Online Homework #1: HarmonIntroEgyptianGreek

     After watching the video, I learned many new and interesting things between Egyptian and Roman and Greek art. It was fascinating to know that withing each era, there were many types of symbols that connected with each culture and even though the time frame of Egyptian and Roman and Greek art are so part apart, there, lies many similarities and differences between them.
     Let's start off with the differences between the three. All types of arts are beautiful but it's qualities is what makes them stand out from one another. Egyptian art could be easily identified with their hieroglyphics, animal symbols such as the Bastet (cat), falcons, cobra, jackals, hippos, etc., and the positioning of the figures. Hieroglyphics is a writing system that the Egyptian people followed and on many their arts, there would be hieroglyphics to tell out a story. Each animal that is sculpted in Egyptian art means something. For ex., the Bastet symbolizes divine powers (protector, fertility) and the cobra symbolizes protection and royalty. As it can be seen on the bottom left picture, there's a cobra on the head dress of this ruler. One quality that I see differently between all three types of arts is the positioning of the figures. Egyptian figures are usually stiff looking; show no body movement, they are wearing clothing and they usually have their left foot forward. The reason why these figures looked so stiff and had their left foot forward was to show qualities of strength and geometric clarity. Greek and Roman art had their it's own types of qualities that made them shine. Their arts could also be easily identified, or contrasted apart easily from Egyptian art. For one, the way the figures are built are much more different than the Egyptians. The way the body is formed to show movement is done very well. Facial expressions allow outsiders to capture the story, the moment of what was happening at that time period. Most Greek and Roman art figures expose nudity and last but not least, the size of these figures can go up to 5 ft or higher. As it can be seen on the first picture below on the left, this piece of art shows much movement and facial expression between this male and female. After reading an abstract about this piece of art, the story behind this is that this woman is trying to give a poisonous drink to this man. With the second picture right below it, nudity is shown as well as more movements. Nudity for females, it to represent divine and for males, instead of taking it as a humiliating way, men took nudity as a sign of moral virtue among the social elite. Most Greek and Roman pieces of arts like the center one usually have many figures to show an event that has taken place or to represent the most highly known peoples of an era. The one information that could taken out of Roman and Greek art is that their art "reflects practical nature."

   










     Now for the similarities. Some similarities that I spotted between Egyptian and Roman and Greek art are that headdresses are worn. High rulers in Egypt wore them and soldiers in Rome and Greek wore them when going to war. Another similarity that I found was that art figures from both ends would sometimes be holding objects in their hands. These objects could either be a spear or an apple or books, but the objects they hold symbolize something. Both sides also had a vase of their own, but they had different jobs. The Egyptian jar on the top left was used for ointment while the jar on the bottom left, a Roman and Greek piece of art, was used for drinking at a symposium. The last similarity I found between both types of arts is that they both consider high-relief art.