History of Western Art Comparison 1

A Progression of Idealistic paragon in Sculpture Khafre Enthr one(a)d to Kritios boy Early Egyptian art from the anile Kingdom, ca. 2575-2134 BCE, demonstrates uniform structure. Egyptian artists and sculptors adhered to a system of strict rules known as command to create this consistency. The Egyptian canon suggested perfection to be a rigid, ageless idealisation of reality. Roughly 1,500 years later, a progressive canon emerged in Greek art reflecting new ideals of perfection. Greek art origin in the Early sheer Period, ca. 80- 450 BCE, digressed from the acceptance of formula (influenced by Egyptian canon) to reflect greater pragmatism, an adherence to close observation of reality. Greek perfection was achieved through rational ordering of the world, in which the canon was based on a mathematical system of proportion. A comparison of two shapes, Khafre Enthroned from the Egyptian Old Kingdom Period and Kritios male child from the Greek Early Classical Period, illustrates a progression of entrust to achieve perfection from Egyptian ideals of noesis and completeness to Greek ideals of vision and the natural.These sculptures represent an advancement of artistic technique from placed formula to fluid rationality, twain with a shared desire for excellence. The granite sculpture of Khafre Enthroned from Gizeh, Egypt, ca. 2500 BCE was recovered from the valley temple of pharaoh Khafre. Functioning as a funerary statue, it provided a substitute for the pharaohs soul, or ka. Khafre wears a plain kilt and displays Egyptian royalty with headdress and false beard. His flawless, muscular body sits upright with one hand clenched in a fist.In addition to rigid posture, Khafres face is emotionless yet serene. Iconography of divine rule and unification bolster the sculpture with lions bodies and papyrus plants decorating the throne, and a falcon sheltering pharaohs head. Like the immortality of the soul, Khafre appears to be timeless without regard to his real age or appearance. Khafre Enthroned aims to represent the divine nature of Egyptian rule as idealization of human form to a god-like perfection. The marble sculpture of Kritios Boy from Greece, ca. 80 BCE marks an influential point of stylistic developing. In contrast to Khafre Enthroned, The Kritios Boy was created for a public audience. The Kritios Boys standing pose represents a freedom in his figure that divorces the solidity of the stiffly seated Khafre. preferably than emanating timelessness, this naturalistic sculpture seems to capture a specific moment in time. Mirroring a normal human stance of balance and weight modify onto one leg, his stature is contrapposto.Furthermore, the Kritios Boys physical composition maintains a smooth contour to his natural musculature. His head is slightly turned with tomentum that seems to fall effortlessly in place. He is completely naked, wearing solo a relaxed expression on his face. With no indication of identity, the Kritios Boy exe mplifies naturalism in Greek drive to order to analyze form into voice parts and represent the specific in light of the generic. The figure sculptures of Khafre Enthroned and Kritios Boy exhibit a start and end point in an evolution of artistic technique.Although a single male figure is the subject of both(prenominal) works, canon clearly develops from Khafre Enthroned to Kritios Boy. Both works express a desire for perfection with the use of contrasting ideals. Egyptian artists prized completeness and timeless to achieve a god-like representation. Later, artistic form advances as Greeks sought naturalism and rationality. The culmination of both early rigid and fluid canons formed Greek ideals of balance between the timeless and present. This drive to order led to foundations of Greek art that dramatically influenced art history from that point on.