The Human Form and Human Condition

The two cultures being analysed are Ancient Egyptian and Modern Art.
Modern Neuro- Psychology research suggests that we are hard-wired in
our brain to produce images of the human form which are not naturalistic,
but instead are exaggerated and/or distorted. The purpose of this task is
to determine why ancient Egyptian and other culture preferred
exaggerated and distorted images rather than the perfect human body. So
why do we prefer distorted and exaggerated human forms?
Artist from the Ancient Egyptian era followed rules and formulas about the
size of objects they carved and painted. When drawing the human figure,
the arms, legs and feet were shown from the side and the shoulders and
eyes were shown from the front. The purpose of this kind of Egyptian art
was to record information, so each part of the body was shown from its
most important angle, therefore a complete view is created and view can
be seen at any one time. The paintings on walls were taken from the daily
life of the people, therefore including hunting, farming and fishing, along
with other things like feasts and parties to preparing food. Paintings on the
inside on a pharaohs tomb were scenes from the deceased life and it
shows how they lived and how to act as a model for the afterlife. Egyptian
sculptures were created to be viewed from all sides or from the front as
caving on wall surfaces and columns. They were often painted in strong
bright colours like they also painted on walls and papyrus. Standing
figures have left leg forward and the arms stiffly by their sides, eyes stare
straight ahead and their faces show no sense of emotion. Rather than
working from a live model, artists worked from memory and the finished
sculpture was more symbolic of the sitter than a realistic representation.
One image dominates our modern world above all others the human
body. The ancient Egyptian sculptures`, are great example of the
exaggeration of the human body. The sculpture Menkure and His Queen
(2580 BC) demonstrates exaggeration in the human body by using the
ancient Egyptian stereotypical image, that express how the man and
female body should look and how they should be presented. For example
the man in the picture of the sculpture (Figure 1) is portrayed as a
muscular man with defined features like the clenched fists and the broad
shoulders with the arms having defining muscles. Common to most
Egyptian sculpture/ statues, exaggeration in such areas of the knees,
which are presented over-emphasized, and the shin-bone is much too
sharp, which is anatomically correct. The woman on the other hand is
presented as fragile and fertile as she had has defining features like
long thin legs and big breasts once again demonstrating that she is being
portrayed as being fertile. One of the possible reasons Ancient Egyptians
Emily Reichardt Year 11 Visual Art

used exaggeration was to demonstrate the ideal body and how the body
should be presented. Distortion and exaggeration is a style in which artist
attempt to depict not objective reality, alternatively the subjective
emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in them. This is
accomplished through distortion, exaggeration, and realism. Throughout
art history the complexity of landscape painting with formulas of
composition, subject matter and coloring reduced significantly.
Exaggerated aspects of these categories were further simplified as
paintings moved towards abstract and modernism.
Henry Moores Reclining Figure: Hand (1979) depicts on exaggeration and
distortion of a feminine form. With all the exaggeration the sculpture is
instantly identifiable as a human body despite its molded formation; the
softly rounded figure and the cloud-like body. Size itself has its own
impact, and physically we can relate ourselves more strongly to be a
strong to be a sculpture than to a small one, quoted from Henry Moore.
Traditionally the human figure has defined features but this art piece
(Reclining Figure: Hand (1979)) has a shapeless torso that only resembles
a human body because of the bulging lumps around the chest area.
Therefore making the female body fertile. A possible reason modern
artist might use exaggeration is to simplify the piece and to show that
things are beautiful no matter what. The distortion and exaggeration of
the human form produced by Moore was intended to produce an
inaccurate representation of the human body that can be achieved
through such techniques. Moore intentionally created sculptured human
form that does not accurately represented the size of real-life body parts
as he thought viewers can relate to a larger scale rather than a smaller
scale.
In conclusion the Ancient Egyptians choose to exaggerate and distort art
in the ideal human body because it was how they felt that is what they
should look like. Modern artists use exaggeration and distortion as a way
to simplify a piece of work. They also use these techniques to create the
human form as an individual. For example Henry Moore has multiple
Reclining Figure sculptures as they represent people of the community
and they are all different in more than one way and they have their own
features. Therefore Exaggeration and distortion is used to create the
human form and condition in different ways then too what we normally
see.

Emily Reichardt Year 11 Visual Art

Appendix 1:

Emily Reichardt Year 11 Visual Art

Menkaure and His Queen

2548-2530 BC
Height: 4 feet 6 7/8 inches (139.5cm)

Appendix 2: e
Emily Reichardt Year 11 Visual Art

Reclining Figure: Hand (1979)

Henry Moore
Material: Bronze Length: 221cm

References
Emily Reichardt Year 11 Visual Art

1. HenryMoore.com (2015) [online] Available at: www.henrymoore.com

(Accessed 28 Aug. 2015)
2. Artchive.com (2015) Moore [online] Available at:
www.artchive.com/artchive/M/moore.html (Accessed 28 Aug. 2015)
3. HenryMoore.co.uk (2015) [online] Available at: www.henry-moorefdn.co.uk/ (Accessed 29 Aug. 2015)
4. HenryMoore.org (2015) [online] Available at: www.henry-moore.org/
(Accessed 29 Aug. 2015)
5. HenryMoore.org (2015) Reclining Figure: Hand (1979) [online] Available at:
http://www.henry-moore.org/works-inpublic/world/germany/hamburg/moorweide/reclining-figure-hand-1979-lh709 (Accessed 29 Aug. 2015)
6. ArtHistoryResources.net (2015) Menkaure Description [online] Available at:
http://arthistoryresources.net/menkaure/menkauredescription.html
(Accessed 3 Sept. 2015)
7. Portfolio.newschool.edu (2015) [online] Available at:
http://portfolio.newschool.edu/alkhalifa94/ (Accessed 4 Sept. 2015)

Emily Reichardt Year 11 Visual Art