Time Traveling Art Historian Summary

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Pages: 7

Time Traveling, Art Historian Book Chapters My life so far has been wonderful, exciting, and beautiful because of my unique ability to travel through time. The power of time-travel that I possess has let me explore the art of many past cultures and civilizations. I have written a book which takes the reader on a tour of Egyptian and Roman civilizations through their various arts and means of creation. It also goes into the description and significance of the art that I saw in Italy during their renaissance period. My book gives readers the means to identify parts of the cultural aspects of each civilization as it relates to a particular period in time and its art. I analyze one piece of art from each civilization that I discuss in my …show more content…
Their society was one of the first and longest-running human civilizations in human history. Human art history owes a lot to ancient Egyptian culture and the art that records it. Egyptians created art to help themselves reach the afterlife easily and successfully, and to please their gods (2008). The Egyptians were able to create art, in part, because their society was stable enough to let them. Reflecting this, their art is concerned with reproducing and honoring form and order. Their depictions were not realistic but instead concerned with their traditional religious beliefs. They made metal works, buildings, sculptures, paintings, ceramics, and their famous hieroglyphics. Their materials included granite, clay, wood, soft stones like sandstone, metal, and ivory. Their art aimed to maintain their culture's important spiritual values. Egyptian art was, in turn, influenced by the art and culture of the ancient Mesopotamians, who were the first known civilization. Mesopotamian art tended to be pottery decorated with natural scenes, also reflecting what was most important to their culture. Egyptian art was mostly placed, and later located, among their …show more content…
The Romans were responsible for innumerable beautiful artworks. Like the Egyptians, their art also drew from the civilizations that came before them. The form and tradition of Roman artwork was affected by the Etruscan and Hellenistic periods in their region. During their time, the Etruscans dominated Italian culture. Roman art was also influenced by the Greek art that they discovered at this time. This discovery began the Hellenistic art period. The Romans created utilitarian and secular artworks. Their art was also useful, and not only concerned with religious devotion. To this aim, they made paintings, portrait sculptures (like busts), mosaics, free-standing sculptures, relief sculptures, and pottery. The Romans also considered architecture and literature important. The Romans valued literal and realistic expression above spiritual expression. The art, and especially mosaics, used the colors green, yellow, red, black, and violet. The mediums of art and architecture of the time influenced each other (D’Ambera, 2001). Before the Romans, art always had a spiritual and religious importance. Roman were able to use art to decorate the interior and exterior of their buildings. Their architecture used elements of domes, arches, and vaults. Their discovery of concrete gave them much greater creative freedom in building design, and these buildings could be