The Human Form Through the Ages
The human form has been an obsession with artists and humans in general since at least the time f the first cave paintings, and likely for awhile before that. Given the current cultural fixation on the human from--especially the female--it seems likely that such an obsession is a natural and fundamental aspect of being human. Yet different cultures in human history have had vastly different views and interpretations of the human form, and the way the human body is depicted in art reflects this. Some of the oldest surviving art outside of cave paintings comes from the Ancient Egyptians. For this culture, the form of the body itself was not as important as what it represented. This is part of the larger Egyptian belief that the afterlife is the true existence; the body was preserved to ensure it's usefulness in the afterlife, and art was used to depict scenes from tat afterlife in an effort to make them come true. One such example of Egyptian art is the painted chest that was found in Tutankhamen's tomb. The central human figure of the front panel is virtually indistinguishable from the
other people in terms of features; all of the figures in this painting are standing with their heads in profile and their torsos facing full-front, which is typical of Egyptian depictions of the human body, though an impossible pose for a real human to attain. This can clearly be seen in a detail of the metope from the Temple of Zeus depicting Athena, Herakles, and Atlas. A lot of attention is paid to recreating a more realistic representation of the body. All of this reflects the Greek admiration of the human form. The treatment of the figures themselves, however, is very different for the Classical Greeks. It is capable of telling us so much about ourselves and the times in which we live, and is perhaps even more useful when viewed with the hindsight of an historical perspective. There is still more realism in the figure's overall shape and expression than is typically found in the Egyptians, and yet there is also more of a sense that this depiction is not important for the form itself, but for the religious implications it holds. Instead of using features and realistic representations to distinguish between the various people depicted here, the Egyptian artists used size and the storytelling capabilities of the human form to create meaning and difference. Thus, the art incorporates the external reference that the human form is capable of which was the focus of Egyptian art, while at the same time including some of the realistic representation that characterized the Greeks. Though the Greek artists of the classical period also found the storytelling possibilities of the human form intriguing, they were much more concerned with the actual form of the body than were their Egyptian counterparts. The positioning of the figures within the field is very similar to that of the Egyptians, as is the ability for this still image to tell a story. On the other hand, Byzantine art can be seen as something of a unification of parts of both the Greek and Egyptian traditions, with the rejection of other aspects and the introduction of new ones. For example, in the ivory carving of Archangel Michael from the sixth century is draped from neck to ankle in a robe that shows none of his form. This extended not only into the proportions of the body itself, but even to what was shown--nudity, especially male nudity--was a common feature of Greek art, much more so than of the Egyptians.
Common topics in this essay:
Ancient Egyptians,
Archangel Michael,
,
Egyptians Greeks,
Classical Greeks,
Herakles Atlas,
Egyptians Christian,
Greek Egyptian,
human form,
Temple Zeus,
human body,
form body,
realistic representation,
cave paintings,
egyptian art,
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Acceptance Essays
