Human Nature and Cultural Impact on Art

1. Explain why you selected each of the three videos you choose from the selection listed above.

I chose these videos, because they seemed different than the others and peaked my interest.

2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

More Human Than Human

-The human body dominates the lives of people and has been the obsession of some of the world’s greatest artists.

-The world’s popular images of the human body share one common feature: none of the images actually resembles a real human figure.

-Ancient ancestors lived in the Danube River valley and evidence of their passing is scant and hard to find.

-In the early 1900s, three Austrian archaeologists hoped to make an important find when they excavated the Danube River valley.

-in 1908, one archaeologist discovered a dull intact statue of a female figure.

-A 25,000 year old statue is valued at $60 million today. The statue, Venus of Willendorf, provides clues about the human tendency to make unrealistic human figures.

-Like the Venus, the Russian statue has exaggerated features. The same is true of the French Venus of Grimaldi and the Moravany Venus of Slovakia.

-Herring gull research shows that a chick is stimulated by the sight of the red dot on the mother’s beak- as well as any other representation of red, like a stripe on a stick.

-Human ancestor’s brains may have been pre-programmed to exaggerate features of the female figure that were of greatest importance.

-After more than 100,000 years of nomadic hunting and gathering life for humans across the globe was about to change. As the weather changed, land also changed. Water disappeared and nomads gathered along rivers.

-By 5,000 BC, Egypt was a fully settled civilization. Agriculture, organized government, and a strict social hierarchy were stabilizing forces. Egyptians used images of the body extensively in their art.

-In the tomb of Ramses VI, there are thousands of images of the human body. None of the figures has exaggerated features. The instinct to exaggerate did not survive into the Egyptian era.

-Egyptian images of the human form are mostly proportional and emphasize all body parts equally, but they are not realistic representations.

-Egyptian artists showed each human body part from its clearest angle.

-Over 3,000 years of Egyptian dominance, the style of figure drawing did not change. The Egyptians preserved their style of representing the human figure for thousands of years.

-Grid lines found in an underground tomb show how the Egyptians maintained their consistency in representing the human form. Consistence is a cultural value upon which the Egyptian civilization was built.

-Egyptians created images of the body in a consistent way for 3000 years because of their culture. “Culture is king” when it comes to artistic depiction of the human form.

-In 1972, an Italian vacationer makes a discovery that stirs the art world.  He discovers two statues known as the Riace bronzes.

-Statues from ancient Greece are anatomically accurate and in perfect proportion, just as the human form is.

-Ancient Greeks were preoccupied with philosophy and mathematics. They believed in multiple gods and goddesses. Ancient Greeks were fixated with the body.

-The Greeks believed that the gods took human form and that these gods had beautiful bodies. Good looks were associated with good moral fiber.

-In Greek temples, people expected to see images of their gods that were realistic.

-Greek and Egyptian cultures intermixed, and Greeks learned to make larger statues like the Egyptians did.

-Greek and Egyptian artists worked together, but the Egyptian style did not suit the Greeks, who still demanded realistic statues. Greek artists studied every aspect of the human form, striving to reproduce the form perfectly.

-With the Kritios Boy, the Greek artist mastered a complete understanding of how the different parts of the body act as a system.

-Within a generation after Kritios Boy, the Greeks abandoned realism in their statuary. Some argue that humans have a primeval tendency to exaggerate.

-The problem with Kritios Boy was his boring realism. Greek artists understand that real art would require doing “interesting things” with the human figure.

-In 450 BC, Polyclitus made an artistic breakthrough in sculpture. He divided the body into quadrants and moved the parts to create a sense of movement.

-Polyclitus captured the human figure poised for action and the dynamic counterbalance between the relaxed and tenses body parts, and between the directions in which the parts move.

-The Riace bronzes are two famous full-size Greek bronzes of nude bearded warriors, cast about 460-430 BC. Some say these are the “greatest statues ever made.”

-The Riace bronzes take Polyclitus’ quadrants even further. At first glance, the statues appear to look like real men, yet exaggerations that make them so stunning are also unrealistic.

-The Riace bronzes prove that culture capable of realism chose to exaggerate the human figure. The instinct to do this had been alive in the brains of early humans, and the Greeks had revived it.

-The Greeks cared about physical perfection, and so too did Michelangelo. His sculptures were more human than human. Over time, what artists chose to exaggerate about the human body changed.

-Today, the art of caricature is fueled by the human desire to exaggerate what is important to a culture. Examples of “more human than human” humans include catwalk models and marketing images.

Cataclysm

-In the first decades of the 1300s, Tuscan society flourished. Sienna and Florence competed with each other in their architectural achievements. Business and multinational banked then failed. Florentines were wary of Sienna’s interest in real estate.

-The Plague is carried from China to Europe. Florentine banks collapse in mid-thirteenth century. The plague reaches Tuscany in 1348. Death is everywhere. The Plague lasts seven months and kills up to one-half of Europe’s population.

