It is located in Giza where it guards the front of Khafra's pyramid. The greatest monumental sculpture in the ancient world, the Sphinx is carved out of a single ridge of stone 240 feet (73 meters) long and 66 feet (20 meters) high. The sphinx is built of soft sandstone and would have disappeared long ago had it not been buried for so long. It was the first time that a pharaoh had been represented in this way with the body of a lion, even though this animal had symbolised royalty ancient Egypt’s beginnings around 3000 BC. The animal body of the Sphinx in fact represented the king’s triumphant strength.
The Lion Gate at Mycenae Michelle L. Violet 1st Hour Over the years the Lion gate has become the trademark of the entire archaeological site of Mycenae. It is said to be the oldest monumental structure in Europe. Still today, Lions are used as statues to show power and give off a sense of intimidation. The Lion Gate marks the entrance of the fortified citadel of Mycenae. Located at the corner in the wall, it somewhat forces visitors to approach it by traveling a long walkway in which the city wall is to their left leaving their right side completely open and unprotected.
Test I - Essay Question 2 The Assyrian and Persian empires are both sources of several works of art that contribute to the ancient Near Eastern culture. I chose to compare and contrast two relief panels depicting the Assyrian and Persian kingship. The first is Assurnasirpal II Killing Lions found in the palace of its namesake, in Kalhu (modern Nimrud, Iraq) and dates to circa 875 – 860 BCE. The second relief panel is Darius and Xerxes Receiving Tribute, a processional frieze found in the Apadana stairway, in Persepolis, Iran; and it dates back to circa 521 – 465 BCE. These pieces not only showcase similarities and differences in style and technique but also the strong points of both empires and essentially the reason why Assurnasirpal and Darius were successful leaders, each in their own way.
The term kouros translates to boy in Ancient Greek . The metropolitan Kouros is one of many kouros statues, as they were very popular in Greece to use in tombs. Many of the kouros statues are similar, another well known is the Getty Kouros, which in my opinion looks more developed and possibly depicting an older boy. As for the Metropolitan Kouros, the medium used is solid marble, and there is no certainty of who crafted the piece. The statue is that of a nude young man striding forward.
Although limestone was available the building material primarily used was stone, especially high quality marble. There was an abundance of marble both on the main lands and the islands of Greece. Marble was a major contributor of precision of details in the architecture of the ancient Greek. The ancient Greeks developed temple architecture over time. The rectangular temple, like the Parthenon, is the most well-known form of Greek public architecture.
The Kouros is one of the earliest life-size statuary in the history of Greek Art. Unlike more modern and accurate sculptures the Kourous’s slim waste and pointed arch of its rib cage creates a V shaped ridge of the hips. This form does not depict the budging flesh associated with muscle of the human body. Like many other early
The Marble Statue of Kouros (male youth) is the earliest known life-size sculpture of a standing male from the Archaic period. The height without plinth of this statue is the 76, 5/8 inches. This statue is from Attica, Athens c.600 B.C. In addition, the kouros statue has some characteristics like the frontal pose, the lock in stone; the advance left foot and the clenched hands, which shows to us the Egyptian influence in the Greek art. This sculpture celebrates the young figure of the man.
Lysippos was big for his way of sculpting the scraper and how it has a great effect on future artist. He was able to portray his sculpture in human form that looked very natural. The kind of artwork that the scraper is happens to be a sculpture that is 2.05 meters in height and made of bronze. The only one that exist is the recreation of the sculpture that is made of marble in an art museum in New York. It is a life sized sculpture
The Human-headed winged bull and winged lion alone had many different designs and for such a big sculpture it had a lot of details in the wings, feet, face, and the beard of the creature. These designs followed along with more of the art that was created in the empire. In “The King and Eunuch Attendant” (Fig. 3), which was another carving made to protect the empire walls, there seems to follow a similar design and overall feel of the “Human-headed winged bull and winged lion” (Fig. 1).
Egyptians were devoted to their gods and to their pharaohs who were gods on earth. This obsession with higher power is shown very abundantly through Egyptian art. As an artist myself I feel very connected to this form of expression. If I had been born in Ancient Egypt around the year 2000 B.C., I feel like I would most certainly have been an artist of their culture as well because it is part of who I am and who I was born to be. Egyptian art and architecture developed independently and revolved around the concept of immortality.