Essays on Terracotta

Gold swivel ring with agate scaraboid – Gallery 171 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York

If we look at the Gold Swivel Ring with an agate scaraboid it is obvious that the art medium is gold and agate. The ancient jeweler clearly used the basic jewelry techniques, although his craftsmanship is impressive due to providing a product with exemplary aesthetics. However, the ring still has no recognizable subject matter. Nonetheless, the ring has a well-rounded form and the agate scaraboid is in the ovalo-rectangular form. In terms of content, this piece of jewelry despite seeming to be simple evidently proclaims that it belongs to a rich man, or rather a woman. The ring is ...

Term Paper

1500 words The Modern period continued to change the society until the late 20th century, where a new artistic era began and continued up to this day; the 21st century eventually became the Post-Modern Period and many radical changes brought by the Modernism is adopted by the new art styles to the point of it is hard to discern what Post-Modernism is all about. If Modernism concentrated on the preservation of ideal pure art, Post Modernism welcomed changes by using eccentric methods to produce contemporary art found in Modern Museums. The 21st century is currently covered by postmodern epoch ...

The World Art history knows a number of masterpieces that are significant for some particular period of art. This can be a “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo Da Vinci and even the cave art by the first people. All of them are carrying their own significance in this world and the history of the whole humanity in general. Taking to the consideration the fact that the originals of the art should be lead since the dawn of times, the art of the first people, who lived hundreds of centuries ago, is the fundament and the basis for all the following ...

Buddhism was one of the dominant religions in Asia that originated in India and spread across the continent such as in mainland China, Japan, and Korea. It also influenced other countries in Southeast Asia that also adopted the culture of China. The fact that Buddhism became a dominant religion even today not only influenced the lifestyle of the societies where it was adopted. The profound evidence of its lasting influence on the art can be found on the sculptures. The purpose of this essay is to conduct a sculptural analysis of the two reliefs from two opposing cultures: the ...

Funerary Plague. 625-610 BC. Painted terracotta. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. MFA. Web. 23 Feb 2016. http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/funerary-plaque-151469. On the plaque, we can see two women who cry over the body of a dead one. The dead woman lies on the funeral coach. Beneath the coach we can see a siren, a symbol of death that came for a woman, and above it, at the top of the plaque, there are three flying birds. In Greek mythology, birds are a symbol of life and death, and the flight of the soul. The psyche leaves the soul at the moment of ...

When was the sculpture created?

The sculpture is better known as the Terracotta Army and is actually a large collection of statues which I depict the army of the first Emperor of China who was known as Qin Shi Huang. The sculpture was created around the 3rd century BC and the whole finding was made in the early 1970’s with rows upon rows of soldiers in the dark cavern in Xian, Shannxi province. It is probably ascertained that the sculptures date back to the 3rd century through the use of radio carbon dating. The idea of recreating a whole army is quite incredible in the ...

Amazing Terracotta

Terracotta is a material made from clay. It has been used for many centuries by various civilizations and cultures across the globe. Artifacts like tiles, sculptures and pottery from Columbia, Europe, and Africa to India and China stand testimony to its popularity down the ages. Terracotta artifacts have been found by archeologists in their excavations hailing back to more than 2500 B.C. from Mohenjo Daro and Harappa and ancient Mesopotamia. Ancient Greek figurines of Tanagra and the Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang of China are two outstanding examples of terracotta art work of the ancient times. In ...

The Terracotta Army, which is also called The Army of the First Emperor or The Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses, was built during the Qin Dynasty (221-201 BCE) in China. The local farmers in Lintong District, Xi'an, Shanxi province, discovered The Terracotta Army in 1974 while digging a well. This immediately caught the attention of historians because it was important historical material for them to study regarding the Qin Dynasty. Today, there are more than 8,000 sculptures discovered in Xi’an. They were in three main pits covering a total area of about 19,120 square meters. The Army was buried ...

1) When Clunas refers to “different meanings” of the jade tablet, he refers to the various critical approaches that have been applied when examining and analyzing the jade tablet and its meaning. These critical approaches are colored, inevitably, by the lens the approach is being seen through – a modern way of thinking may not have been what the original creators were intending. One reading discusses the “Chinese love of antiquity,” in which the people wish to outline their past through the artwork of the present. This tends to be placed in other details such as its own presence in a museum ...

Abstract

For the purpose of this paper, I will be discussing the East Pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, as well as a terracotta bell-krater attributed to the Methyse Painter, and comparing both works in terms of their composition, formal elements, and cultural context. The selection of these works allows for two central activities of the Greeks to be compared, especially ones represented by their own divine figures. The east pediment and the Dionysian vase feature two distinct sides of Greek culture – the former showcasing Greek’s love of justice, and the latter the Greek’s love of wine ...

The Qin emperor, Shihuangdi, was perhaps the most prominent emperor throughout the Chinese history. Ying Zheng invented the title Shi Huang Di, which means ‘first emperor’, because he believed that he was superior, compared to the kings of other states of China. During his reign, he unified Chinese policies and culture through standardization of written language and bureaucracy. Furthermore, he aspired to live forever and rule eternally. Some scientists believed that Huang Di was obsessed with the idea of immortality that was why he had done peculiar things in search for an eternal life (Shank, 2009). Shi Huang ...

