The Fascinating World of Ancient Art: A Journey Through Time
Ancient style is a vast domain, which throws many insights into the methods of thoughts, ceremonies, and even development in prior societies. Since the very conception of art as one of the major ways of the human activity representation, ancient art is the key to the comprehending the story of the Creation. Here, such categories of ancient art are discussed, the most popular examples of ancient art examples, and the history of these creations that form the basis of art in early civilizations are presented.
What is Ancient Art?
Ancient art therefore describes the art produced in the ancient societies of world. In fact it comprises of a numerous forms of art such as the art of painting the caves, shrines and temples, making pottery, and carving monumental statues and buildings. Apart from being an art for artistic values, this art had cultural values in as much as it had religious, political and social values. Ancient art history as analytical category helps see the reflection of the values and beliefs of people and explores their technologies by presenting what existed in the eyes of the ancient civilizations.
Ancillary analysis of ancient art history is vital where preservation of human cultural evolution is concerned. It therefore makes it easier for the scholar to reconstruct the social-political and spiritual activity of early civilization. By measuring these portrayals we are able to chart a path of artistic development in skills, media and iconography over the millennia.
Types of Ancient Art
Ancient art can be placed into categories and each category can be related to specific periods, geographical location and cultural background. Such forms include; painting, sculptural work such as carving, architecture, ceramic work and textile work. It will now be fitting to look at some of the types of ancient art that certainly inspired the classical period and history as a whole.
1. Cave Paintings
The first kind of ancient art examples is the Paleolithic art, which started to appear when the early humans started painting on the caves walls. The best examples of parietal works of art include those made in regions such as Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. These art resources inform that these paintings usually portray animals, human images, and abstract sign and may have religious or hunting connotations. Cave painting is the oldest form of graphics that has ever been depicted by people from the ancient days.
This early works of art were made with pastel like ochre and other natural resources such as charcoal and minerals. They reveal the sophistication of early people and indicate that art might well have been magical or religious and could have related to animistic or shamanistic beliefs.
2. Ancient Egyptian Art
Egyptian art is considered one of the most significant and unbroken traditions of the whole ancient civilization. Egyptian art work was striking in that it was formal and stylized and, given its purpose of communicating political, religious, and social power, highly symbolic. In the art of the ancient Egyptians considerable spiritual significance was attributed unto art especially concerning tombs and temples.
Some of the traditional Egyptian pieces of art are hard to pinpoint their age, with the most recognizable one being undoubtedly the tomb of Tutankhamun who was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922. Gold masks, ornate gold jewelry, murals depicting the life in afterlife let people see what Egyptian art was like. Art in the form of wall paintings, sculpture and relief which characterized Nile valley especially Egypt boldly displayed gods, pharaohs, and after life in what can be described as a standard conventional form. Such body positions as showing the head and legs from a side whereas the body is depicted from the front became more recurrent in newly developed Egyptian mannerisms.
3. Ancient Greek Art
Greek arts remains one of the most admirable styles in the tradition of art in the occident. From the Archaic period of the eighth through fourth centuries BC to Classical, Hellenistic period, 323 – 30 BC Greek art gradually developed from stylized figurative art to naturalism.
Among the Skeuophoroi, Greek sculptures are famous for portraying human figures. This trend began during the Archaic period; the kouroi and korai sculptures depicted was passive, and their postures were erect. However as the Greeks enter the classical age in the 5th century B.C more realism and anatomical modeling was done by sculptors such as Phidias and Praxiteles.The Parthenon frieze and the Venus de Milo are clear examples of these advances in sculpting.
Ceramics – pottery in particular – is another important element of Ancient Greek art. By far some of the most advanced pottery methods that were in use by Greek potters were black-figure and red-figure that enabled them portray scenes from mythology and real life on their pots. These pots were not only used for some application; they were used as a narrative instrument.
4. Roman Art
They copied from the Greeks, yet the Romans had their own ways of designing their art. Portrait was a favorite genre of Roman artists, and, regarding the so-called busts of emperors, philosophers, and other influential men and women, they have been very close to life. Like most Roman art, the bust of Julius Caesar was also used to send political statements, especially power, courtesy of the realism depicted in the piece.
