European art, specifically the Jewelry of Queen Arnegunde, we see little similarities. The Queens Jewelry is also made of gold and ranging in the same size, but because of the time period the Jewelry was made the technology allowed for a more perfect size ratio and quality of work. The newer technology did tremendous things for the Europeans in creating works of art that were more intricate and fancy.

From all of this we can see that it really is time that matters in most art when talking about sculptures because of the technology advances. But in the same matter the differences in the works of art are what make them magnificent and why we are discussing them. Each piece of art is spectacular in its own way and usually reflects on the maker.

week 4

Over the history of the earth, many artistic artifacts have outlasted the test of time and still stand today showing us the talent and lifestyle of humans in different time periods. Two pieces that were both monumental and have historically remained some of the greatest art creations of all time are the pyramids at Gizeh and the ziggurats of the ancient Near East. Both buildings, if you will, display enormous size, mathematical geometry, and impeccable engineering.  

Being the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world says it all just in the title for the pyramids at Gizeh. Created by the Egyptians around 2560 BC, the pyramid took about 20 years to be completed while the latest Mesopotamian ziggurats date from the 6th century BC. While both these structures are built in a specific way and for a purpose, religious and sacred burial, they are more than just a structure to appease the Egyptian gods or a temple to worship in, but they are pieces of art greater than that of any other structures of their time.

The pyramid of Gizeh is one of the longest lasting buildings made on this earth. At a staggering 480.6 feet, the 2.3 million limestone blocks used for the structure in all weighs close to 6 million tones. The slaves forced to build the structure worked day and night for 20 years to complete this masterpiece. The Ziggurats on the other hand were made from bricks using two different techniques; one was the process that produced the internal layer for the structure, sun baked bricks, the other used for the outside layer, fired bricks. Although being build in a similar pyramid shape as the Gizeh, the material used the Ziggurats have not maintained as well the shape and structure as it may have if it were build out of limestone such as the pyramids.

These two structures were built for the practice of similar yet different reasons. The pyramid of Gizeh was created as a temple for the fourth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh, Khufu. With many rooms and tunnels leading throughout this pyramid the main room and also reason for this pyramid was a burial site for Khufu, in which many treasures such as rooms full of gold and jewels were stowed away as an offering to the gods to allow Khufu into what the Egyptians called the afterlife. On the other hand the Ziggurats were also building for a religious purpose, but one different than that of the Gizeh. The Ziggurat similarly shared the pyramid shape with the exception of layers creating platforms of which people could stand on. The priests used these platforms to hide upon when flood waters would come rushing at the temple and flooding them. At the top of the Ziggurats was placed a shrine, none of which have survived, but the shrine was used as the center of worship therefore it was placed at the top center of the structure.

Both of these structures were built with the intention of religious efforts. One reason why they may have been built in the same basic pyramid shape could be there way of getting closer to god or their gods, or it could at the same time be just a coincidence. We will never know. But we do know the beauty in the structures that were build and can see them ourselves today.  

picture for week 3

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/40.156

week 3

In the ancient Mesopotamian age many gods were worshiped, both spiritual as well as physical gods. In the early Dynastic period Sumerian style of art was obtained and used in many sculptures as seen in the figure of the Standing Male Worshiper, 2750-2600 BC. The obscured proportion and basic but at the same time complex detail brings out certain portions of the figure to capture the eye of the viewer.

Considered two of the most powerful gods of Mesopotamian during the third millennium BC, raging storm, and wild bull, were both seen as top of the gods as you can tell by the names. A reason why the sculpture is so wide eyed and in aw is because of the power given off by those gods, the aw of the people is one of the strongest attributes of this Standing Male Worshiper as well as many other.

                When looking at this piece of work many things come to mind right off the back even before learning about the culture or time period of the piece. The composition of the sculpture shows a very week man in his body language and the humbleness of his stance, standing in awe of what he is seeing or worshiping. Being sculpted in the round gives this sculpture a little bit more of a story; it can be placed on any surface big enough to support him giving the potential to be surrounded by other figures to create that story. The use of limestone to create this figure is very common because of the area it was created in, a land surrounded by limestone. Color in the sculpture is very limited because of the medium used; limestone is very mono-colored, other then what seems to be black paint on the face of the male statue. One distinction that changes color to the eye of the viewer is the facial hair on the man because of the shadows created in all the ridges and lines. This portion of the figure is what is most capturing to the eye of the viewer because of the complex detail. With the figure being only about 11 inches in height and still having that amount of detail is pretty amazing to see it not only gives more color to the figure but also adds texture, rather than having just this smooth limestone figure. When taking a second look at the sculpture you can see how proportionally this figure looks a little funny. This was a common artistic style of the time period and among the Sumerian style of art. The arms looking somewhat flat for a 3 dimensional figure troughs off that proportion, as well as the length of the torso and upper body which is shortened and thin, leaving the lower body feeling elongated and abnormally large. One part of the figures proportion that does seem to work is the hugeness of the eyes. This is made to show what the figure is doing, worshiping and in awe of what he is seeing. So the hugeness of the eyes is necessary to have.