Throughout the entire mesopotamian artworks, one of my favorite neo-Assyrian art is the Lamassu. The lamassu are human-headed winged lions or bulls, there’re many pairs of these sculptures that are still in existence including those in the British Museum(London), Louvre(Paris) and Metropolitan Museum of Art(New York) as well as several in Iraq. There are several fun facts about this sculpture. First of all, the figure has five legs. Picture this scene, when you walk towards this sculpture, all you can see in the beginning are 2 legs. However, while you were passing the sculpture body part, all of a sudden you could see 4 legs from the side, and you could see the wings on a lion body. Such unexpected huge contrast is an excellent way to
The first thing you notice about sculpture is the texture of it, it feels smooth, like its made of a clay yet it has a lot of depth and value, the skull itself isn’t proportional since it is tilted to
The Lamassu of Sargon and the Great Sphinx of Gizeh were greatly revered in their cultures as each were viewed as both a religious figure and as a representation of ideals within their cultures. Similarities between the two sculptures vary. Both were mythical creatures that were hybrids of human faces mixed with various animal bodies. Both sculptures were believed to be powerful protectors of royalty both physically and spiritually. The lamassu were placed near entrances of palaces or king’s quarters, and the sphinx at the base of the Great Pyramid (a pharaoh’s palace in the afterlife) as well as various temples within Egypt.
The left side of the face is shadowed implying low value on the dark end of the scale. Other areas of the leg are lighter suggesting a high value on the light end of the scale. Since this sculpture is a sphinx it has three dimensional qualities such as the height, width, and depth. The form of this three-dimensional figure encloses volume. The lion body and head imply form from the lines and dimension.
With the sculpture straight ahead, the audience sees a profile view of the scene; however, the artist created the sculpture with enough space and depth to be able to view the front of the woman’s face from a side angle. The artist created the seated woman with much detail; her nose, chin, slightly opened mouth, pronounced brow line and inset eyes show this. She reaches for the chest with her right arm in a very delicate manner as her left arm lays on the throne for support.
From an historical perspective, this piece is an excellent example of early classical Rome. You can sense the respect and admiration that the average Roman citizen had for Augustus, in the fine details of the sculpture.
To start at the beginning or the Canon of these works of art would be to go to the Prehistoric times. To give some background about this time, the prehistoric period was art found when people were still living in caves and just starting the first civilization of humans. According to Smarthistory.org the oldest collection of ornamentation was found in Africa and being over 82,000 years old. The sculpture I'm going to be talking about from this period is the sculpture called “Lion-Human”. The Lion Human to me looks like a tall older man with the characteristics of a lion with a long mane with a long pointed nose. The artist used expressionism to show that the man had the qualities of a man but also had the inner workings of a lion. It was probably how he
The sculpture portrays the God of Harvest, Dionysus, with his loyal satyr follower, Pan. A considerable amount of detail when into the carving of Dionysus; the multiple grapevines in his hair, his ceremonial staff Thyrsus, the goatskins and the cup of wine he’s holding are all symbols of Dionysus. The composition is very asymmetrical, and creates a contrapposto arrangement, which is distinctly Grecian (Gardner). It was carved out of beautiful fine marble, which also had another purpose in the way of making this piece of art last for many years. Along with the tree trunk between the two men providing support at the base, and the elongated arms providing more structural stability. The God’s head is even reinforced by his hair to make sure the head doesn’t break off. This sculpture is visually and aesthetically pleasing, but doesn’t serve a useful function, like textiles or furniture. Therefore, it is considered a figurative piece of art, which art that is very clearly modeled after real object or person(s), and is therefore representational
(883-859 B.C.). This statue is about ten feet tall with a lion body and a human body followed by some wings. The statue is rather large and though the whole picture is not there for one to see all the palace, it seems to be at a foyer of some sort. What is known is that during this time most of the building were built from a type of mud rock which could have made this lamassu. The Human Headed Winged lion is made from things like mud, rock, and limestone. Mesopotamians did believe that this statue scared away dark forces and brought peace and safety to people’s homes, something that people have been doing for many years. This statue is from the Nimrud which is modern day Iraq, the ruler at the time was Assurnasirpal the second. From the book, it had said that Assyrians rose to dominance in Mesopotamian and they extended their most of their influences into Egypt. Even though it was after The Great sphinx it does give us an idea about how much culture and religion spread throughout
A perfect example of this type of sculpture was the Human-Headed winged Lion called the Gate Monster which was made out of limestone, 10 feet, 2.5 inches high, a human head , five legs and body of a winged lion (Benton & DiYanni , p.13) . In comparison, of the Great Sphinx, Giza, this also has a human head and animal body therefore this doesn't represent realism either. In contrast, the (“human head represents a ruler, a Pharaoh out of sandstone and it was enormous 65 feet in height”).
