HW #2

Looking at the artwork of a specific civilization can tell us alot about the culture and values of that civilization.
For example Egyptian art, contains Animism, they valued the natural world. Many of their gods were modeled after animals, such as the Egyptian god Horus, modeled after a Falcon. While Greek art, focused on prefect scale and proportion. They regarded mankind as the highest creation of nature.

Let us look at this example of Egyptian art.

This colossal sphinx stands 5 feet tall, 11 feet in length, and weights 14900 lb. This sheer scale of the sphinx projects a figure of power. This sculpture portrays the female pharaoh Hatshepsut with the body of a lion and a human head wearing a head cloth and royal beard. Here we can see some of the animism in Egyptian art, the powerful muscles of the lion as contrasted to the handsome, idealized face of the pharaoh.

Compare it to this example of Greek Art

This sculpture stand 5 feet tall and represents the Greek goddess Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, beauty and sexual rapture. Originally, her arms reached forward to shield her breasts and pubis in a gesture that both concealed and accentuated her sexuality. Here we see the prefect scale and proportion in Greek Art.