Antiquity

 Roman, Greek and Egyptian culture all have a different forms of expressing their art styles .The Romans learned sculpture and painting largely from the Greeks and helped to transmit Greek art to later ages. Classical art owes its lasting influence to its simplicity and reasonableness, its humanity, and its sheer beauty.Greek love of beauty, and a growing spirit of nationalism found fuller expression.Greek artists scrutinized human forms closely to create idealized Classical figures.On the other hand Ancient Egyptian art reached a high level in painting and sculpture, and was both highly stylized and symbolic.


Two art pieces that stood out to me were the Mask of Agamemnon designed by the Greek and The spear bearer also designed by the Greek but adapted by the Romans. These two art pieces represented the similar art styles as well as the differences in technique and detail withing the Greek and Roman culture. The mask of Agamemnon was one of several gold funeral masks found laid over the faces of the dead buried in the shaft graves of a royal cemetery discovered at the ancient Greek site of Mycenae. When Heinrich Schliemann discovered this golden mask he had no doubt that it must be the death mask of Agamemnon himself, the king who led the Greeks in the Trojan war, only to be assassinated on his homecoming. There's no proof of that, but it is one of the most compelling faces in art. One of the aspect of the piece i notice is the use of gold for this piece indicating that it came from the bronze era where few sculptures made of this material survived. I especially like how it resembles Egyptian art in the way the shape of the nose is designed. On the other hand we have The spear bearer The Doryphoros is one of the best known Greek sculptures of classical antiquity, depicting a solidly-built, well-muscled standing warrior, originally bearing a spear balanced on his left shoulder. The lost bronze original of the work would have been cast circa 440 BCE. Although a copy the work forms an important early example of both Classical Greek contrapposto and classical realism, as such, the iconic Doryphoros proved highly influential elsewhere in ancient art. As we can see Romans were well influenced by Greek art. They believed Greek culture symbolized a desirable way of life,of leisure, the arts, luxury and learning.