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In the early Jewish and Christian art, there’s a huge lack of depictions of gods. Instead, they have more churches and synagogues for places to worship their singular God. Their places of worship take the place of any false idols that may come from previous cultures. There are a few instances where one might mistake an important figure as a false idol, but they use pictures of these individuals to tell the story of their religion rather than to put them on a pedestal for worship.
MaKenna, if I had gone down that route, I was thinking of focusing more on Alkyoneus with a little bit of Athena’s arm in the background rather than trying to do the whole east frieze. I’m honestly not sure what I would have tried changing if I had done it. Thanks for the comment!
Lucas, I love the final product! I think your drawing of the chimera on lined paper adds some more fun detail when you have it placed on the backdrop. How long did it take you to draw the beast?
For my final project, I drew the Snake Goddess. I was originally interested in trying to draw Alkyoneus the Giant being slain by Athena on the Pergamon Altar’s east frieze because it seemed like a fun challenge, but my printer would cooperate so I went with my next choice. But I had a lot of fun drawing the Snake Goddess and wanted to try and make her look a little more like an actual snake goddess since I feel like the original doesn’t quite give that feeling.
The link to my presentation is here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1UHUAfrtiRV-7M8gXN2rLXphqCtQBwew3UzbQWk4NhI0/edit?usp=sharing
and the link to my paper is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10jyJW8yeG-2ihoHKODCBqnzQeYr36XWD1f3oVXC98qs/edit?usp=sharingLacey, I like that you said they’re spiritually entitled to their position. The Roman art seems to show a much closer relation to their spiritual beliefs as they show humans and deities in closer proximity than in previous eras as we saw with Cupid by Augustus’s leg in Augustus of Primaporta.
Allie, that’s a great example. A lot of other people did focus on the much more obvious signs by placing the heroes by gods. Having a powerful man on horseback definitely does make them seem a lot bigger and stronger than those below him. Great post!
Throughout the eras we’ve seen so far, a lot of art can be viewed as propagandistic art. Many previous civilizations, as well as the Romans themselves, would place their leaders on similar levels to their deities to show their influence and power over their people. Two examples of this for the Romans would be Augustus of Primaporta, in which Augustus is depicted as a descendant of Venus as well as a military victor, and Gemma Augustae, another piece showing his connection to the gods. The more closely related a ruler is shown to their deities and the more strength they have as being a victor, the more powerful they must be so they must be better than the previous rulers. The arches also play a huge role in the Roman propaganda, with their size and panels showing their triumph.
Miranda, I like that you mentioned a specific time frame that had a lot of similarities! A lot of churches and courthouses especially still have a bit of influence from Roman architecture. The busts of important individuals is a great example as well. I wonder if we could say then that wax sculptures of famous people could be influenced in a way by Roman artwork.
Kaitlyn, it seems like some of the nicest houses do have pillars or columns to resemble Roman buildings. If the ones where you were housesitting didn’t offer any support to the house, they were probably pillars rather than columns!
Roman art is still seen in modern day buildings we have. The Colosseum, for example, was the beginning inspiration for all of our sports arenas; there are many openings for people to enter and exit, we have a similar ticket system for entry, and they’re dedicated to sports and other entertainment much like the Colosseum was. We also see the influence of Roman art in some of our government buildings and many courthouses with columns similar to the ones that we see in the Temple of Portunus.
Lucas, the Theater at Epidauros is a great example. Even though it was associated with some of their gods, it was still a piece to be used and enjoyed by everyone. It can be used to bring happiness to people today just as it could back then even without the religious associations.
Miranda, I agree that the more vivid emotions on the Hellenistic artwork are a huge plus for the progression. However, I feel like the lack of focus on the gods and nature also contribute more towards the progression of humanist values rather than the regression. Your explanation on how it could be an argument for the regression is great though!
Although they do still have pieces for their gods and goddesses, I feel like the Hellenistic art was a progression of the Greek humanist values. Rather than having their deities placed above them, the Greeks started to show them in more human ways as they played games like dice and equated them more than just strong youthful figures — the Sleeping Eros shows a god in an entirely different light then they were generally shown. He’s portrayed as a cherub rather than a man like previous gods would have been. In the Hellenistic art, they equated their deities with humans, placed more emphasis on a more realistic human body with normal proportions, and allowed their sculptures to show a larger range of human emotions, as we saw in the Laocoon, rather than keeping their expressions vague with the archaic smile. To me, these all appear to be progressive as they really emphasized genuine humans.
Aubri, there definitely didn’t seem to be any physical affection in previous cultures’ artwork. It kind of seems like the Etruscans didn’t want to be private about their relationships and may have placed a lot more value in being shown in a loving or more equal manner with each other. I like the idea that they want to remain together in the afterlife — definitely shows their devotion to one another and places them on the same level as each other.
Aalieyah, I like your interpretation of the man being barefoot in that piece. It’s an interesting idea. Maybe the man wearing less elegant clothes could be a sign of how he works to give her the chance or option to have elegant pieces for herself? The women definitely did seem to have a lot more fashionable choices in the Etruscan time period than any others.