There are a small number of extremely significant archaeological discoveries that were made by chance without scientists’ intentional efforts and search. Among such exceptional finding are the Rosetta Stone, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Terracotta Army, which is situated in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor Qinshihuang. The significance of the latter has been recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1987 by way of being inscribed in the World Heritage List as one of the World Heritage Sites to be specifically preserved and safeguarded by the Chinese government, a home for the Mausoleum (" ...

The Red-Figured Kylix with Athlete is typical of the Greek terracotta pottery produced during this period. Upon viewing it closely, it appears to be in very good condition, and there is not much proof regarding its age since it is practically brand new. The terracotta material lends itself to beautiful work, especially in the way it is portrayed. The Greek and Roman cultures had exquisite pieces of art in their curriculum and one of the most famous of the artists was Euphronios whose workshop was constantly on the lookout for talented artists to produce such works. The Kylix is ...

The Red-Figured Kylix with Athlete is typical of the Greek terracotta pottery produced during this period. Upon viewing it closely, it appears to be in very good condition, and there is not much proof regarding its age since it is practically brand new. The terracotta material lends itself to beautiful work, especially in the way it is portrayed. The Greek and Roman cultures had exquisite pieces of art in their curriculum and one of the most famous of the artists was Euphronios whose workshop was constantly on the lookout for talented artists to produce such works. The Kylix is ...

Introduction:

In the introduction, Clunas insists that Chinese art is quite a recent invention, in actual fact, not more than a hundred years old. Although the textiles, pieces of calligraphy, paintings, sculptures, ceramics and other works of art date from over 5,000 years old, the idea of grouping Chinese art is a much more recent phenomenon. The book is purposely called ‘Art in China’ and not Chinese art since it is principally written out of a major distrust of the existence of unifying principles that bring together art from a particular country. There are several abrupt decisions that have been made in the ...

Describe two artworks you have seen in person

Michelangelo’s David has often been termed as one of art-history’s most remarkable masterpieces. It is a depiction of David before the battle with Goliath. Numerous visitors from all over the world have travelled to Florence to experience the 500-year-old sculpture. Undoubtedly, the sculpture holds timeless appeal. David was sculpted in 1501 from a block of leftover marble. The sculpture is an oddity in that the upper body and head are not in proportion with the rest of the body. This is unlike the Renaissance age and style of art which embodied an obsession with harmony of proportion and form ( ...

The Chinese Sheng dynasty was rich in symbolism and artistic prowess even though it dates back to over 2000 BC. There are a vast number of ornaments, sculptures and artefacts which have been recovered through archaeological diggings and the two examples discussed here provide some interesting comparisons and concepts. Although the first vessel dates from almost 2000 years before the second one and is made out of bronze while the latter is composed of earthenware, there are similarities between both objects as well as a demonstration that the artefacts have developed in style. They are both supreme examples of sculpture in ...

The art of the ancient Greeks and Romans is called classical art. Classical art is a name used to describe certain periods in which various artists searched for their inspiration to this archaic style. The Romans learned painting and sculpture mainly from the Greeks which assisted in transmitting Greek art to ages. Greek and Roman sculpture has had a profound effect throughout the ages. Greek sculpture took early inspiration from Egyptian and Near Eastern monumental art from 800 to 300 BC (Singh 563). However, this evolved over the centuries all this evolved into a sole Greek version of the art form. Arguably, ...

Introduction:

The Chinese Sheng dynasty was rich in symbolism and artistic prowess even though it dates back to over 2000 BC. There are a vast number of ornaments, sculptures and artefacts which have been recovered through archaeological diggings and the two examples discussed here provide some interesting comparisons and concepts. Although the first vessel dates from almost 2000 years before the second one and is made out of bronze while the latter is composed of earthenware, there are similarities between both objects as well as a demonstration that the artefacts have developed in style. They are both supreme examples of sculpture in ...

The Terracotta Army is the group of sculptures that were made showing the armies of the first emperor of china-Qin Shi Huang. This art was done and buried with the emperor between 210 and 209 BC to give him subjects and for his protection in death. The figures were discovered in 1974 by local farmers drilling for water in Linton District, east of Xi’an in Shaanxi province near the first Qin Emperor’s mausoleum and are dating from 3rd Century BC. The figures are of different heights in accordance with their roles in the army with the ...

“Golfe Juan” is one of the representative creations of the French painter Raoul Duffy and a depiction of the Fauvist movement to which the artist adhered to. The painting, created in 1927 is oil on canvas, measures 32 3/16 x 39 5/8 inches and currently resides in the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum. Being known for his courageous use of bright colors and vivid illustrations of pleasure and luxury scenes, Raoul Duffy went beyond the act of representing nature – he invented it. In “Golfe Juan” we are offered the scene of the French Riviera or Cote d’Azur, with a single ...