Art and History Essay writing

Requirement

Part A
1. Analyze storytelling in the cultures we studied in the past four weeks using the artworks below as examples of the Egyptian, Islamic, and Early Christian societies’ modes for depicting stories. Begin with a brief analysis of each story that is being told, using your own words and making sure to point out the formal elements of the artwork (line, color, shape, and composition) that combine to tell the story.
•Funerary Stele of Amenemhat, c. 2000 BCE. Painted limestone. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Located on page 59 in the textbook.
•Flight into Egypt, from the Infancy of Christ Window, c. 1140-1144 CE. Stained and painted glass. The Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. Located on page 264 in the textbook.
•Tile Mosaic Mihrab from the Madrasa Imami, c. 1354 CE. Glazed and cut ceramic tiles. The Metropolitan Museum in New York City. Located on page 194 in the textbook.
2. Next, compare and contrast the three artworks and the iconography used in each story and distinguish the connections that can be made, pointing out patterns you find.

Part B
1. To conclude, summarize the use of storytelling in the cultures represented in the three artworks you discussed above.
2. After learning about the complexity and variety of Islamic decoration, as seen in Tile Mosaic Mihrab, from the Madrasa Imami, assess if you think that figural representations are essential to communicating religious messages. Provide examples to support your analysis.

Solution

Part A 1

Most of the people have utilized art and history not only as a way of decorations, but they also utilized it to share their stories with everyone. The way of culture is regularly changing as per the time passes. Every culture through time had a unique story to tell and a way of telling it. In Egypt, everyone often watch stories of the celebrations of death and life such as during the Funerary Stele of Amenemhat from around 2000 BCE. Everyone watched a big image of the family of four during a celebration where the son and the father face a moment of closeness embrace both of them (Hauser, 2016). As I evaluate Funerary Stele of Amenemhat, I mostly consider the story of a family relationship. The painting developed on sandstone concludes that the son and father, sitting on a coat embrace both of them. Behind them, the mother of the son sitting on the same coat with her hands on her son. On the other side, the table is covered with various food offerings provided to both of them. To the right of the table is the daughter who is feeling emotional with her connection with the family. The lines written in the painting are looking very smooth, and the figure represents in painting clearly shows emotion through the placement of hands and eye contact. Painting colors are bright and clean. The family in the picture is clothed in green and white jewelry. The painter utilizes darker skin tone for showing males, but body structure of males is not clearly defined. The faces look smiling and upright which provide the artwork an appearance of love, celebration, and family.  

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In the art of early Christian society, we watch different stories which are based on iconic forms portrayed glory and on religious beliefs. Flight in Egypt from the Infancy of Christ Window shows a moment of joseph journey. Jesus and Mary are on their way to Egypt. The artist of this picture selects stained glass window like their canvas which performed quite a bit during this time. The window has covered by bright and dark colors, and I can only think the beauty of the window as the sun illuminates and shines into the church. The background of the picture is covered with dark red color which enforces our eyes to concentrate on the brighter colors of the window as the trees, donkey, and the characters. The thick bold colors and the smooth lines of the picture stand out. The donkey in the picture seems tired because his eyes are pointed down and the donkey's tail seems fit to its back end and looks to be between the donkey's legs. Eyes of Mary were pointed downward and there is no any happiness on the faces of characters in this picture. All these are the small description about the emotion of the story.
After watching various Islamic stories and works of arts, it can be said that it portray a lot of colors, many patterns, and small detailed shapes. Like the work of Christian, most of the Islamic art concentrates on religion with inscriptions and words from the Koran but instead of showing people; they select to display words (Yasin, 2013). One of the beautiful examples of Islamic art is the Mosaic Mihrab from Madrasa Imami. The bright blue stone of the picture shows that the artist consumes lots of time in designing it. It seems as guidance to prayer for everyone. Instead of displaying pictures of different individuals, the artist has selected to show words from the Koran to motivate those who pray near it.

Part A 2

The 3 pieces of art discussed in previous part have some unique iconography. Looking at the work of Egyptian people, we can see that they are mostly using lighter skin colors for the females and darker skin color for males. Women and men both wear jewelry around their necks. The style and look of the characters show in the picture are considered quite common in the artwork of Egypt people. Some of the characters wear accessories which show royalty. Christian of previous time uses more basic colors and shows humble and basic life when describing the story of the people. We mostly see that the artist use more of the full face of character instead of the side view. In the Islamic artwork, we can see different colors in their pictures. Artist of Islam displays more patterns and word and less character of people.

Part B 1

The Funerary Stele of Amenemhat shows a story of attachment. The father feels embraces with his son by keeping him in both arms. Behind the son is the wife who has her hands on the head of her son. The daughter is standing right to the table looking emotional. There is a table covered with various items next to the father. The story displaying in the picture looks a story of love which was painted by using bright colors.
Flight into Egypt, from the Infancy of Christ Window, displays the legend surrounding the story of the Flight into Egypt (Bunson, 2014). The legend shows in the window concludes how during the journey Jesus ordered a fig tree for Mary. This was done to remove the hungriness of Mary. This depicts the kindness of Jesus and his love for everyone displayed in a church as an attractive stained glass window.
The Mosaic Mihrab considered as the attractive example of Islamic art. It is situated in a mosque and is the niche which shows the Mecca direction.

Part B 2

I think that a religious message does not require having images nor does it have to have words. But the message should convey a feeling of attachment like the Mosaic Mihrab in which the artist has selected to use intricate tiles for showing attachment with the viewers. Apart of it, Christian society art describes pictures of angels or people (Overton, 2016). Images mostly used to motivate viewers. It is necessary to understand the message for conveying it to others in an effective manner by displaying pictures or words.

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References

  • Hauser, A. (2016). The philosophy of art history.

  • Yasin, A. M. (2013). Transition to Christianity: Art of Late Antiquity, 3rd–7th Century AD: Onassis Cultural Center, New York December 7, 2011–May 14, 2012 Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition, 7th–9th Century The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York March 14–July 8, 2011. West 86th,20(2), 245-249.

  • Bunson, M. (2014). Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Infobase Publishing.

  • Overton, K. (2016). 13 Filming, Photographing and Purveying in ‘The New Iran’: The Legacy of Stephen H. Nyman, ca. 1937–42. In Arthur Upham Pope and A New Survey of Persian Art (pp. 326-370). Brill.

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