Art and Identity in Ancient Greece and Egypt

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Art and Identity in Ancient Greek and Egypt
Introduction
Over the years, artists have considered art as a vehicle or a medium of expressing different things they encounter in society. For instance, it is common for artists to express the theme of identity by ensuring that their artwork focuses on an individual or group of people, cultural practices, gender roles, and family class status. Artists have the ability to construct and explore other different attributes from different parts of the world. The classical art Menkaure and Khamerernebty (2490–2472 B.C.) shows two great figures of a man and woman standing beside each other and appear to be gazing into eternity. This art is displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts, located in Boston. Additionally, the art Marble grave stele of a young woman and servant (400–390 B.C.) depicts a young woman who is leaning against the framing pilaster of her grave stele, and besides her is a little girl with short hair and wearing an ungirt peplos. This artwork is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The art Menkaure and Khamerernebty may be showing the role of men and females in Ancient Egypt. On the other side, the marble grave stele of a young woman and servant depicts and demonstrates class status in the Ancient Greek.
The artwork Menkaure and Khamerernebty depicts King Menkaure, and his queen, Khamerernebty, the representation of the figure of Menkaure shows a perfect male form and the kingship in Ancient Egypt. The king depicted with broad shoulders, and he has muscular legs and arms which are effectively modeled to indicate strength. Some of the components with Menkaure which identify his role as the king include long artificial beard and the nemes. This art has shown common and typical features that are common in artwork about the Egyptian Men; the men are depicted as having the left foot advanced while all the weight remains on the right foot (Museum of Fine Arts). On the other side, the queen, Khamerernebty, is given the feminine fleshiness, which is common with Egyptian women. For example, the Egyptian females have their feet together, although, in this artwork, the queen’s leg is slightly forward. Besides, although Menkaure and Khamerernebty are standing close to each other and Khamerernebty is embracing Menkaure, the two appear not to be sharing emotions with each other and with the audiences.
Additionally, the sculpture Marble grave stele of a young woman and servant depicts some of the class differences; this is because it shows a young woman who is being served by a young girl. It is important to note that the sculpturing of this art may have been motivated by the statue of Aphrodite. Additionally, the young girl is also depicted as holding on to a jewel box; the little girl may be a slave to the young women, and she would also be a sister deceased (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Most importantly, the artwork is developed on a Pentelic marble, which was common in classical Athens.
The sculpture of Menkaure and Khamerernebty is monochromatic; it is made up of one hue. Ideally, monochrome is adopted, particularly when an artist is keen on portraying a dramatic effect and when showing other qualities such as simplicity and purity. Additionally, a monochrome color is effective in making the sculpture appear formal and also reduces the focus of the audience on the artwork to specific physical elements such as the texture and form and not on the colors of the statue. Additionally, there are no indications of a shadow of the artwork, and this shows that the source of lighting was relative more strong. The line used by the artists shows the movement of elements in the artwork (Farr). In this Menkaure and Khamerernebty statue, a vertical line was used; this is because both the man and the women appear to be standing straight. The woman is shown embracing the man while there is no emotional response between the two characters; this emphasizes that wives were expected to be submissive to their husbands. Besides, the texture of this artwork is determined by the tactile quality of the sculpture and may be determined by touch.
The Menkaure and Khamerernebty art uses a smooth texture, and this may have been...