Hazelann C. Lomboy Christy Hawthorne History17A 23 September 2017 How Art Helped Us Understand Ancient Civilization It is very important for us to understand the past. Without knowledge of the past, there is no future. Human would keep repeating the same mistakes they did back in the past. One way for us to understand the past is by looking at the arts that was produced during that era. We can see how that contributes to that civilization current state. It gives us clue on how they lead their life, how certain event happened and how that shape the people that lived during that era. By looking at two arts from Mesopotamia, classical Greece, and Rome, we can see how those people led their life through their arts. 1. Mesopotamia In Mesopotamia, …show more content…
Roman was more practical compared to Mesopotamian and Greek. War, law, and government were their arts. For example, the statue of Caesar Augustus, in Prima Porta, presented him as godlike. Augustus brought order in 27 BCE after a century of civil war and this lead to two centuries of institutional stability, imperial expansion and widespread prosperity for the Roman Empire. The reign of Augustus was important in the development of Roman sculpture. Under his successors, Roman sculptures became more propagandistic. The sculptures became a symbolic of imperial power. We can see that Roman worship the government more than gods and goddesses. Their religious beliefs do not play a major role on their politics nor civilization. We can also see that through their paintings. For example, Roman fresco from Boscoreale, showed triumphal entries after military victories. Roman fresco is one of the triumphal paintings that represented episodes from the war and conquered regions and cities. They showed happy country laid to waste and entire squadrons of enemies slain. Some showed temples being engulf with fires and so on. By looking at these paintings, you can see the Roman’s nature when it comes to war. Their sculptures and paintings shows us that Roman was able to create a stable government and strong military power. They were able to rule people under law and conquer other