Pair Of Eyes In Greek Art
Take a walk through New York’s A,C,E-Chamber Street train station. As you walk or wait for the train you will notice rectangular motifs of eyes, some of the eyes are in pairs some are not. (Fig 1.) Nevertheless, you cannot help but wonder if they eye are staring at you as you wait for the train or if the eyes are looking over the station like a camera? Sight is a wondrous sense that can also give us insight into more than just what we see. If you were a god that made no physical contact with humanity, your eyes would be your window to oversee your kingdom. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Gallery 156 has a bronze sculpted Pair of Eyes within a glass case. (Fig 2). These eyes once belonged to an over life cult statue that holds the position
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of due to that gazed that they hold. Micheal Foucault’s theory of voyeurism helps to expand why the eyes of a God hold the position of power. The sculptured Pair of Eyes were made for sculptures of the gods and were unique to each god. The eyes perspective establishes a relationship through voyeurism as overseeing everything and judging it and that it places the gods at the top of the hierarchy since they can see all and manipulate the world as they see fit.
The Pair of Eyes is a bronze, marble and ivory made Greek sculpture during the 5th century during the Classical Period. The MET states that the eyes were made during the 5th century as it shows signs of the Geometric period, but it was not until the Archaic period that Greek artists to work in techniques as diverse as gem cutting, ivory carving, jewelry making, and metalworking. Without having a specific date on the artifact or labeling them to a specific figure, we can only guess as to when they were produced. Upon close encounter with the Pair of Eyes located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Gallery 156 the size of the eyes is about a two quarters in length per eye. The upper lid has tablike projections that fold over the lower, holding the eye together. The lashes are cut out of the sheet bronze. The white and canthus are made of fine-grained marble; the canthus was once painted. The iris, of frit, is set within a quartz ring, and the pupil is obsidian. (Fig 2). The pair of eyes were originally made to be a part of an over-life size sculpture. According to the Heimingways, the bronze and casting technique to make these over life size sculptures they had to be made separately for the eye socket. For a successful sculpture the artist would cast a hallow torso completely attached with arms and legs, but fine details would deform in the firing process such as eyes, nipples and fingernails.
They Eyes were made with the intention of not only fitting the eye socket that it belongs to but they were also made with the intention of fitting the outlook of the over life size sculpture. With missing remains of the statues is hard to determine the full gender. The contour of the eye smooth and the circles of the iris is symmetrical. The corners of the eyes do show sign of tear ducts. Tear glands were not decorative in Greek art but done by artistic choice. “When the contour of the eye is gently curved with a pointed outer corner [it] pronounced a tear gland. This type is known as the masculine eye. [A] feminine id almond shaped.” (Fig 2). A pair of eyes is crucial to a face in order to determine an owner and gender. The eyelashes of the Pair of Eyes was made by a sheeted bronze that gave the illusion of large eyes which was fond of Greek culture.
During the Classical period, even before and after, over life size sculptures were made for important figures but Mainly of gods. To support this theory sculpture made around the Classical and Archaic period that was over life size bronze sculptures were in fact important figures. For instance, in 2011, the MET featured the bronzed sculpture of the Boxer at Rest. It is a bronze cast sculpture using the lost wax method in which the eyes were made separately, of an athlete sitting after a match. The MET also featured the Pair of Eyes with the sculpture to show that the inset eyes of the Boxer at Rest (Fig. 3) are missing, they would have been convincingly rendered, like a Pair of Eyes. Nevertheless, they do not match because even though the boxer is looking upwards just like the gaze of the Eyes but on a particular note is the bruise under the right eye, which was cast with a different alloy to give it a darker color. Other bronze sculptures that could be a perfect match are fully standing figures such as The Artemisian Bronze (Fig. 4) made in the Early Classical Period of Zeus or Poseidon in action of hurling a bolt or trident. One more example is that of Athena called the Piraeus Athena (Fig. 5), a cult statue found in the fourth century in which she holds out one of her arms for possibly offerings. Both of these over life sculptures have eye sockets missing eyes just like the Pair of Eyes in the MET. As Greek civilization began to grow so did the interest of how things were made, a growing hierarchization, and new cults.
