Nature and Man In Art
• BELIEFS shape art.
&
• The GIVENS shape art.

Beliefs?
What does the painting tell us?
Givens?

EGYPTIAN ART
The Significance Of Reality
through the Law Of Frontality.

Post and Lintel Architecture

Minoan Palace of Knossos
Crete

Minoan Fresco: Knossos

Giant Pottery: Knossos

Nature Inspired

Mycenaean Gold Celature: The Vaphio Cup

Mycenaean Celature
Agamemnon

Lion Gate: Mycenae

Greek Geometric

Greek Archaic Kouros Figures

What’s the Given
How would you
paint black figures
on this empty surface?

Archaic Classic & Hellenistic

Greek Classic
Idealized perfection

Greek Architecture: Man imposes his will on nature

Classic: Idealized - Poetic - Reason Hellenistic: Reality - Prose
Passion

Man as he is. Man as he would like to be.

Classic Greek
The IDEAL.
From vertical inhibition to
vertical/horizotal breakout.
Man
The measure of all things!
Archaic Greek Hellenistic Greek
The Arrested Walk The Reality.

Beliefs?
Givens?

What have we learned?
This portrait is…
l. Paleolithic 2. Egyptian
3. Minoan. 4. Greek Classic
4. Greek Hellenistic.
Its interpretation favors…
1. The significance of reality.
2. The appearance of reality.
3. Classicism.
4. Poetic stylization.
The work suggests a society in
which… 1. Nature dominates.
2. Man dominates.