How Art Changed the World

The way we view the human body has changed a lot over the last 10,000 years. The way the human image was viewed originated with the Venus of Willendorf which was an image of the human body that is very unrealistic created by the nomads. The Venus statue has very over exaggerated features which include the breast, stomach, hips, and thighs. These features were possible over exaggerated because they could have been a symbol of motherhood, fertility, or maybe they were seen as what mattered most. This four inch tall, limestone statue was the first clue of why the modern world is dominated with unrealistic images of the body.

Egyptian artist did not believe in over exaggerating features in their art but their images are hardly realistic also. Unlike the nomads, the Egyptian images were produced by an organized society like ours. All of their images were shown in more of a profile manner, two dimensional with palms out and eyes seen from straight on. This lasted about 3000 years and body images remained the same. The Egyptians used a grid for measuring their images. Their figures stood 19 squares tall, the feet was two and a half squares long, and the pupil was one square off the center line. This is why the style remained the same for so long.

Ancient Greece believed in Gods and Goddesses and that they took the form of human

bodies. They also believed that the perfect body was an athletic body which resulted in them wanting more realistic images of their Gods. Their images were small figurines but transformed to life size images when they started trading ideas with the Egyptians. They studied every detail of the human body resulting in the first ever creation of a fully nude and life like image by making it appear to be relaxed while ready to move.

I’ve learned that culture is key and it dictates how we view the human body. The different images all represent different cultures