Cult statues were made for the temple they would be place in and serve as a idol for the Greeks to worship. Were the Pair of Eyes made for a cult statue? Probably not as these unique gods were made out of the finest materials gold and marble but so did their eyes. Ivory is not a common mineral, it is found in animals such as whales, walrus and elephants. Theses animals were considered exotic as they were not locally found from Greece. If the Pair of eyes were out of ivory that means the eyes of the beholder was significant. According to the Ancient Greek ranking of society, the upper-class or Athens is ranked highest while peasants and the slaves were ranked lowest. Nevertheless, the upperclassmen still had to look upon a higher power to receive order. Each god or goddess were seen as immortal magical beings that helped the Greek community in times of need. They were presented with offerings from their followers in exchange for their usage of their …show more content…
power. Greek gods made their world to fit their ideals, they did not walk among the earth in their physical form. When they needed to communicated with he mortals they each has their own way. When Zues talks to his followers shows his judgment through weather and storms. When those seek guidance for health they would go to the Temple of Asklepios and give an offering for Apollo. Apollo would then come to them in a vision or through snakes. A statue in a god’s honor is believed to be hollow so that the gods can posses them. By this the eyes are the pathways for the god to over look their creation and restore order if the world got corrupted.
The pair of eyes serves more than just belonging to the eyes of their unique god. Take a trip back to the Chambers Street. (Fig 1). How does the pair of mosaic eyes make you feel? Do they hold power over you because they are staring at you? This should be the same way that the Pair of eyes sculpture should also make the viewer feel despite their size. What the eyes are trying to do is establishing a relationship between the one who sees and the one seen. Since we concluded that the eyes belong to a higher being it already holds power over the viewer. This way we can establish the differences between superiority and inferiority with they concept of Foucault theory of voyeurism. Voyeurism is determining the position of power. Foucault describes the positioning of power by seeing something and then judging it. “A subject can tell when it is being watched even when it cannot see the viewer” is how Foucault explains the term panopiticum in which he uses two different levels of personnel to describe voyeurism. He uses the example that in Jeremy Bentham’s prison design, the guards can see the inmates but the inmates cannot see the guards.
Though the Pair of Eyes belongs to a larger sculpture they are still eyes.
Eyes in fine arts sometimes scare viewers because the eyes are so realistic that it gives off the illusion of following the viewer as they move. The bronze sculpture though looking upwards are still represented with a naturalistic feeling that displays movement and direction. When one thinks about having eyes on them there is no better metaphor than a camera, maybe even a surveillance camera perhaps. Surveillance and voyeurism go hand in had. With voyeurism the subject, this case the Pair of eyes is presented as the one who is watching and sees what is happening. The Pair of Eyes is observing their surrounding making notes of what is going on. If the eyes were to serve as a vessel for the gods window, instead of being in physical form, they can observe and judge what they have created and also see what has been brought before them. This could be offerings or problems their creations have faced. One unknown Greek poet wrote that “Nature alone cannot inform them... for those Greeks who visited these sites … They gazed in them with Greek Eyes, eyes different from ours and dwelt upon them with Greek Minds.” The Pair of eyes like many eyes made for those who believed gods would take them their form were the way to watch and see. The sun couldn’t tell Apollo about the light in a soul. The sea could not tell Aphrodite about the love between sea and land. Nor could the elder tree tell the Titians about time.
The Pair of eyes were scared to the remaining statues of a deity it was a window.
With surveillance, the viewer is in the position of being seen. This can mean two things that the viewer knows that it is being watched or that the viewer doesn’t know. When the viewer knows that it is being watched he or see does things correctly. The power position in the pair of eyes makes us act a certain way. Since the eyes are looking upwards, the viewer eyes also look upwards. The Pair of eyes is also bigger than a life-sized eye. When you think about the eyes being bigger than your own you could only imagine how big the statue must be. However, if the viewer is being watched and does not realize that it is being watched the power lays within the eyes. In relation to voyeurism, the power of the eyes must watch the subject in order to survey and observe their creation and judge it. Once they have judge what they see they can manipulate it the best way they know how this how the hierarchy is developed.
