Art History Response Essay

Art History Response Essay

Introduction

Art history can be traced back to different historical periods, including medieval and renaissance. It is a powerful means of communicating a diverse number of topics or themes. It encompasses various artifacts ranging from paintings, decorations, sculpture, and even architecture. Through art, artists express different messages depending on their target area of specification. This paper will focus on religion, political, lifestyle, and gender art over various periods.

Religion Art

Religion permeated the Egyptian world. Their religious beliefs shaped the Egyptian’s general perspective of the world.  They believed that the gods had created their earliest forms of social structures, and therefore, there was a need to preserve these perfect and sacred forms. All through old Egypt’s history, the belief of life after death strongly influenced the development of artworks and architecture. The forms of artworks and architecture were a direct result of religious festivals. And in this way, the expressions of the arts showed their religious beliefs and rituals. These strong beliefs and spiritual practices are evident in several artworks and architecture.

The Great Pyramids of Khufu, Khafra and Menkaure, (2551-2472 BC), which stand at 450 inches tall epitomize Ancient Egypt’s painting and sculpture. The impressive tombs have lasted for over 4000 years and continue to amaze many. Similarly, other surviving artworks from Ancient Egypt are majorly tombs and monuments. This shows Egyptians’ firm beliefs of life hereafter and the need to preserve and maintain forms from the past.

Additionally, the human progress in Ancient Egypt was highly religious. Therefore, most Egyptian works of art include the delineation of many divine beings and goddesses. The gold sculpture, Funerary Mask of King Tutankhamun, 1323 BC, is a famous artwork representing this form of art. The remarkable theological changes during the Amarna Period led to the rise of artistic expression that shows a clear link between art and religion.

Political Art

Generally, art in itself is inseparable from society, and al through historical periods, artists tend to focus on the present, thereby bringing to light artistic truths to the people generally. According to two great scholars, Plato and Aristotle, mimesis (creative creation act) cannot be separated from the idea that the natural, art tends to represent or, in a way, contrast with the different aspects of society, including the truth, the good and the beauty. Political artists typically focus on the context of their artistic practice and therefore create politically engaging art. There are several Sumerian, Ancient Egyptian, and Chinese art and architecture that bears political derivations.

Ancient Egypt underwent a kind of social transformation when Pharaoh Amenhotep IV and Queen Nefertiti took over. Naturally introduced to the religion of Amon, a line that venerated a broad scope of divine beings, Amenhotep changed his name to Akhenaton and, fortified by his control of the military, founded the love of solitary god, Aten. Further, the two moved the royal court and capital to Amarna. This prompted an extreme break with custom, particularly in human expressions, particularly, sculpture and painting. They turned out to be more naturalistic and more powerful than the static guideline bound craft of prior periods. Accurately, the Amarna style of craftsmanship was portrayed by a feeling of development and action. Artworks of Egyptian nobles stopped to be admired, and some were even mimicked. The nearness of Aten in numerous artworks was spoken to by a brilliant circle sparkling down from above. An excellent example of such artwork is Akhenaton and Family painted on a limestone relief during the Amarna period (1353-1335 BC).

Lifestyle Art

Lifestyle generally encompasses people’s way of living, their day to day practices, interests, opinions, and even behaviors. Over different periods, there have been various works of art that depict different lifestyles of given people. The earliest life style artifacts are traced back to the 15th century BCE, with Egyptians as the pioneers. There has been a discovery of portraits of food, including crops, fish, and meat, in burial sites in ancient times. Besides, there was a production of similar depictions of inanimate objects in Ancient Sumeria.

During the period of Uruk, a significant number of developments and creations emerged in Ancient Sumeria. One of these developments included the use of art to show the ruling class and their position in society. Uruk Vase is one of the famous examples of this form of artwork.

Nevertheless, modern artistry focuses on putting life into a painting of contemporary day objects, foods, and other decoration, thereby having a twist from the traditional forms of art of lifestyle.

Gender Art

Aside from the biological and physical sex determinants, masculinity and femininity are socially and culturally classified in art presentations, this kind of art presentations are an outcome of cultural sexual and social identity definition. Of the earliest examples of picture art representing gender is the Paleolithic statuette Venus of Willendorf that was faceless, and its interpretation and representation was feminine fertility (c. 28,000–25,000 b.c.e.). There have also been other beautiful paintings and carvings that represent either gender in an attempt to pass a message on femininity or masculinity. These include an Upper Paleolithic (Aurignacian) sculpture,called Venus of Laussel consisting of engravings and paintings of caves paintings discovered in shelters of caves in Europe when ice covered the earth (about 40,000–14,000 years ago). Most gender art paintings advocated for gender equality, social justice, or even generally gender roles.