Art Appreciation IP week 2

Ancient Art

Art Appreciation IP2

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Art Appreciation IP2

Part One

· Ancient Art piece one: Mahakala, Date: (1100 to 1001bc) New York Museum of Art

· Ancient art piece two: Seated Scribe Ancient Egyptian art (2620–2500 BC) Louvre

Part Two

Mahakala is an ancient statue from India created in the Pala period during the 11th Century BC. The statue is three dimensional and was carved out of black stone. The statue represents a manifestation of the Buddhist God Shiva Bhairava. The statue is carved entirely in black stone giving it a black color. The status is carved with the most intricate detail. Mahakala sits on a lotus cushion with a smaller lotus cushion supporting his left foot. He is covered with decoration designed to show his importance. The statue has four hands with one hand holding a sword, another hand holding a trident, and in the third a skull cap. The last hand is missing but should have wielded flaying knife.

The statue displays a deity with great wealth and power. Mahakala has a crown on his head that is radiating flames and is covered with little skulls. A rope covered in skulls is wrapped around his waist and jewels around his wrists and ankles. The deity is also adorned by the traditional piercings with chins running from his nose to his belly button and on his left foot a snake is wrapped around his ankle. Mahakala wears armband on his upper arms made of snakes with snake heads reaching up towards his face.

It is clear the statue is a God because he has worshippers on both sides of his head and at his fee worshipping him, displaying deference, and making an offering. The art is a religious symbol and a representative of the God Shiva from the Buddhist religion. When the art was created in the 11th Century it was created as a symbol of the wrathful manifestation of the God worshipped by Buddhists. The statue represents the protector of Dharma. He is a wrathful God deity but he has an important job in stopping followers from becoming corrupt or impure.

The art was created in honor of Mahakala to show respect and deference. By creating the religious symbol the Buddhist followers can worship the deity and be used as a reminder never to become impure in their actions and in their thoughts. Religious symbols are an important part of many religious ceremonies especially to Buddhist religion. Mahakala is a traditional and ritual part of the religious beliefs of the Buddhist. This representation is an important image in the Buddhist faith.

The Seated Scribe is an ancient piece of Egyptian art created between 2620–2500 BC. The Seated Scribe depicts a middle age Egyptian man sitting up right with his legs crossed in front of him. The only clothing he wears is a while kilt. The sculpture is 3D and made of limestone and looks incredibly life like. The statue of the Egyptian man has a very alert look around the eyes and every feature of the face and body is finely carved. The face is chiseled and thin but the body of the middle aged man is more plump and beginning to sag in the back. When creating the art beautiful colors were used. Red ocher was used for the skin tones of the sculpture and black is used for the hair.

The art piece, the Seated Scribe, is holding a scribe in one hand and is right hand appears to be holding something but the writing instrument is no longer with the art piece. A partially unrolled scroll lies across his lap but his attention appears to be drawn to something in the distant. The Seated Scribe has an intense gaze and broad shoulders but his arms are not muscular and his legs are thick. The feet peep out from under the kilt and his folded legs but on both feet show only three toes.

The subject matter of the art is of a scribe. It was excavated at Saqqara, an ancient burial ground southwest of Cairo, which served as the necropolis for Memphis, the Egyptian capital during the Old Kingdom 2686–2181 BC (Louvre, 2014). Scribes were responsible for recording history. Only the elite could be scribes because only people from the upper classes could read or write the ancient language. Another indication of the wealth of the scribe is the fat around the body. Only people with wealth could afford to eat enough food to gain any weight.

Part Three

Mahakala is a wrathful deity in the Buddhist religion whose job is to protect dharma. Dharma is cosmic order. Mahakala, a wrathful deity, is considered to be the fierce and powerful emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion (Thang, 2012). In the 11th Century BC India Buddhism was an important religion as well as Hinduism. In the 11th Century was Ghurid conquest of 1192 -1205bc where any Buddhist was destroyed but it did not destroy the religion but in fact had a counter effect. The Buddhist religion continued to spread across the region and fixed Buddhist symbols began to appear.

The deity Mahakala is carved all in black in order to show the wrathful nature of the God. The four armed Buddha represented in this work of art emerged from the Sambhogakaya Buddha. Each representation includes a skull cap and crown of flames and one or two worshippers at the feet of the deity but some depictions are in black and white in later Buddhist sects. Displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art this ancient statue still represents and important part of the Buddhist religion.

Buddhism is a complex religion with more than one deity as well as more than one representation of the same deity. The deity Mahakala is an important of the religion as the protector of dharma which is pivotal to the religion. Just as Jesus is the protector of the soul in Christianity, Mahakala is the protector of all that is good and for keeping balance in the cosmos. In current Buddhist religion the deity plays the same role and still has the same importance. Buddhist firmly believes in karma so if the follower does adhere to the rule of dharma they will be cosmically punished.

The Seated Scribe fits into the context of the time period. Scribes were important in Egyptian society in ancient ties. The scribe was responsible for keeping records and passing knowledge down to future generations but only a few select boys will be trained in society to become scribes. Scribes would record important information n papyrus paper using a reed. The scribe would be responsible for keeping account for the government and the Egyptian army or they would be responsible for all the communications for the citizens in a village. The Ancient Scribe was an important part of Egyptian society. Without the scribe embers of Egyptian society could not keep recorded accounts or send messages to family members or business associates.

The Seated Scribe represents an important official in society. When it was evacuated by French archaeologist it provided information about the important of the scribe in Ancient Egyptian society. The rendering is an amazing image of a scribe during this time period. The boys selected to grow up to become scribes were able to live a privileged life. These boys would have been selected from members of the elite classes. The sculpture was found in an ancient burial grown which also empathized the importance of the sculpture and this scribe in ancient Egyptian society.

References

Anonymous: Seated Scribe (2620–2500 BC); Louvre Museum, Paris

Anonymous. Mahakala. (1100 to 1001bc). Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thang, K. (2012). Dharma Protector : Mahakala. Retrieved April 2, 2014 from

http://www.thranguhk.org/buddhism/en_mahakala.html