The sculptures Seated Couple, Vision of Lady Xoc, and Coyote Clan Kachina Doll, each represent three distinct ancient cultures: the Dogon people of 18th and 19th century Mali, the Mayan culture between 681 and 725 B.C.E, and the Zuni Pueblo Native American culture during the 19th century. Each of these carved sculptures symbolizes truths universal to the human condition. The Seated Couple symbolizes the universal family unit. The Vision of Lady Xoc symbolizes blood sacrifice for venerated ancestors and preparation of warriors for battle. The Coyote Clan Kachina Doll symbolizes the power of troublesome spirits.
Figure 1 is an image of the sculpture the Seated Couple produced by the Dogon peoples, dated between 18th to the early19th century
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The Dogon used a distinctive style of sculpture used in rituals, typically that were made of softwood and freestanding figures were made in a cylindrical style. ("African Art") The Seated Couple has iron embellishments on the hair, ears, and wrists of the figures. Iron is historically worn or placed next to the dead during Dogon funerals so this work was most likely displayed during funerals or was created to honor ancestors. ("Figure: Seated Couple") The iconography of the Mayan Vision of Lady Xoc lintel is unique in that it depicts Lady Xoc performing ritual sacrifices, not a typical image of women in ancient Mayan art. “Though few became rulers in their own right, women held positions of substance and power as wives and mothers of kings. By the seventh and eighth centuries women had risen to a public role, commanding wealth and prestige.” (Kerr) According to Patty of Kachina House, the positioning of the Coyote Clan Kachina Doll arms and that the arms are pinned on, not carved out of the same piece of wood as the body indicate that this is a Zuni piece and not a later piece done by the Hopi. (Kachina …show more content…
The Seated Couple the cylindrical and mostly symmetrical figures not only depict the attributes of the Dogon family life, but also the pairing of male and female spirits in Dogon mythology and the sexual duality that Dogon’s see as a spiritual component of every individual. (Ezra) The Vision of Lady Xoc is a portion of the monument to Lady Xoc depicting her power and importance in Yaxchilán society. “The shedding of royal blood was an act of supreme sacrifice to gain the gods’ favor and thus perpetuate the cycle of human life.” (Kerr) Kachina dolls are used as a teaching device for children to cement the tribal stories learned in the oral tradition of their tribes. The dolls and the kachina masks worn at festivals are a reminder to the people of all that each Kachina represents.
Gender Roles are a significant theme in each of these sculptures. The Seated Couple depicts, men and women working together as a unit, Dogon attitudes toward marriage as a partnership of independent equals. This balanced duality is also a central tenet of Dogon mythology. ("Figure: Seated Couple") The Vision of Xoc shows that in royal Maya courts, women filled important civic and religious roles denied to most women in many Mesoamerican cultures. (Martin and Grube) The Zuni prized those who were good at both traditional male and female roles and those who produce the crafts of both genders.
This jar have yei’ii design and is at 8 ¾ tall and 8” wide at the handle. This is one of the Faye Tso’s pottery that have won the Second Prize in 1993 during the Museum of Northern Arizona Navajo Artiests Exhibition. This pieces and with other large pieces of pottery like the vase with yei’iis and human figure and the water jar with horned toads. These clay sculpture were made by Myra Tso, Faye’s daughter and it was to honor her grandfather, who sang and prayed for her. The design of horned toads on the pottery are very special because the toads was use in a ritual for praying. All ritual and ceremonies are essential parts of the Navajo way as well as sand painting art that was inspired by those that created ceremony. The dust from gold, diamonds,
Established during the early 8th century, an artwork known as The Pair of Lokapala, translated as the heavenly guardians, shapes the essence of early Chinese dynasty art sculpture. The 40 ½ x 16 ½ x 11 ¾ inch sculpture is focused around the Tang Dynasty due to its prominent years dating from 618-907 A.D. Furthermore, the materials to create The Pair of Lokapala was used with earthenware with three color lead glazes. Although the artist is unknown, the style of the artwork stretches the styling of Chinese sculpture, showing that the artist used those values to create the artwork. Therefore, The Pair of Lokapala evokes various aspects through Tang Dynasty art by emphasizing two guardians through the subject matter, arranging many formal
Fig. 1 Statue of Yuny and Renenutet, ca. 1290–1270 BCE.; Fig. 2 Akhenaten and his Family,18
Modern figurines of art stem directly from the hands of the ancient’s. The organic forms of modernly sculpted artifacts can most likely be directly referenced to the movements of prehistoric artworks. There seems to be an ongoing transition on how cultures no matter how stretched apart through time, contrasted by ethnicity or religious views; can all be somewhat related to each other by the methods or principles portrayed through their artworks. In fact, I saw that very transition; within two works in which are extremely different in meaning, craftsmanship, time, culture and so on. However, I was still able to find similarities within the artifacts. In this paper I will examine Venus of Willendorf, a Paleolithic carving in limestone; which can fit in the palm of one’s hand. As well as, The Sacrifice of Chacmool, which are a plethora of Mesoamerican statues emulating rituals of sacrifice.
The Pair Statue of Ikhui and HIs Wife, Bebi is a statuette fairly small compared to life-size and is from the fifth and sixth dynasty of the Egyptian Old Kingdom around 2465-2323 B.C. It was excavated from a tomb in in Giza. The statuette displays a male and female standing side by side. It measures about less than two feet high. It appears as a relief because of the space between the arms and waists of the figures and sculpted from a block and chiseled away. They stood against a small wall no taller than the male figure but slightly taller than the female figure only to cover a portion of their backs. They had somewhat of a symmetric value. Each side mostly mirroring each other.