Of great importance also the evolution of the new constructive forms: the arch, vaults, and domes – all of them edited the Roman architecture. The aqueduct and Roman amphitheater also known as the colosseum and the government building also known as the pantheon prove worthy examples of the great achievements of roman engineering. Another great examples of Roman art are mosaics – detailed patterns on a surface, made of individual tesserae or stones of different colors: stones of the different shades of color were used for the making of mosaics.
Related : What Was the Ideal of Female Beauty in Ancient Rome?
5. Ancient Chinese Art
Chinese art predates at least 4,000 years and is considered to have some of the earliest and largest varieties of artwork in the world. Abstract Chinese art is best known with the emergence of calligraphy, ceramics, jade sculptor’s works and bronzes.
The many long established ancient art examples that came from China include jade carvings that have been made from during the Neolithic period. These artifacts where mostly made for burial ceremonies, and the workmanship associated with the production of these pieces was more often than not exceptional, Also, they had rather significant religious and/or ceremonial importance.
The Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) – painting and sculpture, scenes of daily life, myths, and the other world. Another example of art work of ancient China is the Terracotta Army that was found in 1974. These life-sized statues were made to follow Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the other world, revealing finer points in ceramic mode.
6. Mesopotamian Art
The region that is known as Mesopotamia or the cradle of civilization spit some of the earliest forms of writing and large scale art. Religion and the divine was deeply incorporated into the Mesopotamian arts because many of the biggest pieces were made for temple and palace.
Perhaps the most recognized and reproduced example of an ancient art originating in Mesopotamia is the Ishtar Gate, constructed in the period of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. The gate whose upper part was ornamented with lions and some other patterns also served as the main gate through which people later made a grand entry into the city. Relief sculptures from the ancient Mesopotamians especially those of the Assyrian palace of King Ashurbanipal also depict Kings in a battle or in some religious practice which would make them divine figures on the throne.
7. Ancient Indian Art
A great deal of ancient Indian art has a profound symbolic and spiritual character; the sources of the art of the Indus valley date back to the 3rd and 1st millennium BC. PICTURES: This, however, did not happen until the Maurya Kingdom (c. 321–185 BCE) as well as the Gupta Kingdom (c.320 – 550 CE) when art boomed in India.
These ancient art examples from India are sculpture deities and goddesses, and detailed stone works located in temples. Of equal importance to ancient Indian art was the creation of stupas and the introduction of the deities of Buddha figures.
Ancient Art as a Reflection of Culture and Society
One of the reasons that makes the ancient art history so interesting, is that it offers a brief look into the previous generations. Long ago, art was not a form of beautification but a part and parcel of societies’ political and religious life. Whether the Egyptians constructing giant pyramids in order to commemorate their gods, the Greeks using sculptures to portray physical attractiveness and intelligence or the Chinese art detailed tomb art to ensure the proper burial of the dead, art of the specific culture had numerous uses.
This study found in many cases art was used to signify power. Great kings and emperors themselves ordered such artwork to give their reigns longevity and firmly establish them as legitimate, to garner support of their subjects. Such monumental complexes as the Egyptian pyramids, the Roman coliseums, and the triumphal arches were aimed at staging imperial power and divine sanction.
Religious art also played its role, as art mostly did during that period. It is common to know that in many of the earliest civilizations they believed their artwork could either speak to the gods, or help them in the afterlife. For instance, the paintings, and carvings in tombs were created with the aim of creating an illusion that the deceased would exercise particular feats in the afterlife and benefit from the gods’ blessings.
Conclusion
Traditional art is a painterly chronicle that has been passed down from the culture of the most distant ancestors to superpowers of today. Ancient art can be as varied as the civilizations which represented it – from prehistoric people who drew on the walls of caves to the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. These artistic forms not only convey ancients’ philosophy and belief, but also Technology and societies that prevailed at the age of ancients.
Further, reading through and watching more examples of ancient art as they help us learn more about the people who made them. Their art in its aesthetic and intricate patterns, and allusive simple story is mankind’s chronicle of progression of time.
Reflecting on ancient art history brings us closer to a gripping reality completely unrelated to the present age and space. When we look at the large statues made by Romans to ornament their large buildings, or the elaborated engravings on the face of ancient Chinese jade, we are once more put in mind of the ability of art to mirror and transform culture in the course of thousands of years.
