Art: in the beginning Essay

Art, can you imagine a time when art wasn’t part of your culture, it has been around for an extremely long time even the crave man did it. Imagine how much it has evolved since then. In order to understand the technical aspect of art, how the art was created and understanding it’s meaning, you have to travel back in time to Egyptian art. Egypt started it all which influenced the Greeks’ art. Both Egyptian and Greek art has played a heavy influence on today’s Western traditional art. However, they both went about the creation of Art differently. They had different focal points, technics and humanistic views. Embark through the journey of learning about Ancient Art and maybe your view point on art will change. Egyptian imagery was governed by sociality ideals of what was suitable at the time which is why their art seem to appear extremely stagnant. This was done on purpose because they believe that it made their art seem stable with a deific balance. Egyptian art had a common theme, its focused on gods/goddess, royalty and the afterlife. Their art conveyed an idealized version of a person. However, Greeks art may have been influenced by Egyptian art but they took a more of a realistic focal point of art. When creating a human they created a realistic idea of a person by emphasizing facial expressions, stance and their location upon the canvas. When the Egyptian may have focus more on the afterlife then the living the Greeks was the opposite, they value life. Their differences doesn’t stop there it is evident that they both used different approaches to create art. Every artist has a median they used to create the picture they have in their mind. For instance the Egyptian used stone, wood and metal to create sculptures. This limited the amount of movement and actions of the depicted image. Egyptian artists embraced the two-dimensional surfaces. This is where registers where created, separate the scene in the picture as well as a floor for the figure to appear to be standing on. Without the registers the scene would appear chaotic; battles and hunting scenes. The Greeks enjoy creating art on pottery, the Black-and-Red (later there was also Red-and-Black) techniques were used to decorate fine pottery. The formation and creation of the pot in its self is art with the added effect of the  picture that was place on the surface. This form of art had a practical used to it because the specific shapes signified its daily usage, storing and transportation of wine and amphora (food things). Both Egypt and Greece biggest influence of art was based on the human world. They saw the beauty of the naked body but they still have different ideals. The Egypt highlighted the physic of a person rather the humanistic characteristic. While the Greek figure is in the nude, athletic built, youthful, and has a perfect proportion. Egyptians mainly focus on the complete picture. If you standing in an ancient art museum will you be able to identify the Egyptian art and the Greek art by now looking at the technical aspect? They may have a big influence on today’s world of art. The creation of pottery is relatively the same just more efficient with modern technology. The center point of art may have shifted but they all universally go back to the same theme, human life. The technical aspect of art varies now a days and humans remain the focal point of art. Both Egyptians and Greeks approach of art was great, both embodies today’s art.