ART HISTORY - Coursework Example

Art history Video At the British museum in London is a major display of the Assyrian lion hunt reliefs. The vivid engravings show an ancient practice of the Assyrian empire. Lion hunting was a major cultural practice. Despite being brutal, the cultural practice was celebrated with the engravings showing a king of the empire leading the hunt. Another equally important feature portrayed by the engravings was the position of arts in the society. Arts remain a practical way of representing the society.

The early Assyrian artists portrayed their artistic skills as they expertly captured a major cultural practice. The images are clear and detailed to this date a feature that portrayed the level of professionalism the artists employed in the arts. They capture the details and gross nature of the practice. The engravings display a large number of the dying lions coupled with the cruel nature of the hunt. Such details do not only represent the cultural practice but also embodies the revered art of the time.

Video 2 Mona Lisa is arguably the most famous single piece of painting in the world today. The video investigates the source of the famous and prominence the painting acquired more than five hundred years after its creation. Leonardo Da Vinci, the painter of the work, portrayed his artistic genius in the painting. The woman in the painting lacks eyebrows, identity and has a mysterious smile. He positioned such features strategically thereby making it difficult for anyone to interpret the work, thus the lack of identity.

The lack of identity owing to the perfect positioning of various features in the painting makes Mona Lisa mysterious (Kalogridis 231).Work citedKalogridis, Jeanne. Painting Mona Lisa. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2010. Print.