Anonymous 
The Fascinating World of Ancient Art: A Journey Through Time
Ancient style is a vast domain, which throws many insights into the methods of thoughts, ceremonies, and even development in prior societies. Since the very conception of art as one of the major ways of the human activity representation, ancient art is the key to the comprehending the story of the Creation. Here, such categories of ancient art are discussed, the most popular examples of ancient art examples, and the history of these creations that form the basis of art in early civilizations are presented.
What is Ancient Art?
Ancient art therefore describes the art produced in the ancient societies of world. In fact it comprises of a numerous forms of art such as the art of painting the caves, shrines and temples, making pottery, and carving monumental statues and buildings. Apart from being an art for artistic values, this art had cultural values in as much as it had religious, political and social values. Ancient art history as analytical category helps see the reflection of the values and beliefs of people and explores their technologies by presenting what existed in the eyes of the ancient civilizations.
Ancillary analysis of ancient art history is vital where preservation of human cultural evolution is concerned. It therefore makes it easier for the scholar to reconstruct the social-political and spiritual activity of early civilization. By measuring these portrayals we are able to chart a path of artistic development in skills, media and iconography over the millennia.
Types of Ancient Art
Ancient art can be placed into categories and each category can be related to specific periods, geographical location and cultural background. Such forms include; painting, sculptural work such as carving, architecture, ceramic work and textile work. It will now be fitting to look at some of the types of ancient art that certainly inspired the classical period and history as a whole.
1. Cave Paintings
The first kind of ancient art examples is the Paleolithic art, which started to appear when the early humans started painting on the caves walls. The best examples of parietal works of art include those made in regions such as Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. These art resources inform that these paintings usually portray animals, human images, and abstract sign and may have religious or hunting connotations. Cave painting is the oldest form of graphics that has ever been depicted by people from the ancient days.
This early works of art were made with pastel like ochre and other natural resources such as charcoal and minerals. They reveal the sophistication of early people and indicate that art might well have been magical or religious and could have related to animistic or shamanistic beliefs.
2. Ancient Egyptian Art
Egyptian art is considered one of the most significant and unbroken traditions of the whole ancient civilization. Egyptian art work was striking in that it was formal and stylized and, given its purpose of communicating political, religious, and social power, highly symbolic. In the art of the ancient Egyptians considerable spiritual significance was attributed unto art especially concerning tombs and temples.
Some of the traditional Egyptian pieces of art are hard to pinpoint their age, with the most recognizable one being undoubtedly the tomb of Tutankhamun who was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922. Gold masks, ornate gold jewelry, murals depicting the life in afterlife let people see what Egyptian art was like. Art in the form of wall paintings, sculpture and relief which characterized Nile valley especially Egypt boldly displayed gods, pharaohs, and after life in what can be described as a standard conventional form. Such body positions as showing the head and legs from a side whereas the body is depicted from the front became more recurrent in newly developed Egyptian mannerisms.
3. Ancient Greek Art
Greek arts remains one of the most admirable styles in the tradition of art in the occident. From the Archaic period of the eighth through fourth centuries BC to Classical, Hellenistic period, 323 – 30 BC Greek art gradually developed from stylized figurative art to naturalism.
Among the Skeuophoroi, Greek sculptures are famous for portraying human figures. This trend began during the Archaic period; the kouroi and korai sculptures depicted was passive, and their postures were erect. However as the Greeks enter the classical age in the 5th century B.C more realism and anatomical modeling was done by sculptors such as Phidias and Praxiteles.The Parthenon frieze and the Venus de Milo are clear examples of these advances in sculpting.
Ceramics – pottery in particular – is another important element of Ancient Greek art. By far some of the most advanced pottery methods that were in use by Greek potters were black-figure and red-figure that enabled them portray scenes from mythology and real life on their pots. These pots were not only used for some application; they were used as a narrative instrument.
4. Roman Art
They copied from the Greeks, yet the Romans had their own ways of designing their art. Portrait was a favorite genre of Roman artists, and, regarding the so-called busts of emperors, philosophers, and other influential men and women, they have been very close to life. Like most Roman art, the bust of Julius Caesar was also used to send political statements, especially power, courtesy of the realism depicted in the piece.
