Greek Art

As an Egyptian Artist, my art is for religion, the gods, and my king. Most of my work isn’t intended to be seen, but for the purpose of comfort for the dead. Sometimes they were even a form of communication between us and the gods. However, in this new world of Greece, I have learned that art is for expression, and they seem to appreciate and value life. Greeks have figured out movement and are honest to the human forms in art, unlike back home. They smoothly cut away from marble stones and consistently use a contrapposto stance. Back home in Egypt, we used a lot of diorite and limestone statues and our figures were rigid and stiff. They have based off an extreme ideal rather than a realistic one. Figures tended to stand still with a lack contrapposto
His feet were firmly on the ground, hands and arms at his side with a perfect poster. I also ensured he had a false beard and the proper head dress. Then I made his body look fit and strong and felt proud of the detail I put into him, but coming to Greece has shown me that my detail was rather lacking. Instead, I realized what I had gotten was only the general shape of things. Looking at the sculpture like Aphrodite of Melos, I realize that headdresses and false beards are not in fashion and rather there is the appreciation of nudity and robes. Aphrodite is also showing a lot of movement and her body and robes are smooth and curvy. Her expression is rather solemn and straight like in Egypt, but there are many other works of art like one of the Dying Warriors on the west pediment of Aphaia, where one has an archaic smile and the other a look of
He was my first attempt at greek art and I carved him out of marble stone and I tried my best to shift the weight of the body. However, my client said that to bring a foot forward isn’t what’s required to make his stance contrapposto. I then attempted to have Dionysus hold grapes over his head as the client asked for, but I was told that the arms had no muscle features and that muscles are more than just the outline shape. I was also told that arms rarely stick out straight from their side and rather come in at an angle. During the creation of the robes I had them fall flat and straight but was yelled at for not creating the folds and crevices. For the body, I made him fit and muscular, which I was applauded for though once again the muscles were a bit off. As for the head, I thought I thought gods were supposed to have headdresses and false beards, but it turns out most are well shaved and only wear a wreath if at all on the head. My clientele was not happy with the end product as I have yet to gain the years of observation and skills as many Greek artists have