Two Works of Ancient Art
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Two works of ancient art with a similarity of theme present very different approaches to the rendering of their subjects. In The "Bull Leaping" or "Tauromachy" fresco from the Minoan palace of Knossos, depicts a ceremonial game, an athletic event with religious overtones. The detail of horsemen from the sculptural frieze on the north side of the Parthenon in Athens shows the men and horses as part of an extended depiction of the procession in the greatest of Athens' religious festivals. The aims of the two works of art are similar. Each is a depiction of a religious event and an animal is included. Despite great differences in the media and the final effect, each work aims for a feeling of spontaneity and fluidity of movement combined with a certain amount of solemnity. In its own way, each work achieves these ends and the differences between them make an interesting contrast between cultures and artistic styles. The first work, the "Bull Leaping" fresco, was created around 1500 B.C. at the Minoan palace at Knossos on the Island of Crete. The Minoan civilization is usually divided into three major periods. The first ended with the destructive earthquakes of the seventeenth century B.C. and the Middle Minoan period ran from 1625-1375 B.C. At the end of the first period the old palaces had been destroyed and were replaced in the Middle Period. The palace at Knossos is one of these new palaces and was itself destroyed in the earthquake that ended the second era.2
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st and east entrances. The building is in the Doric style. The frieze, where the horsemen come from, was above the inner columns and tops of the walls. In that location "it must have been poorly lit and difficult to see, placed as it was immediately below the ceiling."10 The frieze was a continuous band that went around the tops of the inner columns on all four sides of the building. It was, in total, 525 feet long and it measured 43 inches in height. The sculptures, like the entire building, were white Pentelic marble. The surviving sculpture of the frieze is "studded with drill holes to which would have been affixed metal harness, wreaths. spears or other accoutrements."11 The sculptures were also brightly painted and the colors and the bright metal additions to the relief sculptures "would have helped the viewer to pick out figures and action at the distance and angle imposed on him."12 Most of the sculptures from the Parthenon were taken to England by Lord Elgin. But some significant portions of this north frieze and the west frieze were found later by a Greek archaeologist and put back in place.
In most Greek buildings the continuous frieze on a single side of a building was concerned with one subject. But if
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2698
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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