Of great importance also the evolution of the new constructive forms: the arch, vaults, and domes – all of them edited the Roman architecture. The aqueduct and Roman amphitheater also known as the colosseum and the government building also known as the pantheon prove worthy examples of the great achievements of roman engineering. Another great examples of Roman art are mosaics – detailed patterns on a surface, made of individual tesserae or stones of different colors: stones of the different shades of color were used for the making of mosaics.
Related : What Was the Ideal of Female Beauty in Ancient Rome?
5. Ancient Chinese Art
Chinese art predates at least 4,000 years and is considered to have some of the earliest and largest varieties of artwork in the world. Abstract Chinese art is best known with the emergence of calligraphy, ceramics, jade sculptor’s works and bronzes.
The many long established ancient art examples that came from China include jade carvings that have been made from during the Neolithic period. These artifacts where mostly made for burial ceremonies, and the workmanship associated with the production of these pieces was more often than not exceptional, Also, they had rather significant religious and/or ceremonial importance.
The Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) – painting and sculpture, scenes of daily life, myths, and the other world. Another example of art work of ancient China is the Terracotta Army that was found in 1974. These life-sized statues were made to follow Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the other world, revealing finer points in ceramic mode.
6. Mesopotamian Art
The region that is known as Mesopotamia or the cradle of civilization spit some of the earliest forms of writing and large scale art. Religion and the divine was deeply incorporated into the Mesopotamian arts because many of the biggest pieces were made for temple and palace.
Perhaps the most recognized and reproduced example of an ancient art originating in Mesopotamia is the Ishtar Gate, constructed in the period of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. The gate whose upper part was ornamented with lions and some other patterns also served as the main gate through which people later made a grand entry into the city. Relief sculptures from the ancient Mesopotamians especially those of the Assyrian palace of King Ashurbanipal also depict Kings in a battle or in some religious practice which would make them divine figures on the throne.
7. Ancient Indian Art
A great deal of ancient Indian art has a profound symbolic and spiritual character; the sources of the art of the Indus valley date back to the 3rd and 1st millennium BC. PICTURES: This, however, did not happen until the Maurya Kingdom (c. 321–185 BCE) as well as the Gupta Kingdom (c.320 – 550 CE) when art boomed in India.
These ancient art examples from India are sculpture deities and goddesses, and detailed stone works located in temples. Of equal importance to ancient Indian art was the creation of stupas and the introduction of the deities of Buddha figures.
Ancient Art as a Reflection of Culture and Society
One of the reasons that makes the ancient art history so interesting, is that it offers a brief look into the previous generations. Long ago, art was not a form of beautification but a part and parcel of societies’ political and religious life. Whether the Egyptians constructing giant pyramids in order to commemorate their gods, the Greeks using sculptures to portray physical attractiveness and intelligence or the Chinese art detailed tomb art to ensure the proper burial of the dead, art of the specific culture had numerous uses.
This study found in many cases art was used to signify power. Great kings and emperors themselves ordered such artwork to give their reigns longevity and firmly establish them as legitimate, to garner support of their subjects. Such monumental complexes as the Egyptian pyramids, the Roman coliseums, and the triumphal arches were aimed at staging imperial power and divine sanction.
Religious art also played its role, as art mostly did during that period. It is common to know that in many of the earliest civilizations they believed their artwork could either speak to the gods, or help them in the afterlife. For instance, the paintings, and carvings in tombs were created with the aim of creating an illusion that the deceased would exercise particular feats in the afterlife and benefit from the gods’ blessings.
Conclusion
Traditional art is a painterly chronicle that has been passed down from the culture of the most distant ancestors to superpowers of today. Ancient art can be as varied as the civilizations which represented it – from prehistoric people who drew on the walls of caves to the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. These artistic forms not only convey ancients’ philosophy and belief, but also Technology and societies that prevailed at the age of ancients.
Further, reading through and watching more examples of ancient art as they help us learn more about the people who made them. Their art in its aesthetic and intricate patterns, and allusive simple story is mankind’s chronicle of progression of time.
Reflecting on ancient art history brings us closer to a gripping reality completely unrelated to the present age and space. When we look at the large statues made by Romans to ornament their large buildings, or the elaborated engravings on the face of ancient Chinese jade, we are once more put in mind of the ability of art to mirror and transform culture in the course of thousands of years.