Metropolitan Museum Of Art Essay, Research Paper

Museum Research Paper

During my trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I observed many interesting pictures, sculptures, and artefacts. The two exhibits I chose to make my study on were? Anonymous Official? , from the 13th dynasty in Egypt, ( 1783 B.C. ) , and? Head from a Herm? from the early Grecian civilisation, ( first one-fourth of the 5th century ) . ( The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide, Howard, pg. 306 ) I chose these two peculiar exhibits because of their faces. The manner the human face is portrayed is an first-class manner to calculate out how worlds were perceived in these specific clip periods. You can compare the two different faces from the two different clip periods, and comparison and contrast the two clip periods.

The Egyptian and the Grecian clip periods were, to me, the most interesting of all the others we have studied. Many of the doctrines and governmental policies that were used so, are still used today. The Greeks had foremost used democracy, and the Egyptians believed in monotheism, which is the belief that there is merely one God, which many Americans believe today. While we may hold adapted beliefs and governmental policies from these clip periods, they were really different from each other. The manner that the two civilisations classify their leaders is a good illustration.

The sculpture of? Anonymous Official? is the upper trunk of an Egyptian adult male. This adult male? s face has deep facial furrows and Prunus dulcis shaped eyes. The sculpture besides has a consecutive olfactory organ and a narrow mentum. These facial characteristics are the manner that Egyptians depicted normalcy. There was a 2nd sculpture, indistinguishable to the first 1 that was believed to be a relation of the adult male because they were found together and they looked so really similar.

The Egyptians were a really stray civilization. They did non like aliens to hinder on their land. The Egyptian regulation was broken down into three subdivisions of clip. The first was the Old Kingdom ( 3000-2155 B.C. ) , followed by the Middle Kingdom ( 2134-1785 B.C. ) , and stoping with the New Kingdom ( 1500-1162 B.C. ) . The sculpture of the? Anonymous Official? was created in the Middle Kingdom clip period. During the period of Egyptian regulation a Pharaoh was considered to be the highest tableland that a adult male could make. If you were a Pharaoh you were considered Godhead. This belief that the Egyptians had, of the Pharaoh, was reflected in their art. Sculptures of the Pharaohs were perfect figures. The figures had broad over uttered eyes, which were considered to be holy. This is why a sculpture of King Tutankhamun would hold the broad uttered eyes. Unlike any sculptures of people outside the circle of Egyptian civilization.

It is really rare to happen an artefact from this clip period. Many of the metropoliss were raided and destroyed by the people from the West. It was because of these foraies that Egyptians were hostile towards foreigners. The one portion of the Egyptian civilization that did last, were the grave. These graves are where we get the bulk of our information on the Middle Kingdom clip period. These graves are the nexus to the universe of the dead.

The sculpture? Head from a Herm? is believed to be depicted from the Greek God, Hermes. The caput is besides believed to hold come from some kind of Greek sphinx. The face of this sculpture is really defined. The sculpture has hair on it, which seems to be the manner of that clip period. The manner the face is defined conforms to the Grecian push to be perfect. All airss of Grecian art are marked by passion and force. ( The Art of Art History, Preziosi, pg.35 )

During the Grecian period, a great belief in mythology came approximately. All the narratives of Zeus, Aphrodite, and Rams came from this Grecian clip period. This sculpture of a adult male? s caput is one of the many dedicated to the Grecian Gods. All in all,

the things that the Greeks made their highest precedences were life, faith, art, and the flawlessness of all of these.

If you were to compare and contrast the two sculptures, ? Anonymous Official? and? Head from a Herm? , you could get down by comparing their cultural backgrounds. Both the Egyptian and the Grecian imperiums, at their premier, were really powerful and both are, to this twenty-four hours, really respected for what they had accomplished. For the most portion, that is where the similarities end. Besides the different authoritiess of the two civilisations, and their art, the Greeks and the Egyptians besides differed in their architecture. The Egyptians had pyramids that were really bland on the exterior, and had many suites inside, while the Greeks showed off their endowment on the exterior of many of their edifices. Grecian edifices had elephantine pillars and sculptures to adorn the exterior. The interior of a Grecian castle was one large unfastened room, where people would garner to pray.

Another major difference between these civilisations was the manner that each group perceived their swayers. The Greeks put their swayers on high bases, but in the Grecian civilization, countries started to develop called city states. City states were big, independently run states. Each of these city states had their ain swayer. This brought attending off from the swayers, and made the Gods the highest signifier of life, therefore the graphics. ( Greece, God, and Art, Liberman, pg.89 )

There were myths about people seting themselves on the same degree of the Gods and paying the monetary value for it. Besides, for the first clip in history, the people began to picture their Gods as human-like animals, with human defects such as green-eyed monster and hatred. This differs from the Egyptian manner of thought that the swayer ( Pharaoh ) was a godly animal. No Egyptian would differ with the Pharaoh, because he was the courier of God. ( Gods and Pharaohs from Egyptian Mythology, Harris, pg.151 )

If you were to compare the existent formal elements of these two sculptures, you could come up with decisions of what manners and life were like during these civilisations. The? Anonymous Official? had really overdone characteristics. The eyes were amygdaliform, and the face gave an feeling that this individual was unrealistic, or about god-like. On the other manus, the Grecian sculpture of the adult male? s caput was much more realistic in the adult male? s characteristics. His stare did non look absent, compared to the Egyptian work, and he was depicted as a normal adult male, and non as god-like. You can state that this is a adult male and he was made to be stately. Equally far as the Egyptian sculpture, if you were non told, so you would ne’er cognize that the sculpture was picturing an existent adult male. This is because of the deficiency of characteristics in Egyptian art. ( Howard, pg.155 )

When you look at art, it is difficult to acquire a true feeling of why the creative person made the work a certain manner. If you do non analyze the iconography, and the cultural background of the work, you have to speculate about its beginnings. In the past, I have gone to museums and looked at the art, and wondered to myself, ? What in the universe is this? ? It is non until now that I genuinely know a manner to acquire inside the creative person? s caput. If there is one thing that will ne’er alter about art, it is the fact that it will ever reflect its clip period and civilisation, good or bad.

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Harris, Geraldine, Gods and Pharaohs from Egyptian Mythology, Peter Bedrick Books, New York, 1981.

Howard, Kathleen, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994.

Liberman, Alexander, Greece, God, and Art, The Viking Press, New York, 1968.

Preziosi, Donald, The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology, Oxford University Press, New York, 1998.

Stokstad, Marilyn, Art: A Brief History, Prentice Hall, New York, 2000.