Free Human Forms Essay Sample

Introduction

Art has played a significant role since Paleolithic times to date. It has been the conduit through which pertinent insinuations about life were passed over from one generation to another. Art was and is still richly expressed in various genres such as drawings, curving of sculptures, paintings, pottery, modelling, among others. The most durable and widely used genre from ancient times was sculpture. This entailed curving or engraving onto rocks such as Quartzite which is known for its luster and tenacity to come up with human forms. This essay describes the development of depicting the human form as it has been the trend from Paleolithic art through the arts of Ancient near-East, Ancient Egypt, the Aegean and Greek cultures; citing 3-11 Great Sphinx (with Pyramid of Khafre in the background at left), 1-5 Nude woman, from Willendorf, Austria,Gizeh, Egypt, Fourth Dynasty and 5-39 Myron, Diskobolos. It also describes the significance that this kind genre has served and to whether there has been any clear development so far.

Development of Depicting the human from from paleolithic art

The art of depicting the human form dates back from prehistoric times which entailed 3 prehistoric epochs namely: Paleolithic , Mesolithic and Neolithic. Human forms were first grooved or engraved on quartzite rock surfaces of even caves which were then prevalent shelters. One the oldest and most famous of all prehistoric human forms is the figurine of a women which has for long been referred to as the Venus of Willendorf in Germany, which portrays the embellished anatomy of a nude woman. The miniature was used to denote the fertile nature of human race. Other Venuses figurines found in other places in the world include the Venus of Kostenky, Monpazier, Donly, Vestonice, Moravany, Brassempouy, Gagarino, among others. They signified different cultural and spiritual implications such as beauty, goddesses, and so on.

Besides the Venus of Willendorf, there is the Great Sphinx which is largest statue in the ancient near east-found at Valley temple in Khafre Egypt. The statue which portrays the face of pharaoh engraved on the lions head is associated with sun god. It is one of the fourth dynasty sculptures curved from sandstone rock between 2520 to 2492 BCE. The sphinx symbolized the immense strength and authority that Pharaohs institution was associated with during that time. The subjects would assemble around the statue occasionally as a way of paying tribute to their leader and god. This was a pertinent monument in the Egyptian history that has hitherto remained a historical and a tourist attraction.

Other famous human forms included the Charioteer of Delphi, Artemission Zeus of Greece and Myron Diskobolos. All of them are male and curved from bronze metal. Charioteer was a monument formed to commemorate the victory of the tyrant Polyzalos of Gela. Standing in a most archaic pose, the Charioteer constitutes the image of the driver, the chariot, a young groom and a team of horses which often was a symbol of royalty and power of the Polyzalos. On the other hand the Artemission Zeus of Greece is one of the earliest classical statues that is found right in the middle of Athens City, Greece. It is believed to have been curved from bronze between 460 to 450 BCE and amazingly it is still firm to date. The Zeus was a curving which portrayed a male human, totally necked and displaying stretched thunderbolt arms. This signified the pioneer Greek champions of sports that make Greece famous. Probably the statue represents a javelin thrower who is still in that position with one leg raise off the ground. Similarly, Myron Diskomolos was a Roman curving of a necked athlete throwing a discus. He too was curved for similar implication as the Zeus.

The final human form that is discussed in this essay is Polykleitos Doryphorus alias Spear bearer. This male statue stands nude in Pompeii, Italy portraying a perfect person authorized to impose order on human movement. It was curved between 450 to 440 BCE by an archeologist known as Nazionale Naples. The prehistoric art was divided into various periods within which they were formed. The first one was the Dark Ages, which are said to have been created between 1100-900 BCE, followed by the Period of Geometrics that is said to have occurred between 900 to 700 BCE. The third period was the Oriental-Style which occurred between 700 and 625 BCE, and succeeded by the Archaic period that existed between 625-500 BCE. This was followed by the Classical Period that came between 500-323 BCE. The final period which existed between 323 and 100 BCE was the Hellenistic Period. Most of the human artistic forms constituted nude human anatomy and occurred during the archaic period and the Hellenistic period.

Significance of Depicting human art 450

Most sculptors expressed their genre by forming human to denote the fertile essence of human race. This was especially through portraying of women who are nude. Usually procreation takes place in the state of nudeness and there would not have been any better way to express that other than revealing the true anatomy. Similarly, nude women forms were used in some circumstance to denote the vulnerability of female gender, which needed to be protected at all times especially during wars. More often than not women forms that would symbolize this were portrayed alongside their infants either at the back of near their chests.

In the same breath, human forms were portrayed with cultural and religious implications. Some culture which had numerous gods like the Greek would have some human art forms signifying gods of beauty, gods of rain, gods of harvest, among others. In addition to that some societies that valued certain sports such as athletics would create human forms to imply their steadfastness in that sport and or games. Despite that, human forms especially in the Ancient Egypt were created near the Pharaohs residences to signify power and authority of the leaders of monarchs while other mere were portrayed as symbols of courage especially in areas where war was prevalent.

Conclusion

Art was and is still an imperative way through which important ideas about the society are conveyed from one generation to another. It is a perfect way because information is stored for ages in various genres as long every generation safeguards the genre. Apart from sculpture art has prevailed in other genres such as drawing and painting of important scenes and celebrities, pottery where certain cultural artifacts are still preserved, curving and sculpture. Through these various genres the contemporary society is able to connect with the fore fathers in determining the level of advancement that has been taking place in the society and the king of transformations that would have taken place in aspects such as political and socio-economic development. It is high time that art was embrace and taken to another level taking advantage of the advances that have continued to take place in technology. However, mush as the world needs to embrace art through different genres, the underlying concepts should be to uphold the rightful moral, cultural and religious values, which are core to peaceful and harmonious existence. There are a number of people who have however violated this concept and used art contrary to the conventional significance of art. This has often turned out to be detrimental to the society. There is dire need to learn hard lessons from the past lest the society loses direction.

 

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