Intro Egyptian Greek

Symbolism is an important quality of Ancient Egyptian styles of art. They often depict their gods as anthropomorphic, using animals to symbolize certain qualities such as strength and wisdom. Another well-known style of Egyptian art is their body shape. In sculptures and drawings, they are almost always standing up in a frontal position with their left foot forward, and are more geometric in shape. This symbolizes strength and structure and is often seen in sculptures/drawings depicting royalty. Egyptian art is also easily recognizable by their headdresses and clothing. They were also famous for carving images into stone.

Here is an example of Ancient Egyptian artwork. This piece is called the Sphinx of Hatshepsut from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This work is clearly Egyptian because of the headdress and royal beard she is wearing, the geometric shape of the body, and the body of the lion symbolizing Hatshepsut’s power.








            Greek style of art is very different than Egyptian. They believed that the human body was the ideal form of beauty. They knew more about human anatomy and because of that their sculptures were more realistic and “alive” than the Egyptian sculptures were. Whereas Egyptian sculptures were stiff and squared in body shape, Greek sculptures were more natural in their poses, showing muscles and other body parts in great detail.
          
Here is an example of an Ancient Greek sculpture. This piece is called the Bronze statuette of Aphrodite from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s easy to tell this is a Greek piece because of the realistic pose of the body and the curves of the woman are typical of Grecian work.













            Roman style of art is a bit similar to Greek but different in the sense that Romans didn’t idealize the human body like the Greeks did. Roman art is more realistic. Their artwork shows individuality, unlike Greek art where all of the gods and goddesses had the same idealized features. Roman art shows things like old age, imperfections and personal characteristics.
    



Here is an example of Ancient Roman art. It is a marble bust of a man from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Roman artists emphasized the wrinkles on this man’s face to give this piece individuality and make it more realistic.

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