A visual expression of human imagination or skills through painting or sculptures that are used to convey an idea is considered art. Every form of art can be explained to be a creation of materials, themes and results. As a product of its context, art involves the reflection of culture and time. The individuals and diverse people value these contexts, by which both have different notions of its significance depending on what they deem to be an aesthetic value to their culture. This essay is going to discuss how art is used to portray power, lamentation, and dependency on warfare during the ancient cultures.
In ancient history, art was significant to convey different themes and ideas. Even though it can be argued that art was created by the society to record history in various ways that showed concepts of space, culture, and time, the effect of art could also be felt in the events interplayed in history. For instance, the art world shows the interconnectedness of events that befall different cultures in the society. Events such as wars, human struggle, slavery, fertility, and power are among the different subjects portrayed by these arts. Some of the famous paintings and art sculptures that have responded to the human way of living include "Guernica" by Picasso that revealed suffering and the images of unity at Berlin walls by Keith Haring.However, there are three distinct examples of art that clearly demonstrate how art has been a product of its context throughout time and different cultures. These arts also deliver different themes that the artists represent through their paintings and sculptures. These three include Ashurbanipal hunting lions in ancient Assyria, Venus of Willendorf and the Warrior Vase in Mycenae Greece. All these arts have original and subsequent functions, meanings, and the influence on the society at that time.
Ashurbanipal Hunting Lions
The Ashurbanipal historical art, found in the British Museum in London, was an Assyrian artist's masterpiece from the Nineveh palace of the Ashurbanipal. The art depicts the last Assyrian King surrounded by his guards killing a lion that has been released from a cage (Noble). The prowess of lion hunting in ancient Syria was regarded a sport of kings whereby it symbolized the monarch's obligation of protecting his citizens. This art was represented with a well-established convention in the image itself. The convention involves a lion released from its cage, roaring and prepared to attack, a king and his guards and the creature pierced with three arrows (Kleiner 48).
The main theme of the act of lion hunting in ancient Assyria was to convey the bravery and power of the king to prove his worth to lead and protect his people. The artist of the reliefs of this historical art used a narrative in art way to convey his meaning to enact the monarch's courage. Contrary to the belief of many viewers' opinions that the artist presented the beast to elicit compassion, the art depicts the king to have more power than the lion and his bravery in conquering such gigantic and ferocious power (Kleiner 48). The Ashurbanipal art extends its influence not only to Assyrians but also to the rest of the world because it is a chronicle, which plays a vital part in the art of the early Near East.
Venus of Willendorf
Venus of Willendorf, also recognized as the Woman from Willendorf, is one among the three famous sculptures in the Roman deity of love and fertility (Cevandish 502). It is also among the earliest human-made images of the body that dates back to the harsh ice age period. Similar to the Ashurbanipal art, this art also uses specific conventions of representation to convey meaning. Such conventions include a primarily exaggerated female body with tiny forearms, large breasts, exposed genitals, soft belly and a roughly stylized hair with an anonymous face (Kleiner 3-4).
On a similar context, this historical artifact portrays the concept of power. However, the power that is depicted in most of the conventions in this masterpiece is fertility – the power of a woman to bear a child. For instance, the excessive weight that the Woman from Willendorf possesses when taken on an affirmative perspective can be symbolic of wealth and abundance (Noble). Furthermore, the artist of this sculpture can be said to have lived in the era of the harsh ice age whereby features such as fertility and fitness were exceedingly desirable. Even though the sculpture depicts an individual, it is believed to be a representation of a female form and not a specific person.
This art too has had a great influence in not only the ancient society but also the modern society. For instance, in both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the art Venus of Willendorf has fueled claims that in many occasions it disdains the ancient people (Noble). Most of it claim that the artists behind this sculpture were primitive and not civilized which may not have any evidence of truth in it.
The Warriors Vase
The last of the three famous arts discussed in this essay is the Warriors Vase. It is one of the most recent vase paintings of the Mycenaean examples. This prominent treasure found in the National Archeological Museum in Athens, Greece is dated back in the 13th century. This art example is a krater, a name given to a bowl for mixing water and wine. However, the main attraction in this painting is not the vase itself but rather, the spectacles painted on the vase. The artist used painting as a way of presenting the art. The conventions used in this painting are simply a woman and a group of soldiers.
The art portrays a woman who is bidding farewell to an army of warriors marching off to war. The soldiers seem to wear hedgehog style helmets while carrying bull's head handles (Suter 82). In addition to that, the Warriors seem to face the same direction and have the same appearance and are arranged in a repetitive pattern. The Main theme of this context is to show lamentation. The painting was found in an ancient cemetery of the Mycenaeans, signaling the practice of using ceramics with illustrations of lamentation such as the Warriors' vase and obituary rites to mark a grave (Suter 82). The symbolic woman who is bidding farewell on the art demonstrates the women mourners' culture of raising their arms up to their heads - a sign of lamentation. On a different note, themes of power and hunting are also seen in the way the warriors march with spears in full armor. The art also portrays how the ancient culture of Mycenaeans depended on warfare.
Works Cited
Cevandish, Marshall. Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology. N.p., 2005. Print.
Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Global History. N.p., 2015. Print.
Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective, Volume 1. Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.
Noble, Bonnie. "ASHURBANIPAL HUNTING LIONS." Declaration.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 June 2016.
Noble, Bonnie. "WOMAN FROM WILLENDORF." Declaration.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 June 2016.
Suter, Ann. "Male Lament in Greek Tragedy. Lament: Studies in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond. (2008) N.p., 56-180. Print.
"The Warrior Vase." The Immanuel Velikovsky Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 June 2016.
