Darius And Xerxes Receiving Tribute Analysis

Expressing one’s feeling or telling a story through art is a special ability that only human-beings have. Ancient people showed their lives or stories by art. From their artworks, archeologists study past cultures. Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt also show their cultures and religions through art. In Darius and Xerxes Receiving Tribute, a sculpture in Mesopotamia, Darius, sitting on the throne, holds an audience while, Xerxes, his son and heir, listens from behind the throne. Additionally, this sculpture shows a hierarchical society with different grounding lines. Also, it has dark gray color and the figures have certain military poses. These factors make Darius and Xerxes Receiving Tribute more mysterious and gelidity. In Queen Nefertari Making

In ancient times, people would treat their king as a god. To set their king apart from others, drawing higher ground line would be one of the solutions. For instance, on Darius and Xerxes Receiving Tribute, the ground lines where the figures of Xerxes and the throne stand are higher than Darius’ soldier. Furthermore, the sculpture continues to emphasize the power of Darius through the position of Darius’ feet. As he put his feet on his stool, the stool creates the highest ground line. As a result, the highest grounding line of Darius proves that he has the most power in the world. Besides, Queen Nefertari Making an Offering to Isis also has hierarchical ground lines. The ground line where Nefertari stands is lower than the line where the Isis’s throne is placed. Thus, in both artworks, the one who have the most power stands on the highest line or place. In addition, these two artworks illustrate the power of king and god with an object or his or her appearance. For instance, Darius and his son have longer false beard. In this period, a false beard represents royalty. Their longer and neater false beards reflect that they were of high power. Also, on Queen Nefertari Making an Offering to Isis, every jewel that Isis and Nefertari are wearing is gold. Furthermore, the throne or headdress, which is only Isis is wearing, puts an emphasis on the power of god or

Queen Nefertari Making an Offering to Isis is more active than Darius and Xerxes Receiving Tribute. The use of color is one of their differences. Queen Nefertari Making an Offering to Isis has pure colors, such as blue, yellow, orange, and so on. The pure colors take attention from the audience and look more active and energetic. Moreover, the skin tonality makes the painting alive or animated. Also, by skin tonality, Nefertari painting differentiates goddess and queen by skin tonality. Isis has gold skin tonality; queen Nefertari has pink brown skin tonality. Gold symbolizes royalty and power. Thus, painting Isis with gold color argues that Isis has more power than Nefertari. Also, it would depict the difference between a god and human-being. Besides, on Queen Nefertari Making an Offering to Isis, there are lots of decorations. The decorations with bright colors are also the reasons why the painting looks active. In contrast, Darius and Xerxes Receiving Tribute has no color. The sculpture has dark gray color, which is the color of stone. The dark gray color makes the sculpture be more serious or profound. Due to the dark color, Darius and Xerxes Receiving Tribute seems like less active than Nefertari painting. Also, the figures have military poses. Because of its dark color, the overall tone of the sculpture looks deeper and more