_Comparisons of Art _
By: Valerie
In the Egyptian era there were many art forms that were done and sculpted.
Seated Scribe is one of these Egyptians sculptures. It was done in 2400 B.C.E
and was done in limestone by subtractive sculpting. The colors that are used
in this sculpture are very plain and bland. You can notice that the color is
wearing away at the sculpture because there are blotches where the paint has
started to chip away. The sculpture is physically accurate of a middle-aged
man because you can see the definition of the extra fat on his body and you
can tell that he has some intelligence because of the way that he is
presenting himself and that he is ready to write. The man is sitting on a
square piece of stone and it seems as though he is about to jot a few notes
down or write a letter. You can see that he is holding something that looks
like a writing pad of some sort and you see his writing utensil in his left
hand. The actual pose of the man is very stiff, very perfect. The Man is
sitting with good posture and he does not let his back slouch one bit. It
seems to be an uncomfortable position for the manThe artist wants us to see
that the man in the pose is beginning to write a story about what he is
observing. The man is sitting outside on a rather warm day and he is observing
the Pharaoh and how he is treating his people. The man is about to take some
notes so that his mind will not draw a blank when he goes to writing the
actual story about the Pharaoh. The man is very intelligent and very wise.
People come to him when they need advice or answers to a problem. He is
trusted by all because he is the writer that the Pharaoh trusts. The man is
also admired by all because he is one of the few who can read and write. Many
people did not have this type of advantage during these times
A more modern
sculpture was done in 440 B.C.E by a Greek sculptor and it is entitled the
Doryphorus Spear Bearer. The sculpture was also done with subtractive
sculpting done in stone. The sculptor uses a naked man figure and makes his
body look perfect. The figure is sculpted into a fine S-curve of the body. The
man’s left knee is bent which puts the weight on his right foot. This makes
his left hip and shoulder rise to form this S-curve. The man is looking to the
right off into the distance like he is in deep thought. His body is
exaggerated because there are hardly any men that have the perfect body like
this man does. There is no fat that is noticeable because he is pure muscle.
You can see every definition of is body. You see every line of his muscle
definition and every line of his body parts. The sculptor made this man look
very life like. On his left hand you see that he must have been holding
something at one time, but because the sculpture was lost at one time, the
object that he was holding was lost somewhere over time. The title of the
piece leads us to believe that the object he was hold is a spear
This guy
seems to be an egotistical man. He knows that all the women want him, and all
the men wish that they could be him and have the body that he has. He is a
young man in his mid-twenties. He has just got back from hunting and he is
rather proud of himself because he has done a “man’s game” and he has done is
successfully. He has just returned and the people around him stare at him with
envy. He looks away over the crowd in boredom because this always happens to
him anytime that he returns from an adventure. In the distance and over the
crowd he spots a woman that he cannot keep his eyes off of. He notices how
beautiful she is and how much he would like to make her happy and become hers.
Then the woman disappears in the crowd and he cannot fin her and he keeps
looking as his eyes wonder back and fourth, but he see no one that looks like
his mysterious woman
Next we are taken way into the future to sometime
during 1501 to 1504. A world-renowned sculptor by the name of Michelangelo
sculpted David, again using subtractive sculpting with marble. Michelangelo
sculpts a naked man and makes his body perfect. He too uses the relaxed
position of the S-curve where all of his weight is on his right leg and his
left knee is bent which cause his left hip and shoulder to rise. The sculpture
is very defined. You can see every definition of his body. David’s head is
turned to the left and he is focused on something. You can see the defined
lines of where his head is turned. His body is very over exaggerated because
his body is perfect; there is not one place where you see fat on his body. His
arms are longer than normal arms too. Michelangelo makes David look large and
in charge. You see that David is carrying something over his left shoulder.
