Narrative Relief Sculpture

How can relief sculptors use composition, line, and space to create tension in a story? How do they communicate who the "good guys" and "bad guys" are?

   To answer the question about using composition, line, and space to create tension in a story is illustrated perfectly in the Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus. This relief sculpture exhibits tension perfectly. What we see when we look at the sarcophagus is the lines or the lack thereof. In this sculpture there is a lack of straight lines across the entire piece. Only straight lines are found on the people and so without a continuous set of lines across the art work we get this jumbling of lines and it just looks like one big mess. This mess adds to the tension. Furthermore there is the lack of space. The depiction of the battle has no openness to it at all. People are piled upon each other and there is absolutely no room to move. The horses, romans, and gauls are in a tight squeeze. What this does is make it claustrophobic which results in increased tension. The composition is about a battle and so there will be of course tension as the two opposing forces try and kill each other.
   They way that an artist conveys who the good guys are is by the physical depictions. To make people look like the good guys they illustrate them to appear noble. The bad guys on the other hand look like savage wild men. Another way to distinguish between the good and bad is who are the gods backing up. If a good is helping one side it is pretty much granted that they are the good guys. Furthermore this is true almost all the time in which it could be considered an archetype; good guys always win. Because of this look at who's winning and they will probably also one hundred percent of the time be the good guys.
  

Egyptian culture v. Mesopotamian culture

Review the ways that geography shaped Egyptian culture. Compare Egyptian geography with that of Mesopotamia, noting the latter's violent flooding, temperature extremes, lack of natural barriers, and scarcity of building stone. How might these have created a culture different from that in Egypt?

   Egyptian geography contains mostly two things and that is the Nile which is where life in Egypt was centered. The Nile was very important as it sustained life in Egypt. They even had gods dedicated to it. The other geographical component of Egypt was the arid mountains and desert places. This is were they obtained rocks to make great structures and an example would be the pyramids.
   On the other hand the Mesopotamia culture was centered in between the two great rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates. These two rivers provided great fertile soil and plenty of water. But the down side to this was that the rivers were unpredictable sometimes there would be sever flooding. Because this area was centered in and around the two rivers there wasn't great mountains and quarries that they could get rocks to make great structures.
   This main difference between the Egyptians culture as compared to the Mesopotamians would be the Egyptians having stone and the Mesopotamians not having stone. For instance in Egypt the presence of stone led to the development of the great structures such as the pyramids, sphinx's and the temples. On the other hand the Mesopotamians didn't have stone so they could only build structures such as small wooden structures like the votive figures and the standard of Ur.

The Temple

Summarize the function of temples and discuss the separation of temples from tombs after the Old Kingdom in response to the tombs' functional failures. Do this for Hatshepsut's Temple and the Temple of Amun-Re.

 

 

    The function of temples in a quick summary is a place to where someone can come and worship their god. What we find in the New Kingdom in comparison to the Old kingdom is a reverse relationship between the tomb and the temple. In the Old Kingdom it was all about having a huge tomb which was the Great Pyramids and then having a way smaller temple. This way of doing things changed when the New Kingdom entered. An example of this would be Hatshepsut's Temple in which the temple that was dedicated to her was enormous in comparison to her actual burial place. The tombs came under their functional failure as a result of the crisis period between the Old Kingdom era and the New Kingdom. During this time Egypt was not united under a central government and there was a lot of revolution. Because of this there were grave robbers that tried to steal from the ancient tombs of the pharaohs and also the temples were under theft because of the decrease of power by the state. Overall there was a lack of reverence for the gods of Egypt and the pharaohs.

   Hatshepsut’s temple was looked down upon because she was in fact a woman and actually they never found her mummy. Whenever she died her successor sought to eliminate all traces of her rule by seeking to destroy all the statues and other monuments made unto her.

   The Temple of Amun-Re is referred to as “the house of Amun”. There was a statue of Amun in the Temple and the priest would come each day to give drink, food, and even bath the statue of the god because they believed that the statue was the embodiment of Amun of earth and so they sought to really take care of the temple. The temple was made in Thebes the religious and power center for Egypt.  

   

Speculate

Using the image attached (image.jpg) speculate about the subject matter, then compare it to the statue of Lady Justice (see attached).

   If I were to speculate about the subject matter of the attached image which is the Last Judgment of Hu-Nefer from the Book of the Dead I would say this is about the final judgment of a person's soul. What is being depicted is a person's soul or heart is put into a soul and is weighted on the scale against the feather of truth. If the heart or soul weighs more  than the feather than the person's soul will be eaten by the crocodile dog looking animal. The people at top that are sitting down are waiting for their turn to get judged. The guy in white with the crook and frail is the god of the dead and his name starts with an "O" and he is over seeing the entire judging.
   If you compare this image of the Last Judgment to the statue of Lady Justice you will see a parallel. Inside of the Lady holding the scales which will measure a soul vs. a feather she is holding the scales which measure someone's doings with that of the law of the land. The Lady Justice and the Last Judgment are depicting the exact same concept but in a different cultural setting and place. They both depict someone's actions being judged. And that final judgment will result in a consequence of some sort or freedom.

Akhenaten

Discuss how the sculpture of Menkaura suggests the authority and divinity of the pharaoh. Compare that image with the colossal figure of Akhenaten. Explain the religious reasons behind Akhenaten deviating from artistic conventions to convey that he is not divine. Sketch the relief sculpture (p.71) and discuss the ways it breaks from Egyptian conventions.

   The sculpture of Menkaura suggest the authority and divinity of the pharaoh because the sculpture was thought to be covered in precious jewels that would include the cobra that was to wrap around his head and the rest of the official pharaoh garments. This is thought to be true because the pharaoh is in his under garments and no pharaoh would allow a display of his undergarments and appear weak or common to his subjects. And so with the special clothes and precious jewels adorning the statue of Menkaura this would depict him as having authority and divinity in his own temple.
   The statue of Menkaura is different than the colossal figure of Akhenaten in several ways. One way is that the statue is carved with Akhenaten clothed styling the official crook and flail with him. Another difference and probably the most significant difference between these two statues is that Akhenaten has more of an elongated style while Menkaura is depicted more natural looking. This is because Akhenaten changed the style of Egyptian art when he became the pharaoh and even changed the religious structure by proclaiming a monotheistic religion. Well this particular style and religion were only in existence during this time period and then it went back to old ways.

  This is my rendition of Akhenaten and his Family. Some ways in which this artwork does not fit the conventional artwork of the rest of the entire span of ancient Egyptian art is the elongated naturalistic bodies. At first it seems as if the couple and their child have a disorder of something but it is just the way that they are depicted. Usually the art consist of blocky,lifeless figures but here the figures seem to be more real, full of life, and human. Furthermore, one other difference would be that the picture itself. Most of the time and actually all of the other times the figures are displayed during an activity that for example would consist of participating in a religious ritual. Never before has there been a depiction of the pharaohs and their family showing affection and doing something that makes them look like a normal common couple. Also another thing would be that the sun looking thing and the top center is actually the one god that he claims. This differentiates because all of the other pharaohs had multiple gods.