-In “Decameron,” Boccaccio describes the Black Plague. Many survivors move to the countryside to escape the harrowing scenes in the city. The Sienese build a small cathedral in thanks to the Virgin Mary when the Plague is over.

-The Plague physically changed cities. Christian mosaics depict heaven, hell, and other Christian motifs such as the second coming of Christ. The final judgment shows gruesome images of hell.

-A good death in Medieval times was the focus of a good life. Care for the dead and dying held great meaning. Suspicions about the Plague fell upon Jews who were thought to be poisoning Christians. Consequences for the Jews were catastrophic.

-Suspicion and fear ruled Europe. Cities no longer welcomed travelers or outsiders for fear of the Plague. The Christian view of God changed to the vengeful god of the Old Testament. Flagellants travel throughout Europe to expiate their sins and bring an end to the pestilence.

-Painting changed in significant ways after the Plague. Figures emerge flatter than in the previous century. Taddeo di Bartolo paints gruesome images of hell. Post-Plague art is less realistic than the earlier masters such as Giotto.

-Giotto treats art as a service to mankind, depicting figures with human emotions that tell their stories. The great Renaissance painters depict three-dimensional depth with the use of the vanishing point.

-The Cathedral Foundation for the Duomo spans five hundred years in Florence. Modern art restorers use Renaissance tools to repair great works of art. Many Renaissance crafts are alive and well in Florence today.

-The Renaissance period left many legacies: rise of the modern city, modern banking, literature, arts, Arabic numerals, eyeglasses, charities, paved streets, and underground water systems.

-A spirit of inquiry catalyzes new developments in government, the arts, and science. The greatest innovation after the Plague is a new way of thinking about ourselves. St. Francis of Assisi sees the greatness of god in nature. Naturalism changes the way we see the world.

Cairo Museum

-The Egyptian Museum in Cairo houses relics and artifacts of thirty dynasties of pharaohs. Some of the greatest treasures of all lay in the museum’s basement.

-Tens of thousands of objects of rare beauty, mystery, and iconic power draw visitors from all over the world.

-The Egyptian Museum contains 160,000 artifacts, yet only half are on display. The other half is hidden below the museum’s marble floors.

-Many of the artifacts in the basement of the Egyptian Museum arrived over 100 years ago, and still have not been opened. One artifact is a foot fitted with an artificial toe.

-Without the discovery of a goat herder looking for a lost goat, the Valley of the Kings, as it is now known, might not have revealed its secrets.

-In 1991, Egyptian authorities suspected tomb robbing and brought in a German archaeologist. The goat herder gives up his secrets. At least 40 mummies lay inside the cache.

-Mummies of the great pharaohs of Egypt were transported from their hiding place near Luxor to the museum in Cairo.

-The Cairo Museum prepares for its centennial celebration. New galleries are added to unused portions of the museum. Long-forgotten artifacts will be brought out and put on display.  

-While the museum curator searches for hidden treasures in the Cairo Museum, the Director of Antiquities visits a recently discovered site of 65 tombs.

-Inside a priest’s tomb are extraordinary scenes glowing with color. Inscriptions provide details of the priest’s life.

-A statue of Kai, a high priest of Khufu, is perhaps the most amazing artifact in Egypt. The statue will appear among other never-before-seen treasures in the Cairo Museum’s centennial exhibition.

-Artists and technicians carefully preserve long-hidden artifacts, many of which had never been on display. Conservation of artifacts begins in the field.

-In 1925, an expedition from Boston worked in the shadow of Khufu’s pyramid. They discovered a deep shaft that led to the tomb of Khufu’s mother.

-The discovery of the queen’s tomb by George Riesner demonstrated how carefully he preserved the site. He worked daily for 10 years, documenting and excavating nearly every particle in the tomb.

-The queen’s throne is the only remaining artifact to be recreated since the tomb’s discovery in 1925.

-Tiny sarcophagi are unpacked and determined to be the final resting places of shrews, animals considered sacred by the god Horus.

-Some of King Tut’s jewelry and funerary objects will be on display at the Cairo Museum’s centennial celebration. The public has never before seen his chariot harness.

-Like an ancient temple of a pharaoh, the museum is filled with statues, packed with people, and full of life.

-The 100^th birthday celebration for the Cairo Museum will reveal many hidden treasures, now exposed to the world for the first time. The finest piece may be the statue of the high priest Kai.

3. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

I think these videos really show how much culture, surroundings, and environment, can really impact artistic styles and movements. We can also see how being human can affect artistic styles.

4. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

I really enjoyed the “More human than human” video, because I never quite though on such a philosophical level about why Greek statues were so idolized as human perfectionism. It seems ironic, because humans are not perfect, thus the artists and people learned that it wasn’t realism. The realistic style became boring to them, because everything that is the same holds no uniqueness or character. That is what makes the human body, human nature, and different cultures so amazing about life.