People can assume that the thing that is over his shoulder is his slingshot
because of the biblical story of “David and Goliath” where David killed
Goliath with his slingshot
Many people know the story of “David and Goliath”
and how David killed Goliath with his slingshot at this point, it is after the
big event and David has just won. He is excited for himself but at the same
time he is exhausted because this fight has taken much of his energy. The
people around him all want to take a look at he marvelous David who has just
slain Goliath. He is trying to relax by putting hie weight on his right foot
and he is trying to make himself feel comfortable. All David is thinking about
is how he will soon be able to leave the crowd and be alone where he can relax
and just be himself
We are now taken into the 20th Century and we are shown
a painting called Naked Man painted sometime between 1991and 1992 by Lucian
Freud. The first reaction when shown this painting is disgust. You see an old
man who is fat and wrinkly. There is no muscle on his body, just fat rolls.
Then you see the man’s butt crack. He is sitting on what seems to be a small
bench with a white cushion over it. The background is very plain and does not
stand out in anyway. There is a dingy white sheet that is hung over a wall and
that is place in front of the man. His bench is sitting on some red-orange
carpet. It looks like the man is in an apartment studio because you can see
that there is a passageway behind the white sheet. He is sitting down and he
is leaning over. However, the painting make you want to reach out and just
touch it because it looks so life like and so real. It seems to be that the
man’s body is soft and comfortable. His body seems so soft and comfortable
that a small child could fall asleep on the man and never wake up. Freud makes
the man look textured almost like he is real. The man’s head is slightly
turned to the left side as if he is looking at something in which he has in
front of him. We are unable to see it because his back is towards us
The
story to the man is simple, he has just gotten out of the shower and he is
relaxing. He is taking a break form his go go go life. The man is looking at
something on his body, like a mark that he has found, but he does not know how
it got there. So he is examining it. He is getting ready to go out so he does
not want anything to go wrong and he thinks that if one thing goes wrong, the
whole night could be ruined. Even though this mark will not be noticeable to
anyone, just by him knowing that it is there will make him uneasy and up
tight. He is already self-conscious about the way he looks but one more thing
wrong with him could be enough to break him
The most apparent similarity of
each of these figures is that the artist/sculptors of each figure did their
figure in the nude. There were no clothes on any of the figures and the artist
bared to show all. The Seated Scribe and Naked Man are similar because they
both are of men who are older and have more experience with life. Both of the
men were physically done correct according to real life. The artist/sculptor
made the men true to size of how an older man would look. Doryphorus Spear
Bearer and David are very much alike. The are almost identical. They both are
of men who have the perfect body. Both of the sculptors over exaggerated how
the human body is supposed to look. They gave these men great bodies that
people would be so envious of. In reality, bodies like these do not show up
very often
The best figure out of each of these is David. It is the best
because he really is perfect. The sculpture is beautifully done and it is done
with passion. The body is perfect in every way possible. There is not a part
of this figure that normal. It is done to the maximum extent. It shows the
type of man that women want and the type o body that men only dream of.
Michelangelo makes gives a whole new meaning to the word perfect. He not only
uses it, but he defined it in his sculpture of David
The least favorable
figure out of these four is the Seated Scribe. This figure does not so
anything for me. It does not just stick out in my mind like David does. It
just sits in the back of my mind waiting to be forgotten. It is not one of my
favorites because it is of an older man and it does not have a real point to
it. This figure is just there, out in the open waiting to be released
The
poses of the women that we have discussed earlier are very different than
these male figures. In the women figures, you saw the nude women, but it was
hard to make out the body of the women and there was no definition of any
parts of their bodies. In these male figures, everything is defined and
everything stands out. Two of the sculptors made the men look like they were
gods. While the other sculptor and artist made the men true to size, but gave
then some definition. The women poses were far from defined. You could barely
make out any part of their body definition. The artist did this because maybe
they thought that the woman’s body was not to be seen in a way that it would
expose a woman in a bad way. Maybe the sculptors of the male figures did not
think that the male figure was such a bad thing, so they decided to make is
worth the while of people everywhere.
Word Count: 1947
