Post by Victoria Vicencio

49 mins agoRe: Week 6 | Discussion – Representations of the Body

Ancient Egyptians are is one of the earliest forms of art that have been documented. Each female and male figures in these photos are all faced forward as in looking forward in the future. When looking directly at the man and the women in the painting towards the far left you can see the man has his arm wrapped around the women’s neck as a sign of power over her. The people are also depicted with darker tinted skin which would accurate for the time and place setting of that era.

 Reflecting on Geek art, on the other hand, shows the power and accepts nudity. With Greek art, it was very common to display nudity while also highlighting muscle tone, facial features, and body language.  Nudity in this time era is not meant to be taken sexual rather as accepting. With this sculpture, the man has a more relaxed body as he is comfortable speaking with this woman. They are slightly led in as if they were getting ready to share a kiss.

• Although each era has its own representation of human form in artwork some make others more distinguished. For example, the Egyptian era had more stiff body movements, such as only facing forward faces, while the Greek sculptures had more movement. In my own opinion, many cultures create repressions of the human form in their own art to show the pride and strength of one’s culture! For example, The greek use nudity and detailed features to show love and pride of their own culture and rather than use nudity as a sexual asset they used it to show acceptance of oneself. 

 

Post by Elizabeth Vanesian

1 day agoweek 6

In ancient Egypt, there was a “canon, or set of principles and norms for the representation of royals, including how they must look: proportions, their stance, details” (Sachant and Blood, 2016, pg 103).  The figures of Pharaoh Menkaure and Queen Khamerernebty are shown as young, fit and well proportioned. Being fit was a sign of strength, and as royalty this was important to uphold. According to Sachant and Blood, 2016), in regards to his favor with the gods and fitness to rule, he was required to be in top physical condition; this resulted in the idealization of the natural physical form. https://bit.ly/38Kto5F 

In ancient Greece, when the Olympics were held, artists took note of physique.  It should be noted that more accuracy in detail started to occur in sculptures. According to Sachant and Blood (2016), the High Classical period, 450-400 BCE is considered to be the epitome of naturalism in artistic depiction of male physique: muscular and toned.  The Olympics were held in honor of Zeus, and the most athletic men performed the best. https://bit.ly/37H2ydj 

In contemporary visual culture, globalization and the internet are no longer new facets of how we consume media.  When a large corporation sets an ideal, and society as a whole is trying to be “perfect” all the time, it makes sense why ideal beauty standards were a valid set of features that everyone had to conform to.  Now that we have recognized that there is no ideal anymore, for example, https://bit.ly/2T1Cbt8 being stick-skinny with a thigh gap is no longer an ideal young women chase.  

Companies are now showing models that have varying shapes and sizes.  Recently, Hollister put outhttps://bit.ly/2V71sF9 this ad that includes body-positive influencer Sierra Schultzzie.  It is a huge step for companies who used to bow to the standards for women (and men!) now have diversity.  It is a sign of a shifting perception of the human form in contemporary society.  

References

Sachant, P. J., Blood, P (2016). Introduction to art: design, context, and meaning. Dahlonega, GA: University of North Georgia Press.