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How Power And Authority Was Spread Through Ancient Art

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How Power and Authority was Spread through Ancient Art Art has been around for thousands of years and is used as a tool to communicate the ideas and thoughts of the artist. It has been used to capture many important events in human history and will continue until our eventual extinction. Today, art captures historical events, concepts, and forms of personal expression, even though thousands of years ago it was used to show wealth, power, and the authority of a leader or God over the people of a civilization. Many ancient civilizations used art to spread their power over people such as, the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Each civilization had artworks that demonstrated the king’s power and authority over the people. The Egyptians had …show more content…

Egyptians believed that art, power, and religions were interlocked, meaning you could not have one without the other. When a pharaoh or someone else important would die, the body was prepared using a process called mummification and then would be put in a coffin and that coffin would then be placed in a sarcophagus. A sarcophagus was used to be an eternal abode for the deceased and as a gateway to the afterlife. Most of the art that was created in Egypt was never meant to be seen and were meant to benefit a god or the deceased. A piece of artwork found in the Tomb of Amenherkhepshef shows a painting of the king being embraced by a goddess, displaying the power the Egyptian people thought pharaohs held. They believed that they were divine and in contact with the Egyptian Gods. This painting is called Ramessses III and Prince Amenherkhepeshef before Hathor and was found in the Valley of the Queens during the reign of Ramesses III which was between 1184-1153 B.C. The painting is made from paper and paint/ink. Another civilization that communicated power through art was ancient …show more content…

Greek artists made many portraits of their rulers and would make them look powerful to strike fear into their enemies. An ancient sculpture found by fisherman off the coast of Cape Artemisium in 1928 is still being debated on whether it was of Zeus or Poseidon, although it is most likely Zeus. The sculpture, named Artemision Bronze shows the Greek God attempting to throw something (could either be a lightning bolt or a trident) that does not exist because it was probably removed, destroying any possibility of finding out what Greek God this is. This statue was created around 460 B.C. during the Greek Classical Period. The artist of this statue is not known although there are some predictions as to who it might be. Before this piece of art was lost, it was probably used by the kings to hold power of citizens and use the God as a way to keep them from trying to rebel. Greece ruled for many centuries until the Romans conquered them and took control of them and adopted some forms of their

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In the early Archaic period, the Greek sculptures were very similar to the Geometric art period. As the Greeks are being exposed to other art, they started to make their statuary look more like a real human beings instead of the gods with no facial structure. During the New York Kouros, the Kroisos, from Anavysos, Greece, statue is a good example of how the statue of a young male, posing in a natural stance. With closed hollow eyes, no expression on his face.

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In 1375 B.C.E. a young Pharaoh ascended the throne named Amenhotep IV, but just five years into his rule he changed his name to Akhenaten and with this change he went against tradition and the culture of his people, moving his capital, and declaring a new religion. This change affected every aspect of the Egyptians life, how they worshiped, lived and even the art that was so important to the culture. Though Egypt had a long history of tradition and respect of the past, Akhenaten’s radical behavior did not last, it was just ten short years after his death, that his city was demolished and his name almost obliterated from history, and the old ways brought back. During his rule he opened up a renewal and renaissance of culture and beliefs,

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Works Cited Bothmer, Bernard (1974). Brief Guide to the Department of Egyptian and Classical Art. Brooklyn, NY: The Brooklyn Museum. p. 39

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