The marble used to create the sculpture brings out the fine quality of such material. It also adds elegance and sensuous grace to the whole sculpture. The use of marble links the sculpture to the radiance and softness of the female skin. The hips of the
The Gravestone of a Woman with her attendant is a sculpture created by an unknown artist and is now on display at the Getty Villa in Malibu, California. The sculpture is of a woman seated in a cushioned armchair, reaching out to lightly touch the top of a box or chest held by her attendant. We can tell from the sculpture that the women is of a higher class because of how her hair is done, the significant amount of jewelry, and the decorated throne that she lounges in. This sculpture is an extremely detailed Grecian gravestone made from a thick slab of colorless marble around 100 B.C.
The body of the woman has mane and the hair fall over accentuated breast feature on the body. The mane is o presenting both a feel of nobility and fright on the face of a lioness, which has a skull of bone and stylized whiskers on the face . The head is raised in a form of adoration with the solar disk and cobra emphasizing the cosmic aspects of the divinity of the goddess . The face is modeled with high precision on which the eyes are small and eyelids that have been painted as it were a collar or the robe’s edge. The statue is in a seated position on a block with the fingers that have been shaped significantly with a focus on the distinctive feature of anatomy that the artist sought to add with much delicacy, resting on her legs. The goddess’s legs have inscriptions that are added to the surface of the throne. She stands as a towering figure with soft feline features that invoke power and fear especially with the nature of her eyes in the statue. Her elegance calls attention to her presenting a valid reason why she was both feared and
The sculpture portrays the God of Harvest, Dionysus, with his loyal satyr follower, Pan. A considerable amount of detail when into the carving of Dionysus; the multiple grapevines in his hair, his ceremonial staff Thyrsus, the goatskins and the cup of wine he’s holding are all symbols of Dionysus. The composition is very asymmetrical, and creates a contrapposto arrangement, which is distinctly Grecian (Gardner). It was carved out of beautiful fine marble, which also had another purpose in the way of making this piece of art last for many years. Along with the tree trunk between the two men providing support at the base, and the elongated arms providing more structural stability. The God’s head is even reinforced by his hair to make sure the head doesn’t break off. This sculpture is visually and aesthetically pleasing, but doesn’t serve a useful function, like textiles or furniture. Therefore, it is considered a figurative piece of art, which art that is very clearly modeled after real object or person(s), and is therefore representational
The Chavin civilization built this sculpture around 900-200 BCE. The Chavin civilization was known to mix human with feline features in their sculptures. The sculpture has a handle and spout almost like a teapot and has a feline creature on towards the bottom of it. The sculpture is an art piece that the Chavin civilization would have kept in their temples.
In cultures along with beliefs and heritage also comes symbolism. In the poem “ My mother pieced quilts” by Teresa Paloma Acosta , it
Then there is a sculpture called ‘Kouros/statue of Standing Youth’ which represents the meant back in the day and age. The sculpture is a very young, athletic, toned man. This man has the body every man wants. This sculpture is desirable to every women. This man represents power, and desire. Unlike the sculpture of the woman this man has a face and a very powerful looking
The sculptures and paint show details how society viewed and interpreted women body, sexuality, and maternity. In addition, revealed that these women were protected from threats around them with ornaments. Civilizations since early times, believed that we were in permanent threat from forces we do not see or cannot explain and because of it, we protected ourselves with artificial elements in a form of jewelry, crowns or caps. This idea has been continue from one generation to the next to the point that in modern societies some of us still use this type of protection in our bodies (e.g., small cross, divine images, tattoos, etc.).These pieces of art also indicate that humans believed in gods with superpowers and they are looking over us constantly. Humanity also believes in dark forces or demons trying to makes us do things that would upset the good gods. Some of the differences between these sculptures and paint are the material in which each one of them were created. The first figure, the Woman of Willendorf was carved in limestone, the second piece, the portrait of Queen Tiye was carved in wood and the last piece, the Virgin and Child Icon was created of tempera on a wood. You can also notice how the details on their faces and bodies changes throughout the time and years. The woman of Willendorf figurine offers details of a voluptuous nude women’s body but there is not face, or feet. Queen Tiye statue shows the face of a woman in detail closed to the gods but without any body parts and lastly The Virgin and Child Icon, is an expression of divinity of the views, reflections and beliefs from the gospel. Because communities started to innovate on the art of carving and painting, populations began to discover and/or create art with the objective of expressing different purposes of our daily lives, such as the beauty of a woman’s body, or to commemorate an ancient
This essay is an attempt to address the marble sculpture commonly known as Laocoon and His Sons, and why exactly I believe it to be a work of high art, of great value and significance to the species.
Thirdly, “Messenger to the Rain Gods (Heheya) Kachina” is a small art “doll” composed mainly of “wood, paint and string” which was originated in Hopi, Arizona around 1900 (Heheya). This Native American doll is one of many other Native American dolls that are designed for a specific task or religious purposes. For instance, “Heheya Kachina” is designed to be a messenger for the rain of Gods. According to MFAH, we can distinguish it from other dolls by “the zigzag stripes of yellow and red on his cheeks, his prominent red brows, nose, mouth and tab ears, as well as the red chili peppers attached to the top of his head” (Heheya). It’s interesting to know that Native Americans had small dolls to depict their religious believe and cultural values.