Week 11

I had the most fun studying the Egyptian art in how they created and used pyramids not only for art but other means as well to show their perfectness compared to other countries/people’s way of building structures. It was quite nice to understand how art was made in those times to what Egyptians had available to them.

I was drawn mainly by the fact that they are Egyptians. Out of all the countries in the Middle East area, around the Mediterranean Sea, I have been most curious about Egypt for what its based upon and the nice art they have posted up in various places not only on walls but how buildings were made and all that jazz.

Being intrigued would be about how they had the sphinx and all that jazz. Another thing that got to me would be stuff like the Funerary Mask of Tutankhamun, or other pieces of art that are similar to that. Pyramids I had already received on how they are and what/why they were formed/built. Nonetheless it was how they got the design to make these flat yet 3-D like forms with not a whole lot of expression in them. Their method of expression was in the format or environment in which they were posted on. Like for example, the Palette of Narmer in which there was absolutely if not a little expression in their faces but you’d know what was happening and the expression upon their face when he was going to smack that dude with a hammer to put a nail through his head. Another thing to put in this would be in how they did coffins for important people and what they did with their body. The design on them being for example the Inner Coffin of Tutankhamun’s Sarcophagus was of laid out gold and how they indicated various things upon it. The arms were put among the chest while wings would be put upon it starting from their wrists to indicate that they would be flying away to a different world perhaps. Another would be in how they put out their love upon the leg or it could be their worshipers saying that they will forever honor him and all his worth. Then there is the whips in both hands indicating that he has power and he meant to make his country/area powerful in how they did things, no lazy or bad people or else they would be tortured/killed. The last one to point out would be hieroglyphs on the side of the coffin pointing out various things, I couldn’t say what they are but if I was to guess it’d be in how he was wonderful in all he did and how they will miss him or something like that. In other words it’d be stating his glory and its worth. All in all Egyptians had a unique way of doing art and out of everything it was always how they made the faces so emotionless though there was always something that’d give a big expression, or at least I would be scared or happy in the moment.

ART235 WEEK 8 POST

            I am going to answer to the first option you had given us for this post

            These two portraits are very interesting in how they wanted to relay their messages they seemed to try to give their people. First off my more favorite one of the two is Bust of Commodus as Hercules (BC) because it had a very peaceful message to it though it was initially a little intimidating. The intimidation was probably to show his enemies that he was not going to fool around with them and that his rule was nice and good but still a little stiff to get what he wanted for his people. If one were to look more into detail on this picture it is shown that it seems he is handing his people apples in his left arm to show kindness and that he doesn’t just care about power but toward his people to flourish and grow. I translated what seems to be a lion or beast’s mouth/face on the top of his head as a hood to be a sign of strength that he had killed it so he had the power to rule over his people. If one is to translate it though it had to be looked into details, as it is not easily interpreted right off the bat.

            The next portrait being the Head of Caracalla (HC) was quite the face to look upon. This portrait/sculpture was very aggressive if not serious as well. It doesn’t look like there was any room for kindness toward whoever was looking upon it as the eyebrows were very much tilted downward toward his nose to show his feeling. Obviously it was a portrait to show a lot of power and scare the pants off his enemies as the enormous detail put into how the wrinkles were positioned across the face along with how the hair was designed as well. If I had to make a guess this was more toward his enemies but one idea I had gotten would be to point toward immigrants that he has no room for play and that his place is serious for no foul play. Unlike BC this one is very easily understood.

            Comparing the two together it seems that their way of showing their messages are quite different. A good similarity between the two though is to show their people that they mean business. They both used the same material to put together their piece and gave quite a bit of detail into the hair but HC wins the battle in the detail into the face as it had quite a bit more expression and wrinkles to explain it. Though BC wins the battle with more to show it is obvious that HC had originally had a body or so it would seem since it seems that it had been knocked off a statue and though that had been destroyed the head survived to be shown today