A Young Flavian Woman - Essay Example

Your Date Compare and Contrast “A Young Flavian Woman” (Rome 90 CE) And “The Head of Nefertiti” (1352-1336 BCE) The first work that we study here is a portrait of a young Flavian woman. The portrait is suggested to be of a Flavian princess. The portrait belongs to 2nd century CE and was created in 90 CE. The portrait has been etched out on marble and is remarkable for the sculptor’s depiction of elegance and the way in which the sculptor depicts the differing textures of hair and flesh. The sculpture belongs to the Flavian period (69-96 CE) of the Ancient Roman period. The portrait was created in Rome. The current location of the sculpture is Museo Capitolino, Rome, Italy. The work is important in that it depicts a young woman instead of an elder, which was common during the Republic. The work is an example of Roman Ideal. “Roman art speaks in a language almost every Western viewer can readily understand. Its diversity and eclecticism foreshadowed the modern world.”1 The portrait being studies here is important to roman art history because of its extremely careful work with drill. The portrait has been made out from marble which signifies that the sculpture was made from the purpose of depicting idealized beauty. “Its purpose was not to project Republican virtues but rather idealized beauty-through contemporary fashion rather than by reference to images of Greek goddesses”2. It is not the woman who concerns the observers here, instead the serene beauty and the elaborate coiffure attracts the attention of the observers. The flawless skin, elaborate hair-do, carefully etched out features and a swan like neck-they present perfect beauty and is almost ideal. The sculpture is 2’1” high, and the use of marble accentuates the purpose of depicting a flawless beauty. The pose is gentle and since the purpose of the sculpture was not to depict a historical figure and represent beauty in its ideal form, the pose helps the cause. Anonymous portraits such as the one being discussed here serve the main purpose of depicting the time period through the fashion such as the coiffure worn by the woman in the work being discussed here. This anonymous work is no exception. “The elaborate Flavian coiffure with its corkscrew curls punched out by skilled hands using a drill instead of a chisel, creates a dense mass of light and shadow set off boldly from the softly modeled and highly polished skin of the face and swanlike neck.”3 The coiffure is different in the front and the back, which indicates that the sculpture was not meant to view from a single angle. The elaborate coiffure is an indication that the person was by no means a common person. She had to be a part of the imperial family to have had the time and the money to get such an elaborate coiffure done for her. The work is one of the most famous women portraits and successfully depicts the Flavian art and its need to identify itself in a different light from the Republican views. The second work that we discuss here is the bust of Nefertiti, the Queen of Egypt and wife of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (later came to be known as Akhenaten). The work was found in the workshop of the sculptor THUTMOSE. The work belongs to the period of Amarna period of Egypt’s 18th dynasty, during which Akhenaten changed the nature of Egyptian art by changing the way in which Egyptian pharaohs were depicted. The work has been deliberately left incomplete and belongs to ca. 1353-1335 BCE. The portrait was created in Tell el-Amarna, Egypt. The current location of the sculpture is Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin. The portrait has been etched out on limestone and has been painted to depict the beauty of queen. The portrait has been said to be one of the most famous works of the late Amarnic period. Similar to the first work, this work too concentrates on representing an ideal beauty, the difference being that the first work was an anonymous work of art while this work sought to immortalize a member of the imperial family. Hence the use of limestone suits the purpose. The work exhibits “a similar expression of entranced musing and an almost mannered sensitivity and delicacy of curving contour.”4 The work mentioned prior to this represented beauty in an idealized form and yet was humanely in its description; however, in this portrait the sculptor has combined physical and spiritual beauty. “The Tell el-Amarna seems to have adjusted the actual likeness of his subject to meet the era’s standard of spiritual beauty.”5 The sculpture is 1’8” high. The portrait lacks an inlaid eyeball on the left eye socket. Inspite of that, the portrait exudes elegance and beauty. The full lips have been accentuated with the use of a bold red color. The neck is slender and graceful and carries the elaborate crown with elegance. The colors of the necklace and the crown accentuate the yellowish-brown beauty of Nefertiti. The chiseled looks and use of perfect colors enhance the beauty of the portrait. This portrait differs from the one mentioned before in that it is a polychromatic work and hence depicts the beauty of the person in the sculpture through the use of colors rather than use of drills or chisels as has been done in the previous work. The sculptor may have been deliberately alluding to a heavy flower on its stalk by exaggerating the weight of the crowned head and the length of the almost serpentine neck. One thinks of those modern descendants of Queen Nefertiti – the models in the fashion magazines, with their gaunt, swaying frames, masklike, pallid faces, and enormous, shadowed eyes. As the modern mannerism shapes the living models to its dictates, so the sculptors of Tell-el Amarna [Akhetaten] may have had some standards of spiritual beauty to which they adjusted the likenesses of their subjects. Even so, one is made very much aware of the reality of the queen through her contrived mask of beauty, a masterpiece of cosmetic art. The Nefertiti bust is one more example of that elegant blending of the real and the formal that we have noticed so often in the art of the ancient Near East.6 The two works belong to two different cultures and hence they were bound to have differences. While the portrait of Nefertiti exudes a sense of spirituality along with beauty, the other portrait of a Flavian woman is meant to provide its observers with a sense of ideal beauty without indulging in a mystical spiritual experience. The similarity in the two works is that both are an attempt to provide its observers an idea of the particular periods through the depiction of the beauty of the portraits. References Gardner, Helen; Kliener, Fred S.; and Mamiya, Christin J. Gardner’s Art Though the Ages: a Western Perspective. 12th Edition. Australia: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2006. Tansey, Richard G.; Horst De La Croix; and Kirkpatrick, Diane. Art Through The Ages. New York: Jovanovich College Publishers, 1991. Read More