Black-Figure Amphora with Scenes of Apollo Entertaining Dionysus and Hermes - Essay Example

Task: Black-Figure Amphora with Scenes of Apollo Entertaining Dionysus and Hermes, and Theseus Killing the Minotaur Located at theChrysler Art Museum Website Chrysler Museum is one of the popular museums that are well known for art collections from different parts of the world. The museum exhibits Egyptian art, Greco-roman art, pre-Columbian art, and American painting and arts. The above is an amphora that has ribbed handles that are decorated in black, white, and red slip with an incised decoration. On one side of the amphora are three major Greek gods. Apollo is standing between Hermes and Dionysus, who are seated in folding stools. Apollo is playing the kithara or the lyre in between the two. The lyre seems to be an award for musical competition. The artwork was made in Athens between 530-520 BC (Chrysler Museum Website). The arts are a result of Greek myths. The artworks are categorized under the Terracota Gift of the Mowbray Arch Society 2003. They are in the 18th floor room a & b. The art shows Hermes, who is also referred to as the messenger god having some wings attached to his shins. At the left, there is Dionysus seated, who is the fertility god. He also serves as the wine god. He has been saved as an infant by Hermes (Chrysler Museum Website). The other side of the arrangement is the Athenian hero known as Theseus. The hero is locked in a mortal combat with Minotaur. Minotaur is a beast that has the body of a human being, but the head of a bull. He looks very scary and monstrous. In addition, there are two maidens that are looking at Theseus. They are keen on what Theseus is doing: he is decapitating blood spurts and Minotaur from the neck of Minotaur. According to the existing Greek legend, Theseus, who is a son to King of Athens, Aegeus, had volunteered to be among the seven young me and maidens that were annually sent to the city of Athens to be used as Crete’s tribute and were to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Theseus, instead of becoming a victim, killed the beast and ended up rescuing all his companions. The artist of the mentioned artworks applied Lysippides’ painter manner. The overall dimensions of the figures are 16.5 inch, which is an equivalent of 41.9 centimeters. The object number of the arts is 2003.18. The art gallery is 114 (Chrysler Museum Website). I chose the above artwork due to the thrilling and mythical story behind it. I am familiar with the story and choosing this artwork would actually provide me with more detailed information about it than what I already knew. Minos, the King hated the Athenians because they killed his son. In order to revenge, he ordered the sending of the Athenian youths to Crete to feed the Minotaur – the half bull and half man. He used to live in the labyrinth under the King’s palace. King Aegeus was very angry and sworn that he would go by himself and kill the Minotaur, however, his son, Thaseus went. The drama reached its peak when King Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, fell in love with Theseus and went ahead to help him in the fight. She sneaked past the several guards and gave Theseus a sword and a long ball of string. Theseus entered the maze, eventually loosing the string. He came to the Minotaur’s lair and had a ferocious and terrible battle with the monstrous Minotaur. He won the battle and the Minotaur died. Later, he found his way out the terrible maze by following the string trail (Connor 132). The above interesting Greek myth served as a motivation towards my desire to know more about the artwork related to it, hence the choice. Besides the narrative behind the artwork, the efficiency and the expertness of the creator of the artwork also played a big role as a factor that influenced my decision to choose this particular artwork a lot. The artist has used expressive lines in the creation of the photo. This is because the picture portrays, in a detailed manner, the intention, or the target of the artist who created it. In artwork, expressive lines serve the purpose of revealing or depicting the artist’s emotional message or feelings in the photo. A photo is given certain symbols that have the roles of representing certain themes to the viewers (Yvon 92). For instance, in this case, expressive lines have been used to depict the core theme of the art as war and disagreements within the society. There are two images between two women. The men are in combat fighting one another. Both of them are armed with swords. Combating human images in works of art are meant to show war as a major theme the artist had in mind when he created the artwork. The artist has also shown a great knowledge in the use of colors. He has used a mixture of both dull red and black colors. There is a red spot in an irregular shape between the two men in combat. The other part of the photo is in brown and black colors. Brown color is the background color of the photo. It serves one main purpose of representing a society, that is, it represents the people within a particular society. The red color is the least distributed in the entire photo. It is a symbol of danger. It is the color of blood and therefore, represents disaster within a community or society. It is a representation of war within a community or between two characters in the society. In this case, it serves the purpose of representing the fight between Minotaur and Theseus in the maze. Since it is also the color of blood, it symbolizes death as well in the works of art. Black color, on the other hand, represents the dark side of a society. It represents the evils such as corruption, totalitarianism, and dictatorship of a particular ruler or leader of a community (Feldman 86). Like in the case of this photo, it represents the actions and steps of King Aegeus after the killing of his son by the monstrous Minotaur. His decision to send young children to Crete to be used in the sacrifices offered to the Minotaur is a vengeful and evil one. At the lower part of the pot like art are spiral drawings with arrow-like pointed heads. These further symbolize the theme of war and disagreements among members of a given society. It is a symbol of the encounter between Minotaur and Theseus. In addition to the above, the bronze material that has been used in making the art is a representation of a thriving economic activity during the time when the artwork was done. It informs the viewers that mining activity started many years ago. Since the art was made in Athens, Greece, it is arguably true that the artist of the art succeeded in giving the picture its theme with enough and necessary succinctness. This is true as the art depicts all aspects of a community (Lylis 102). The political aspect is represented by the presence of the two kings as well as the presence of an opposition or challenger to their ruling: Minotaur. The social life is represented by the marriage issue related to the King’s daughter, Ariadne, falling in love with Theseus, the son to another king. This shows that the royalty of the community or society is maintained and transferred from one generation to another. From the above explanations, it is lucid that comprehensive artwork was developed during the early days, even before the renaissance in Europe. The artists have a lot of experience and displayed a lot of knowledge in their work, just like in the artworks explained above. Works Cited Chrysler Museum of Art. Black-Figure Amphora with Scenes of Apollo Entertaining Dionysus and Hermes, and Theseus Killing the Minotaur. June 7, 2011. Web. April 1, 2012. http://collection.chrysler.org/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/223/21/title-asc Feldman, Lawrence. “Jew and Gentile in the Ancient world.” Cambidge Journal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Publishers, 1993. Print. Yvon, Garlan. “Greece; Rome; Military Antiquities; Military Art and Science; History.” London Journal. London: Chatto and Windus Publishers. Lillys, William. “The Asian Baseline Essay Art.” Epilogue by Pratipaditya Pal. Columbia: Columbia University Press, 2000. Print. Connor, William. “Early Greek Land Warfare as Symbolic Expression.” Past and Present. New York, NY: SAGE Publishers, 1988. Print. Read More