Perfect Model Essay On Art History

Describe the development of depicting the human form from Paleolithic art through the arts of Ancient near-East, Ancient Egypt, the Aegean and Greek cultures. Think about how humans are represented and what functions representation of humans have served. Is there in fact a clear “development”?
Ancient art has enormous information potential and can be a source of new knowledge about the ancient man and his world. The art of those periods reflect the first representations of the person about the world because each individual culture had its own epicenter that determined not only the spiritual and social life, but also affected all aspects of society. Man perceived the world holistically as a single space which was organically linked with inner life. Depicting the human form from Paleolithic art through the arts of Ancient near-East, Ancient Egypt, the Aegean and Greek cultures was a development which resulted from the formation of the individual aspirant to the approval of their perceived otherness and was particular vision of the world.
Archaic consciousness of ancient people led to the fact that Paleolithic art to use a simple formal methods. Disclosure of the main themes was achieved through the selection of images belonging to different areas of the mythological and legendary traditions of culture. Human for Paleolithic art was part of the plot, depicting the human was less common than an animal. In the Paleolithic paintings and engravings of the image of the beast reigns supreme. People were rarely painted and they were depicted very schematically as shown for example in the Chauvet Cave, Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France. The earliest images of animals almost always specialized in the same drawing technique and human. In the Paleolithic era human was simply a scheme, he presented a line with a thickening at one end. All such images are not comparable with realistic drawings of mammoths and bison. Often these characters are very similar to each other, in the same manner transferred. Facial features are not visible, only transferred itself to the human figure sometimes distinguishable sexual characteristics. The most common image heroes are different from each other of any deliberately selected detail - headdress, clothing, weapons. It is most likely that all of this mythical characters, with their characteristic attributes, labels, signs. Maybe it is the images of totemic ancestors or that sorcerers and shamans in costumes and masks. In Paleolithic art paintings were magical means of achieving a specific goal. This is not a work of art in our understanding. Figures could be a means of transmitting information about the myths of the society.
In the arts of Ancient near-East sculptural work is placed in the middle of nature, and has the quality of the creation of an additional plot and content, along with the environment. The result is that sculptures were placed in places where people concentrate or sculptures were created immediately after finding such objects. This feature was the reason for the wide spread of monumental sculptures. The walls and pillars of the Egyptian buildings were decorated with reliefs and paintings, which are easily recognizable by a kind of receptions human image. Drawing was carried out using a modular grid, to comply with the proportions of figures. Each part of the human figures depicted in his turn so that it could be seen as fully as possible: the head and feet in profile, but the eyes and body from the front. Gods and Pharaohs depicted larger, they usually make a step forward left foot, which meant a step into eternity. While in Egyptian art features enhanced realism and depart from the prevailing canons of the image. In most cases, Ancient Egypt presented sculptures depicting people who have great contribution to society, which was a manifestation of respect for the people to this person appreciation of his services. It was a means of propaganda, reflects the deep social ideas, carrying a certain educational functions. These sculptural creations convey qualities such as desire to commit heroic deeds, uplifting the spirit, the exaltation of romantic ideas. The spatial perception of the image data, a large amount of sculptural creation, the ability to review from different angles gives us aesthetic pleasure, and didactic instructions give a deeper richness can be seen in the images of Osiris and Warriors. The Egyptians were well aware that such a monumental image will exist for a long time, besides, some of them were made of marble. Especially the Egyptians followed the synthesis of proportions and scale, respective components of the monumental image, merging with the surrounding environment. Understanding these qualities in Ancient Egypt is manifested in the reconstruction of the basic idea of ​​the figure through the transfer of emotional state and aesthetic pleasure from the contemplation of the image viewer.
As part of the Aegean and Greek cultures a person creates a complete picture of the world, the main feature of which was religious convention. The gods of Olympus became a source of plots and images of artistic creativity. The image of man, formed in the Aegean and Greek cultures have some features, close to the art of the ancient East: some conditional image, static, solemnity. Fixed sculpture has an internal dynamic. Distinctive feature of sculptural art in the Aegean and Greek cultures presented desire for symbolic display of the objective world. The image of the character in the sculptural art was a way that reflects the specific socio-historical, philosophical, educational content. Faces of ancient statues of the classical period are similar to each other, and only in the IV century BC, the art begins to gravitate toward more specific and characteristic way.
Thus, the Aegean and Greek art reflects the world through a sculpture of a society or historical figures. Art created by them is capable of forming images of the notion of reality, to bring the best spiritual qualities to instill respect for the world around them. Art was intended to glorify the victory of new rulers of Greece. This art embodied the idea of ​​a new world of grandeur, combined Hellenic culture. In the Aegean and Greek cultures also focused on the creation of the portrait, and the main task was in full accordance way of a specific person. This required familiarity with this historical personality, knowledge of character, inner peace and characteristics. In most cases, special importance was attached to the disclosure of personal qualities of the person. Expression was in the whole image of the human body movements, not only in one face. Despite the fact that many Greek statues not retain the top part (such as "The Winged Victory of Samothrace”) they come to us without a head, but shows a holistic solution to the plastic image. Since the soul and body of thought by the Greeks in the indivisible unity of the body and the Greek statues unusually spiritualized. A special feature of ancient art was a marked interest to the person who was his main theme.
For the Greeks a man was the epitome of all things, the prototype of all created and produced. That is why the human form, represented by the most beautiful way, became the aesthetic norm in ancient Greece was not only dominant, but almost the only topic of classical art. Appointment culture of the ancient Greeks means to promote the harmonious development, the spiritual and the physical, mental, and vocational and employment (art, skill) of human, political, and moral and spiritual. That such a man was the main object and the meaning of culture. If the hero of the Egyptian or Mesopotamian culture was the supernatural, coupled with the sky and the elemental forces, the hero of the culture of ancient Greece was a real person.
In ancient Greece, a great importance was attached to the forms of the human body, there was a cult of the body. Body harmony is understood as an expression of harmony of mind, ugly mean lack of intelligence, generosity, strength, character, acts as a negation of the positive values Art is an idealistic character as a person is in his physical and moral perfection. The image of the man in the art of ancient Greece was crystal-clear, free of accidents concentration wonderful spiritual and physical qualities of a real person.