Junior Docent School Program - Milwaukee Art Museum

Egyptian Art (3100 BCE - 332 BCE)
Egyptian art is from the Northeastern African land that has been called Egypt for more
than five thousand years. It usually refers to objects, paintings, and architecture made
between 3100 and 332 BCE.
The lengthy history of Ancient Egypt is divided into 8 or 9 periods, sometimes called
kingdoms. The Ancient Egyptians themselves seem to have developed the notion of
ruling dynasties, a succession of rulers from the same family or line throughout their
history.
The importance of religion and the respect for death ruled their art. They built mostly
temples, tombs, and pyramids. Most of our knowledge of Egyptian civilization comes
from these surviving structures and their contents since they were built to endure
forever. The pyramids and tombs contained everything the deceased might want or
need in the afterlife (weapons, food, furniture, jewelry, etc.).
Egyptian sculptures and paintings depicted scenes of daily life, hunting, war, and
ceremonies and followed a rigid formula for representing the human figure. The human
figure was depicted with head, arms, pelvis, legs, and feet in profile and eyes and
shoulders facing front. Egyptian artists made few attempts to create a sense of space in
the scenes they depicted and used clear outline to communicate shapes.
Ancient Egyptian culture is considered crucial to the development of art in Europe and
the Western Hemisphere, and its influence on early Greek art is visible.
Greek Art (800 BCE - 320 BCE)
Art historians refer to art created on the peninsula now called Greece and many nearby
islands in the Aegean Sea, including Crete, from between 800 BCE and 323 BCE as
Greek Art. Much of Western European art has a strong link to ancient Greece. To most
historians and philosophers of the Western world, this period was a high point in cultural
achievement, setting standards of beauty, humanism, and other ideals honored to this
day.
Greek artists used narratives, or stories, and made many portraits and other
representational subjects. Much of the art – even poetry and music – was based on
systems and perfect proportions. For example, Greek architecture depended on the
“column” to support the weight of the peaked roofs supported by triangular pediments.
Greek artists were the first to render the human figure in a natural, relaxed style and
more active poses. Until the Greeks, sculptors had modeled figures to look stiff and
formal. Many Greek sculptures depicted gods and goddesses and portrayed lifelike,
though idealized, human subjects.
Roman Art (510 BCE - 337 CE)
The Romans adopted much from the Greek architecture, but they created their own
styles as well. The Romans created new types of structures, such as public baths and
amphitheaters. Romans also developed two things that let them build larger structures
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JDSP – Docent Packet
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