When examining the statue, there is an old woman bent and weary. Her posture helps clue us in, with her age and the state of her health. The figure is dressed in cloth that drapes off her body as she carries a basket that is filled with what we may think are offerings. On her head, there are vines that create a band around the top of her head used to signify the festival that was going on during that time. The specific detail that is seen on this statue persuades us to want to know the story of this woman. Doing so, the process involves lots of research about the time and art. During the hellenistic period, artists begin to introduce more inner beauty than physical beauty. There is an opportunity to learn more about the structure itself, then settle for what is given and seen.
This sculpture is of a women breast feeding her child. The face of the two people is elongated, as well as the breasts of the mother. This is common to all African Art because they wanted representation of what is being expressed. In this particular sculpture, a supernatural power is being called upon. The power has been asked to protect the mother and child, and to
This sculpture was one of Mene’s most famous pieces of art work. This sculpture was first put out for viewers to see in the Paris Salon in 1952. The public went nuts over this sculpture, later this sculpture was made in three different sizes. The sculpture in my presentation is the smallest one made and is considered a miniature. In this sculpture both horses are stallions, whereas in the original sculpture it showed a mare and a stallion. Still to this day this piece of artwork is very popular in demand.
Over the years of art history, there are many great empires that we think of and two of those were ancient Greek and Egyptian. When talking about Greek and Egyptian art history, it is the sculptures that come to mind when you are comparing and contrasting artworks. Egyptian art and Greek art both had mesmerizing sculptures but Egyptian art was more oriented towards religion and Greek art was more focused on philosophy. The Egyptian statue of the Menkaure and a Queen was similar to the Greek statue of Metropolitan Kouros in their posture but both of these statues also had many differences. Menkaure and a queen statue was created from an unusual stone and the statue was discovered in Menkaure’s valley temple. The sculpture has a hard texture and because of the time-consuming task of polishing this sculpture was never completely polished. So, the sculpture is greywacke and has traces of red paint on king’s face, ears and neck because male figures were traditionally painted red and there are traces of black in queen’s hair. The sculpture itself is 54 ½ inches in height and is displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Metropolitan Kouros was created from marble which seems like it has a rough and hard texture. The statue is 6 feet in height and is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
From my observation at the Met, this sculpture is inside a medium glass and space. Also, it is by itself in the glass. It is a three-dimensional sculpture created by modeling and merging hard materials. Next to it there are other deities (Vishnu, Parvati, Ganesh etc.) and sculptors from the Chola Dynasty. The other works near it complements the sculpture as I have stated above they are from the same time period so, they are related to each other some way and
Sayre the author says, “The Buddha is the most extensive collection of large-scale sculptures in the world and can be found an hour north of New York City in the lower Hudson Valley at Storm King Art Center (“A World of Art”). Zhang seems to like the traditional aspects of chinses culture, because he re-used an ash material form other artists, to create his own sculpture. The techniques he used to create the sculpture is casting, assemblage, and construction. Without using these three additive techniques of sculpting, the artwork wouldn’t have been fragile, and not overwhelming in size. The subject of the “three Legged-Buddha” is another conflict with the governmental rules and regulations, and it has drawn a lot of attention due to its strong message that it conveys. When I initially examined the art piece for the first time, it looked like a huge dismantled, three legged human figure. I thought it was a symbol for keeping your body in better shape over your mind. The most amazing part of the sculpture is how extremely large it is compared to the electrocution sculpture. After reading and interpreting the sculpture it struck me that it was made for ceremonial gathering, where incense placed and burned from inside of the sculpture, and pours out of the head. I think that the artist was trying to involve the visitors in his sculpture. Since Zhang Huan