Incurragables

The Hope Of Hygeia
Ranika Gunn
Humanities 01-11:45

The sculpture I chose to research on is called The Hope Hygeia. The medium of the art work is a very tall statue made out of marble with an off white color. It comes from the Roman culture for the duration of the 2nd-century A.D copy after a Greek original of about 360 B.C. The sculpture has curly hair with a calm and kind expression on her face and a broken nose. She is posed standing straight with a serpent across her shoulder holding a bowl, and she’s wearing a long robe with a head covering. According to marble sculpture on the website wikipedia says, “Marble is a metamorphic rock derived from limestone”. Marble is formed when the limestone is changed from the heat and pressure after being overspread by other materials. Also the article marble information by Joey Lewitin, explains when metamorphism occurs the arrangement of the limestone becomes crystal in nature turning into calcite or dolomite. These two substances are also the two major materials in marble. Marbles are induced when impurities get trapped in the structure of the marble during formation. Impurities such as carbon iron and different oxides, it causes streaks and form randomized shapes in the marbles. One of the features of marbles used for sculpture almost doesn’t contain stains .And because of the features many artist are inspired to work with marble as medium. The advantage of marbles has a slight surface clearness that is like human skin. Marbles is soft and easy to work with refine and polish. As the marbles gets older it becomes harder and more long-lasting and is more weather resistance than sand or clay. The disadvantages are marbles absorb skin oil when being touch which leads to brownish and yellow stains. It’s more resistant than limestone but it can be attack by weak acid and acid rain. The process begins with the selections of the stone; each stone has its own personality. Sculpture Process-marble carving developing the concept by David Fosters says, “Its shape defined by specific dimension, second it has its grain and density of crystalline structure and third the color and nature of any veining flowing through the stone which strongly dictates design and orientation concepts for the artist plan”. The artist may carve in a direct way, by carving without a model, creating a figure from scratch, and only using the ideas in his head as a guideline. When the person starts to carve, the carver begins pitching off unwanted stone. For this task the person would use a chisel and a mallet which would cut the stone. According to the Process of Stone Sculpture-wikipedia says “Sometime sculptor’s works rhythmically turning the tool with each blow so the stone is removed quickly and evenly this is called the roughing out stage”. Once the shape of the statue has been decided, the sculptor uses other tools to refine the figure; during the final stages the sculptor’s uses tools called rasps and riffler to enhance the shape into its final form. Then the stone is being polish by sand paper or a sand cloth. The techniques of carving is it can be a very careful and time overwhelming method because of the hard and weighty materials, such as marble or other stones that are often used. Modeling requires soft substance that can be used easily and rapidly shaped by the sculptor’s hands. Up-and-coming in the twentieth century the techniques of assemblage and construction consist of combining and joining various materials to form three-dimensional objects. It’s all originated from the technique collage which is well-liked by the cubist during the early time of the twentieth century. Hygeia was the first goddess of good health. She is the daughter and assistant of the medicine god Asclepius; she is represented as a woman holding a large serpent. She’s also is represented as a virgin dressed in a long robe either alone or with her family. Her ordinary quality is a serpent which she is feeding from a cup. Hygeia nurtures and tends the snake revering, sacred powers to revitalize and shed its old ways. She celebrates its darks and earthy force and recognizes the divine mystery of illness and health. To the Greek Hygeia personified health, mysterious mixture of wellbeing, happiness and wholeness. When the cult of Asclepius became widespread, she emerged in the classical period. The temple was very popular and medicine was practiced in the sanctuaries of Asclepius. She embraces holistic healing in every manifestation as she is dedicated to the pursuit of health. Hygeia-the Virgoan Principle by Chirotic says, “Hygeia resonates completely with the virgoan ideal, she is Virgo personified, chaste, demur, unassuming, pure, virtuous, Particular and assimilative”. Virgo is the natural home for mercury, the function of Virgo can of course be applied to mental process. Mercury is Gemini in every way, it requires no further dignity, and whilst Virgo might be the sign of its adoration. There is no question that Hygeia responds to Virgo in every sense perfectly as mercury to Gemini. According to roman empire on Wikipedia website Gauis Julius Ceasars Augustus is consider the first emperor of the roman empire, he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death AD 14. Many rulers were great, but most of them abused their position and some were assassinated .The roman engineers built 50,000 miles of paved roads that are still used today. The citizens inspired the construction of tenements to build baths meeting halls, and amphitheaters. And some of the tenements were rats infested. Most of the people enjoyed the baths, the bath provided refuge from the noise and grime of the city streets. They had steam rooms, exercise room, art galleries, shops, cafes reading rooms, and rooms for physical intimacy. While Romans enjoyed all these activity, their food, clothes, hobbies, were a product of their class. Rome was more than just a city; the empire was a huge collection of states, backed up by power. The empire was an massive achievement. It was a big marketplace where Romans could trade beef, corn, Leather, lead, marble, perfumes, olive oil, purple dye, spices, silver, silk, timber and wine. Rome main trading partners were Spain, France, the Middle East and North Africa. This help spread foreign religion like Judaism and early Christianity. Greek artist settled in Rome where they found a ready market for works executed in the Greek classical manner. Since they were so interested in Greek art they threw light on the eclecticism of roman taste, their influence was through out the development of roman art. During the Augustan period there was an effort to combine realism with the Greek feeling for idealization and abstract harmony of forms. The roman taste for practicality is perhaps illustrated in three dimensional form portraits of roman man and women, members of the ruling class or wealthy patricians. The humanistic tradition by Gloria k. Fiero says “Roman advertised its achievements in monumental public work of art. They consisted mainly triumphal arches and victory columns. The triumphal arch was a land mark image of roman regal victory”. While triumphal arches served as visuals propaganda for Rome armed forces exploits, monuments sculpture glorified roman rulers. The art work is very fascinating because I have always heard about the hope of Hygeia, but never really seen what it looks like as a statue. I love how she has the big serpent wrap around her and that she’s not afraid of it and she just kindly feeds the serpent out of a cup. I think out of all the goddess, the hope of Hygeia was the best looking one. I love the fact that it represents cleanliness and how her name is another word for hygiene. Being clean is the best way to be because when you don’t wash you can have many body odors, so it mandatory that we all clean ourselves everyday. Although soap is the best smell ever, being healthy is the best way to live. When you are in good health, your body is able to fight colds and diseases. Eating fruits and vegetable and taking vitamins on the daily basis is a way to keep you from bad health.