Symonds also talks about sculptures that brings Greeks closer together even a simple young man. When he sees the sword or an athlete or a god the man will gaze on their eyes, and “with straight eyes look forward… such are the sculptures signs by which we read and the physical fulfilment of Greek life.” Ancient Greek sculptures have eyes yes, but they are empty or not there. Artist who made these portraitures tried to nail the face structure of their sitter. Deniz Beyazit, one of the curators in the MET, released a dialogue about eyes in art in which she commented on Greek sculptures eyes that “in some cases you can see the traces of the eyes, which have been painted. In other cases, they are just holes and there the eyes were inlaid in a different material, but this shows me that without eyes, the sculpture has lost its expressivity. Without that look, I think the whole sculpture would lose strength and its real eternal power.” A sculpture needs eyes in order to give the sculpture meaning and an emotional connection whether it be through a historical context or religious reasons.
The Pair of eyes also comes with a gaze attached to them, they gaze both at the viewer and the fact that they are looking upwards. The eyes are staring at the viewer looks beyond them and shows them that they are looking at. The ancient Greeks valued eyes, they used eyes and the process of looking to defamiliarize an object. In a dialogue comparing Plato’s goals and the ancient Greeks, it stated that “Greek eyes gave unity to a complex form but satisfaction to the eye with moral excellence.” Through the eyes, the Greeks places aesthetic views and ideas how they saw and shaped the world. As a god by having the Greek mind that the poets wrote about they judge the world and make it suitable to them.
The Pair of Eyes behind a glass case looks like an artifact but to sculpture, they are a vital part. It helps to read into what the artist must have been thinking when he created their full figure. However, because the missing remains do not exist or have been put the place together you only have the gaze. The Greek poets stated that they “gazed with Greek eyes”. But exactly what were they gazing at. The Pair of Eyes seems to be gazing upwards. The eyes could be looking up at the skies, overlooking their kingdom that they created, but from a viewer’s point of viewers looking upwards at the eyes, it makes also cast movement in which they also look upwards. With “Greek minds” they may be looking for hope or a sign from the eyes of the particular god to help them as they bring forth their offering.
The Pair of Eyes is a bronze, marble and ivory made Greek sculpture during the 5th century during the Classical Period. The sculptured Pair of Eyes were made for sculptures of the gods but represents the uniqueness to the sculpture it was made for. Since the over life size ancient Greek sculptures were devoted to gods in which they can posses the eyes and use it as their window. The eyes perspective establishes a relationship through voyeurism as overseeing everything and judging it and that it places the gods at the top of the hierarchy since they can see all and manipulate the world as they see fit. Just another way a part of a sculpture is vital to their entire context.
of due to that gazed that they hold. Micheal Foucault’s theory of voyeurism helps to expand why the eyes of a God hold the position of power. The sculptured Pair of Eyes were made for sculptures of the gods and were unique to each god. The eyes perspective establishes a relationship through voyeurism as overseeing everything and judging it and that it places the gods at the top of the hierarchy since they can see all and manipulate the world as they see fit.
The Pair of Eyes is a bronze, marble and ivory made Greek sculpture during the 5th century during the Classical Period. The MET states that the eyes were made during the 5th century as it shows signs of the Geometric period, but it was not until the Archaic period that Greek artists to work in techniques as diverse as gem cutting, ivory carving, jewelry making, and metalworking. Without having a specific date on the artifact or labeling them to a specific figure, we can only guess as to when they were produced. Upon close encounter with the Pair of Eyes located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Gallery 156 the size of the eyes is about a two quarters in length per eye. The upper lid has tablike projections that fold over the lower, holding the eye together. The lashes are cut out of the sheet bronze. The white and canthus are made of fine-grained marble; the canthus was once painted. The iris, of frit, is set within a quartz ring, and the pupil is obsidian. (Fig 2). The pair of eyes were originally made to be a part of an over-life size sculpture. According to the Heimingways, the bronze and casting technique to make these over life size sculptures they had to be made separately for the eye socket. For a successful sculpture the artist would cast a hallow torso completely attached with arms and legs, but fine details would deform in the firing process such as eyes, nipples and fingernails.
