Video Blog

In More Human than Human, It is discussed how human figures we create don't actually look like us. "The Venus of Willendorf". a statue create 25,000 years ago, depicts a woman who doesn't look like a humans do. Body parts were exaggerated. Her breasts, stomach, hips and thighs are dramatically big. Her sexual origins were completely pronounced as well. Her arms are almost non-existent and her face doesn't show at all. This statue was created by skilled artists, so there is a reason why she is made this way. Today she is worth $60 million. Cultures choose to develop the body into something that would satisfy them. This relates to the book because Greek culture is famous for human statues and bringing out various parts of the body.

In Beyond the Classical: Byzantine and Later Greek Art, the 20th century is discussed and how Greek artists looked outside the schools of Munich and Paris for inspiration. They looked to their own Classical and Byzantine art. This period was known as the Heliocentric Modernism. Mixtures of European and Byzantine styles began to develop thoughout the 400-year occupation of the country by the Turks. Also, Western European architecture in the 19th century, influenced by classical Greece, began to create the now familiar cityscapes of the modern western world. This video relates to the book because Living with Art talks explains the classical world of Greece and Rome on page 332 and Byzantine art and architecture is discussed. The Hagia Sophia, a common building located in Istanbul, Turkey.

In The Measure of All Things: Greek Art and the Human Figure, it is determined how the Acropolis is a visual reminder of politics, philosophy and art of the ancient Greek world. Artists at that time were obsessed with the body, portraying the body in a realistic way and making it perfect. The development of the olympic games also idealized the human body's strength and beauty. Greek artists also created sculptures in idealized forms and portraits like that of Socrates. Our images of Classical Art is based on purity and simplicity. Greek statues are so realistic, it makes it hard to tell is they are a goddess or a perfect human being. The Acropolis and it's buildings like the Parthenon and the Erechthion, are the most obvious reminders to us now of the revolution in art and architecture in Ancient Greece, but it was more so sculpture and the way the Greeks learned to depict themselves was at the heart of that revolution. This video relates to the book because it is also discussed the emphasis the Greeks put on the human figure. "Warrior A" from the book was a bronze statue that is the idealized image of a virile male body, the anatomy of this figure was from looking at hundreds of athletic physiques.

I choose these videos because they all relate to the human body and I think it is very interesting the way different cultures viewed themselves and others around them. These videos did a great job explaining the first images known of the body being created to how the ancient Greeks created these works of art.