Ancient Medieval Art Discussion (100 words)

Use your eyes and your brain and your own writing abilities. Remember that you must also make one follow-up post per unit. These should be at least 100 words. This means that your follow-up post cannot simply say that you agree with what your classmate has written. Expand on it. Add a different perspective. Disagree with them. Introduce other examples of evidence. Y our posts should describe, in detail, relevant visual and material features of the artworks that you have chosen to discuss. Please use a 12pt font size (which is the default setting on Canvas) and black against a white background as your text color.

Here are your options: 1. How did artists create the illusion of three dimensions in two-dimensional works? Discuss with reference to two artworks from this unit . Begin your post with a visual analysis of the artworks. 2. Greek and Hellenistic art is full of both beauty and violence. What is the function of the violence, and what effect did it have on audiences? Choose one artwork from this unit to discuss, and begin with a visual analysis of the work before addressing how you think it affected period viewers. 3. Choose a representation of a divinity or extraordinary being from this unit . What features of that being are unusual or extraordinary, and what features do they share with ordinary humans? How are these features meant to affect the viewer? Begin your post with a visual analysis of the artwork. 4. What ideas about life after death do artworks and architectural spaces convey? Choose two examples from this unit to discuss. Begin your post by analyzing them visually.

Responses(100 words each) 1. Prompt 3 The Gigantomachy is a sculptured piece that represents many beings of divinity although Athena is at the center and most of the other figures represented in the piece are done so in a manner that is reactionary to her.

On the left there is Alkyoneos who is show to be struggling from the pose he is in with Athena gripping his hair and a snake, one of Athena's attributes, wrapping around him. Gaia, the mother of the giants, sits in the bottom right corner with an expression of terror for Athena's actions. The last figure towards the upper right is the goddess of Victory who is crowning Athena the victor.

There are many ways in this artwork that the divinity is showcased. For the goddess of victory , she is depicted with wings, hovering ever so higher than the other figures in the piece. Athena is represented in a way that almost makes her victory seem simple, she is only using one hand to subdue Alkyoneos. Alkyoneos and Gaia on the other hand both show features that they share with humans. Alkyoneos is out in such a pose that you can see the way he struggles against Athena, and the expression given to Gaia of terror is not one that is expected on the face of a divine figure. 2.Prompt 2 I chose the Greek statue, the Lacoon Group. The Marble art depicts the father, Lacoon, and his two sons straining against the serpents sent to kill them, as ordered by the angered god Poseidon. The forms of the muscles tensed show their struggle. The distraught facial expressions of each figure help this narrative come to life. The serpents create a visual path through the work. The work depicted the punishment for the betrayal of Greece. Lacoon warned enemy Trojan troops of the Greek soldiers’ plan to ambush them by disguising a gift. Lacoon was a Greek himself and a priest for the god Apollo. The Greek people of the time saw this work as a reminder of how their deities and their neighbors viewed betrayal. The art would serve as a reminder of the repercussions of committing such a transgression and how their gods saw death as a worthy punishment for turning to help an enemy.

Required Textbook( Chapters 14-19) Jean Robertson and Deborah Hutton, The History of Art: A Global View , Prehistory to 1500 . New York:

Thames and Hudson, 2021.