They Eyes were made with the intention of not only fitting the eye socket that it belongs to but they were also made with the intention of fitting the outlook of the over life size sculpture. With missing remains of the statues is hard to determine the full gender. The contour of the eye smooth and the circles of the iris is symmetrical. The corners of the eyes do show sign of tear ducts. Tear glands were not decorative in Greek art but done by artistic choice. “When the contour of the eye is gently curved with a pointed outer corner [it] pronounced a tear gland. This type is known as the masculine eye. [A] feminine id almond shaped.” (Fig 2). A pair of eyes is crucial to a face in order to determine an owner and gender. The eyelashes of the Pair of Eyes was made by a sheeted bronze that gave the illusion of large eyes which was fond of Greek culture.
During the Classical period, even before and after, over life size sculptures were made for important figures but Mainly of gods. To support this theory sculpture made around the Classical and Archaic period that was over life size bronze sculptures were in fact important figures. For instance, in 2011, the MET featured the bronzed sculpture of the Boxer at Rest. It is a bronze cast sculpture using the lost wax method in which the eyes were made separately, of an athlete sitting after a match. The MET also featured the Pair of Eyes with the sculpture to show that the inset eyes of the Boxer at Rest (Fig. 3) are missing, they would have been convincingly rendered, like a Pair of Eyes. Nevertheless, they do not match because even though the boxer is looking upwards just like the gaze of the Eyes but on a particular note is the bruise under the right eye, which was cast with a different alloy to give it a darker color. Other bronze sculptures that could be a perfect match are fully standing figures such as The Artemisian Bronze (Fig. 4) made in the Early Classical Period of Zeus or Poseidon in action of hurling a bolt or trident. One more example is that of Athena called the Piraeus Athena (Fig. 5), a cult statue found in the fourth century in which she holds out one of her arms for possibly offerings. Both of these over life sculptures have eye sockets missing eyes just like the Pair of Eyes in the MET. As Greek civilization began to grow so did the interest of how things were made, a growing hierarchization, and new cults.
Cult statues were made for the temple they would be place in and serve as a idol for the Greeks to worship. Were the Pair of Eyes made for a cult statue? Probably not as these unique gods were made out of the finest materials gold and marble but so did their eyes. Ivory is not a common mineral, it is found in animals such as whales, walrus and elephants. Theses animals were considered exotic as they were not locally found from Greece. If the Pair of eyes were out of ivory that means the eyes of the beholder was significant. According to the Ancient Greek ranking of society, the upper-class or Athens is ranked highest while peasants and the slaves were ranked lowest. Nevertheless, the upperclassmen still had to look upon a higher power to receive order. Each god or goddess were seen as immortal magical beings that helped the Greek community in times of need. They were presented with offerings from their followers in exchange for their usage of their …show more content…
power. Greek gods made their world to fit their ideals, they did not walk among the earth in their physical form. When they needed to communicated with he mortals they each has their own way. When Zues talks to his followers shows his judgment through weather and storms. When those seek guidance for health they would go to the Temple of Asklepios and give an offering for Apollo. Apollo would then come to them in a vision or through snakes. A statue in a god’s honor is believed to be hollow so that the gods can posses them. By this the eyes are the pathways for the god to over look their creation and restore order if the world got corrupted.
The pair of eyes serves more than just belonging to the eyes of their unique god. Take a trip back to the Chambers Street. (Fig 1). How does the pair of mosaic eyes make you feel? Do they hold power over you because they are staring at you? This should be the same way that the Pair of eyes sculpture should also make the viewer feel despite their size. What the eyes are trying to do is establishing a relationship between the one who sees and the one seen. Since we concluded that the eyes belong to a higher being it already holds power over the viewer. This way we can establish the differences between superiority and inferiority with they concept of Foucault theory of voyeurism. Voyeurism is determining the position of power. Foucault describes the positioning of power by seeing something and then judging it. “A subject can tell when it is being watched even when it cannot see the viewer” is how Foucault explains the term panopiticum in which he uses two different levels of personnel to describe voyeurism. He uses the example that in Jeremy Bentham’s prison design, the guards can see the inmates but the inmates cannot see the guards.
Though the Pair of Eyes belongs to a larger sculpture they are still eyes.
