Arts Essay

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Words: 1705
Pages: 7
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Artworks:
Ancient - Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Renaissance - Mona Lisa
Modern - The Scream

Essay
Ancient - Statue of Zeus (Phidias)
The Statue of Zeus, is a giant sculpted figure created by a man by the name of Phidias. It is located in a sanctuary in Greece and was known to be created approximately 435 BC. The artwork in itself depicts the king of the Greek god’s named ‘Zeus’ and the overall reasoning behind Phidias’ creation was to honour him and portray his significance to their society. The sculpture was placed in a sacred Temple at Olympia, a shrine dedicated to Zeus where the Olympic Games would occur every four years.

Phidias was a Greek sculptor, painter and architect who was alive during the 5th Century BC, and is widely considered and known as one of the greatest sculptors of Ancient Greece. Not only did he sculpt the Statue of Zeus but he also designed the famous statue of the goddess Athena. No original artworks in existence can be credited to Phidias for sure because almost all ancient Greek paintings or sculptures have been destroyed/lost, and only Roman copies or adaptations of them exist. This wasn’t uncommon as the Ancient Romans frequently copied and further adjusted Greek artworks. His work was highly respected by many in those times as well.

Contrary to what most people think, the Statue of Zeus actually stands at 12.8 metres in height and was made from a wooden frame and required extreme care because Olympia was a very warm place and humidity could potentially damage the delicate art. Olive oil was regularly applied to the statue to keep the wood from degenerating, it was also and totally covered in ivory/gold panels. The statue itself was destroyed by fire in the fifth century CE with no copies ever to be tracked back. All the details of the artwork today are taken from depictions on coins and ancient Greek descriptions.
A man by the name of Dio Crisostomo’s, who claimed to have visited the Statue of Zeus described it as being made of precious stones, gold, ivory, and ebony. He also said that there were various images of specific animals, such as sphinxes and different Greek gods carved onto the chair.

In conclusion, the Statue of Zeus by Phidias is definitely an artwork of importance to our history, it shows a lot diversity throughout the whole piece of art and it’s delicacy to Ancient Greek culture.

Renaissance – Mona Lisa (Leonardo de Vinci)
The Mona Lisa is an extraordinary painting made by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, it illustrates one of the most famous works of art known to humanity. This is backed up by the statistics behind the artwork, as it is claimed as the ‘best known, most visited, most written about, most sung about, and the most parodied work of art in the world’. The image has caused many disputes and is controversial on what the artwork actually represents.
Leonardo de Vinci himself was known to be a very intellect individual, he was known to be a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. He’s also often been described as the archetype of ‘Renaissance Man’ because of his intelligence. It is believed that the Mona Lisa artwork was painted after 1503 and took De Vinci approximately three years to complete it entirely. The image illustrated is said to be the wife of a famous cloth merchant from Florence by the name of Francesco Del Giocondo, so it is believed that the woman in that painting itself is a lady named Lisa Gherardini. Nevertheless, the debates on the Mona Lisa are yet to be solved in our day and age. The image has ultimately grasped the audience’s attention because of significant through communicant and engagement with the viewers. The artwork was stolen in 1911 from Salon Carre but was quickly retrieved from Florence, this gave the illustration publicity and its fame grew even further.
The portrait itself is believed to be ‘generous’ in its dimension as the arms and
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