Ancient Mediterranean Worlds through the Middle Ages

1. Explain why you selected the video you choose from the selection listed above.

     I selected The Measure of All Things: Greek Art and the Human Figure because it seems like a logical continuation of the first video. Both talk about Greek art and the development of realism. After watching and listening to the concept of exaggeration and how it affects art, I was better able to understand why art, especially western art, has developed along lines that it has. The videos that I watched complement each other and allowed me to better have a more informed opinion.

2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

     The video More Human Than Human attempts to answer some of the most enduring questions about art: why are we more drawn to art that is out of proportion to the world around us than to art that is truly representational? Why have humans been so universally fascinated throughout their history with art that deemphasizes certain features of their subjects even as it exaggerates others? The answer, the video explains, can be found in our brains. Humans, the theory goes, are hardwired to amplify or diminish certain features of the body as a means of effectively rendering effectively what matters to them most.

     One of the first proponents of this theory, Professor V.S Ramachandran, a neuroscientist from the University of California, conducted a series of experiments using the feeding habits of seagulls and established that animals, including humans, are preprogrammed to pay more attention to those parts of the anatomy that represent things that are important for their existence. In the experiment,        Ramachandran found that the seagull nestlings could not tell the difference between their mother’s beaks from a similar looking stick and that in fact the nestlings became more stimulated when the features of the stick that represented food and feeding were exaggerated. This led him to conclude that early humans artistically exaggerated certain features of the body because those features represented positive aspects of the world around them.

     This, the theory claims, might explain why the different Venus statues from all parts of the world seem to have certain exaggerated aspects that are generally understood to denote fertility, or abundance. In places where the threat of famine is real, it is therefore not uncommon to make art that depicts figures with distended stomachs or full breasts because those features can be said to denote health and plenty of sustenance.

     This theory of exaggeration has its exceptions. In ancient Egypt, for example, art was drawn facing sideways but generally the proportions were more realistic. The explanation for this, the video explains, is because this type of art was influenced more by the culture of the time than with any hardwiring of the brain. Because of the regular ebbs and flows of the River Nile, the threat of famine was not as common as would be expected even for people who lived in the desert. The ancient Egyptians understood that shared order and consistency was the cornerstone of their civilization and this would explain why that particular aspect of their art lasted as long as it did.

     The ancient Greeks seem to have experimented with different forms of art as they sought to create images that were as realistic and as lifelike as possible. They managed to achieve this, as depicted by the statue of the Cretan Boy which was the closest thing to a lifelike statue ever created up until that time. This need to create realism and perfection to the closest detail possible was an attempt by the Greeks to close the distance between them and their conceptualization of the gods.

     But once they achieved what was they perceived as the pinnacle of art (realism), they seem to have morphed back to an earlier time when art was less representational. And that becomes the focal point of the discussion: why if they had been striving for perfection did they feel a need to go back to whence they had come from? It seems that the instinct for exaggeration took over and eventually drove art back to a less sophisticated era. The reasoning for this is explained thus: if art is about realism then you don’t need art because all you have to do is to look around at the world around you for all the realism you need and want.

     Although what we choose to exaggerate might change over time as culture and aesthetic values change, the driving mechanism behind it all is that deep in our brains, a need for exaggeration brings us closer to what we want, desire or aspire to. Perhaps it’s this need to create art that is as close to our imagination and as representative of our subconscious thoughts as it is humanly possible that defines us and ultimately separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.

     In The Measure of All Things: Greek Art and the Human Figure, the point is made that ancient Greek art and its search for the dichotomy of inner life and outer form is perhaps the biggest influence on how modern humans define themselves. The reason why we have always been obsessed with the human figure as a subject of art is epitomized by the Greeks who believed that a perfect human body was the closest representation of the gods as we could ever hope to find here on earth.

     Subsequent exchange of ideas between the Greeks and other cultures, especially the ancient Egyptians, only fueled this obsession with the human body and took it to a whole new level. They, for the first time ever, started to make statues that were more lifelike in size and scope. Through all this, the fascination with the female form was especially emphasized. This leads me to believe, as the previous video discussed, that art (especially old art), is a desire to set in tangible form what we desire, in this case continuity as represented by the idea of fertility and reproduction.

     Eventually, the concept of realism was developed

 sufficiently for it to become its on genre. As the Greeks became more adept, they learnt to incorporate movement and balance and a sense of individualism in their statues. They tried to capture the intangible qualities of the soul, life and emotions in their art. So much so, statues soon became gods in their own right rather than mere embodiments.

     However, as the Greeks became more technologically and philosophically advanced, they moved past that stage of their development driven along, in part perhaps by Pythagoras, who famously stated that “man is the measure of all things”. This led to the idea of combining realism and idealism in a compromise that sought to redefine the very role they wanted to carve for themselves in the natural world around them. I am tempted to say that although this might not be the first time man found himself in open competition with the gods, it is perhaps the most consequential.

     It was during this era that balance started being incorporated into statues by using part of the art to act as a counter balance which allowed the illusion of movement to be created. The subject of the art could be made to lean forward or pose in unnatural angles allowing sculptors to cover a wider range of dynamics that had not been possible before.

     This form of sculptural art has become and remains the mainstay of all modern western art and it appears it will remain so for quite a while to come.

3. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

     The books dedicates a whole chapter on ancient Mediterranean art. The influence of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt and their influences on art as we know it today is explained. Although the text and the video seem to collaborate each other, I thought the videos in this case went into more detail and laid out a better and broader case for realism. The text does give a better history of various stages of art development than the videos do. The history of “classical” art is particularly well explained by the book as it deals with other art beyond statues making it less limited in its approach than the videos. All in all, the complementary value of the book and the videos is great.

4. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

     The video More Human Than Human and is particularly interesting to me because it seeks to trace the earliest history of art using something other than conjecture and opinion to try and explain what art is. This scientific approach is more convincing than any other subjective inquiries I have seen out there. The second video The Measure of All Things: Greek Art and the Human Figure draws on a wide variety of art experts who explain art through the eyes of artists, museum curators and other interesting experts for a more in-depth view of the subject matter. When watched in combination with the text, one does not need to be an expert to sense that something much deeper is happening and being communicated by the artists who made those statues.