Eyes in fine arts sometimes scare viewers because the eyes are so realistic that it gives off the illusion of following the viewer as they move. The bronze sculpture though looking upwards are still represented with a naturalistic feeling that displays movement and direction. When one thinks about having eyes on them there is no better metaphor than a camera, maybe even a surveillance camera perhaps. Surveillance and voyeurism go hand in had. With voyeurism the subject, this case the Pair of eyes is presented as the one who is watching and sees what is happening. The Pair of Eyes is observing their surrounding making notes of what is going on. If the eyes were to serve as a vessel for the gods window, instead of being in physical form, they can observe and judge what they have created and also see what has been brought before them. This could be offerings or problems their creations have faced. One unknown Greek poet wrote that “Nature alone cannot inform them... for those Greeks who visited these sites … They gazed in them with Greek Eyes, eyes different from ours and dwelt upon them with Greek Minds.” The Pair of eyes like many eyes made for those who believed gods would take them their form were the way to watch and see. The sun couldn’t tell Apollo about the light in a soul. The sea could not tell Aphrodite about the love between sea and land. Nor could the elder tree tell the Titians about time.
The Pair of eyes were scared to the remaining statues of a deity it was a window.
With surveillance, the viewer is in the position of being seen. This can mean two things that the viewer knows that it is being watched or that the viewer doesn’t know. When the viewer knows that it is being watched he or see does things correctly. The power position in the pair of eyes makes us act a certain way. Since the eyes are looking upwards, the viewer eyes also look upwards. The Pair of eyes is also bigger than a life-sized eye. When you think about the eyes being bigger than your own you could only imagine how big the statue must be. However, if the viewer is being watched and does not realize that it is being watched the power lays within the eyes. In relation to voyeurism, the power of the eyes must watch the subject in order to survey and observe their creation and judge it. Once they have judge what they see they can manipulate it the best way they know how this how the hierarchy is developed.
Symonds also talks about sculptures that brings Greeks closer together even a simple young man. When he sees the sword or an athlete or a god the man will gaze on their eyes, and “with straight eyes look forward… such are the sculptures signs by which we read and the physical fulfilment of Greek life.” Ancient Greek sculptures have eyes yes, but they are empty or not there. Artist who made these portraitures tried to nail the face structure of their sitter. Deniz Beyazit, one of the curators in the MET, released a dialogue about eyes in art in which she commented on Greek sculptures eyes that “in some cases you can see the traces of the eyes, which have been painted. In other cases, they are just holes and there the eyes were inlaid in a different material, but this shows me that without eyes, the sculpture has lost its expressivity. Without that look, I think the whole sculpture would lose strength and its real eternal power.” A sculpture needs eyes in order to give the sculpture meaning and an emotional connection whether it be through a historical context or religious reasons.
The Pair of eyes also comes with a gaze attached to them, they gaze both at the viewer and the fact that they are looking upwards. The eyes are staring at the viewer looks beyond them and shows them that they are looking at. The ancient Greeks valued eyes, they used eyes and the process of looking to defamiliarize an object. In a dialogue comparing Plato’s goals and the ancient Greeks, it stated that “Greek eyes gave unity to a complex form but satisfaction to the eye with moral excellence.” Through the eyes, the Greeks places aesthetic views and ideas how they saw and shaped the world. As a god by having the Greek mind that the poets wrote about they judge the world and make it suitable to them.
The Pair of Eyes behind a glass case looks like an artifact but to sculpture, they are a vital part. It helps to read into what the artist must have been thinking when he created their full figure. However, because the missing remains do not exist or have been put the place together you only have the gaze. The Greek poets stated that they “gazed with Greek eyes”. But exactly what were they gazing at. The Pair of Eyes seems to be gazing upwards. The eyes could be looking up at the skies, overlooking their kingdom that they created, but from a viewer’s point of viewers looking upwards at the eyes, it makes also cast movement in which they also look upwards. With “Greek minds” they may be looking for hope or a sign from the eyes of the particular god to help them as they bring forth their offering.
The Pair of Eyes is a bronze, marble and ivory made Greek sculpture during the 5th century during the Classical Period. The sculptured Pair of Eyes were made for sculptures of the gods but represents the uniqueness to the sculpture it was made for. Since the over life size ancient Greek sculptures were devoted to gods in which they can posses the eyes and use it as their window. The eyes perspective establishes a relationship through voyeurism as overseeing everything and judging it and that it places the gods at the top of the hierarchy since they can see all and manipulate the world as they see fit. Just another way a part of a sculpture is vital to their entire context.