Paleolithic art depicts life in the Stone Age. Hunting scenes are quite common, and the predominant theme is animals. Paleolithic art shows how the people kept on attempting to take control of their environment. Artists in this era tried to create a realistic body form although they had a limited choice of skills. This period was soon followed by the Near East realm. A look at the Near East art reveals that people were desperate to civilize. In the prehistoric period, coming before the Near Eastern era, human beings were not the central focus of art, and the prehistoric art exaggerated the human body. During this period, there was no shame in nudity and naked sculptures were a common feature. The Venus of Willendorf sculpture is a good example which fits into this description well.
However, the Near Eastern sculptures were a clear break from the pre-historic art. For instance, the art depicts clothed humans and the sculptures are of great anatomical precision. The Near Eastern art also began a new trend of painting. The artists tried as much as possible to show emotions on the beings that they created. For example, the Sumerians inscribed humans performing the normal day-to-day activities, and with their eyes wide open to depict nearly emotionless expressions. The sculptures had the men always bare-chested, and dressed in kilts only, while their women’s chests were always covered. A good example is the Tell Asmar Statue. The Near Eastern art was soon followed by Ancient Egyptian Art.
The Ancient Egyptian Art shows a high level of painting and sculpture. The art is also highly symbolic. For example, arts representing pharaoh show him dressed in regalia. This is a symbol of the immense power the Egyptian ruler had on the people. Something which is notable among the artists is the fact that they used different colors for different people. For example, red skin was used for the youth, the yellow skin was used for women and middle-aged men working indoors, and black colour was used for royal figures. Paintings and sculptures of this period show paired legs, with the head shown from sideways. Curiously, the artists did not create the human body as they saw it with their naked eyes. Instead, they depicted the human body in a way that they thought corresponded to the truth (they created the human body in a manner in which each body part would be clearly identifiable).
The Egyptians were precise because they followed some specific rules when drawing the human body. The head was drawn in profile, but the eyes and the eyebrows were depicted in full view. The Egyptians also drew men’s shoulders and the upper body parts such that the hands, the arms and the fingers were clearly visible. They also drew the belly and the waist in three-quarters, which put the belly button on the side instead of the conventional middle point. The posterior, the legs and feet were shown in profile thus balancing the head. The feet were always depicted from the inside, thus showing the arch of the foot. A good example is the painting of Metchetchi and the youngest son from the 5th Dynasty. Women’s anatomical perspective differed slightly since the artists had to show the body from the under the arms all the way down to the feet in order to make apparent the breasts. The Egyptian art was later followed by the Aegean art, which developed with the rise of Aegean civilization.
Artistic works from the Aegean civilization were an improvement of the Paleolithic and Egyptian civilization. The artists made obvious attempts to represent the human form. For example, the Minoan art has vibrant colors, smooth lines, and a sense of nature. The Minoans also broke away from the two-dimensional figures and created a three-dimensional figure. The human figures created during this period had a distinct look, something matched only by the Ancient Greek artists.
Artists of the Ancient Greeks were fixated with the human body because they believed that their gods had a human form, and the sculptors created realistic depictions of the human body. A good example is the Kritian Boy. However, the artists stopped their realism for some reason because they wanted to create something more “human than human.” As a result, with time, they began to create unrealistic bodies where reality has been exaggerated. Nonetheless, representation of the human form improved as novel art forms emerged.
Works Cited
Bergmann, Bettina Ann. Sexuality in Ancient Art: Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print.
Powell, Jillian. Ancient Art. New York, NY: Thomson Learning , 1994. Print.
