Reply To: Humanism

[Kaylyn Kelly]

In the Egyptian period, religious pieces such as the gods and goddesses were not symbolized by human figures. They were usually in the form of half human half animal. Unlike Egyptian art, Greek art was centered on the concept of humanism. The gods were not the center of attention anymore. They were considered to be just like humans and could even be seen as not needed anymore if they were just like us. The Greeks put the human body first and believed that our bodies were “godly’ because humans looked just like gods. In Ancient Greece, they formed their gods into human form. The Classical period and the Hellenistic period are the most significant times of the Greek culture in my eyes. It is when Greek individuals began to sculpt the human body, perfecting it, and making it look almost flawless. I believe that the Greeks had a mindset for their art, “If the gods look like us, then we look like the gods; thus, our bodies are godly’ which gave sculptures the drive to pay attention to every detail. The poses of the Greek sculptures were becoming more naturalistic, for example, Charioteer of Delphi. The technical skills of Greek sculptors depicting the human form in a variety of poses also increased such as Aphrodite of Melos and The Nike of Samothrace. This was when humans and our human features started getting put first compared to other eras were gods were the center of attention.