A Comparative Analysis of Art and Culture in Ancient Greece and Egypt

This essay provides a comparative analysis of the art histories of ancient Greece and Egypt. It begins by exploring the symbolic and canonical art forms of ancient Egypt, highlighting the sculptures and paintings that aimed to preserve history, and discusses the elements that remained stable for thousands of years, using the Nefertiti Bust as an example. The essay then contrasts this with the art and culture of ancient Greece, focusing on its emphasis on the human body and its innovations in art, categorizing the art into Hellenistic, Classical, Archaic, and Geometric periods. The Venus de Milo is presented as a key example of Greek sculpture. The essay references key sources to support its arguments, providing a comprehensive overview of the contrasting artistic and cultural values of these two ancient civilizations, and the lasting impact of their art.

Running head: History
Art history of Greek and Egypt
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author notes

1
HISTORY
Ancient art of the Egyptian is approximately five thousand years ago. The art had
emerged and developed in the ancient Egypt (also known as the civilization of Nile Valley).
The art forms of Egypt was highly fascinating and symbolic, and mainly comprise the
sculptures and paintings and the main intention behind these arts was to keep the history
alive. In simple terms, the art history of Egypt describes the canonical 2D and also the 3D
arts that were emerged in Egypt (from 3000 BC). It can be noted that the elements used in the
Egyptian art stayed remarkably stable for more than 3000 year period and mainly represented
its civilization without any major outside influence (De Jonge, 2017). The Egyptian art
mostly obeyed one single law: that is the mode of representing nature, human and the
environment; and this concept remained same almost for thousands years.
(Nefertiti Bust)
Nefertiti Bust was one of the most discussed and famous example of the Egyptian history.
Nefertiti: the name mainly explains "a beautiful woman has come," she was an Egyptian
queen and wife of king Pharaoh Akhenaten who was ruled Egypt at 14th century B.C (Matić,
2018). The statue was described the as a new monarch, personifying a strong woman
character from the Egyptian history.

2
HISTORY
In contrast to the Egyptian history, the Greek art history explains the unique art and
culture of Greece people. The art culture of Greek mainly focused on the human body and
mostly nude picture of the human body (Rempelakos, Tsiamis & Poulakou-Rebelakou,
2013). Different to the background concepts of the Egyptian art, the Greek art explained
different type of innovation. The art of the ancient Greece usually falls into four categories:
Hellenistic, Classical, Archaic and Geometric. Below, there is an example of the Greek art
history,
(Venus de Milo)
Venus de Milo is one of the famous Greek sculpture. Popularly, it is believed that the above
shown Grecian statue describes the Greek Goddess, who express the beauty and love of a
woman. The statue was designed half-naked. However, arguments also exist that the
particular sculpture is not Venus or Aphrodite, but the sea goddess (named Amphitrite) who
was significantly adored on the Milos. Furthermore, the information also had shown that the
statue was a symbol of Victory (Andrew et al., 2018). Having a height about 6 ft. 8 inches,
the statue is currently present in the Louvre Museum. Information regarding the statue also

3
HISTORY
exist that, apart from the missing hands, the jewellery (which was draped to the statue
originally) such as, earrings, bracelet and the headband is also missing from the statue.

4
HISTORY
Reference
Rempelakos, L., Tsiamis, C., & Poulakou-Rebelakou, E. (2013). Penile representations in
ancient Greek art. Arch Esp Urol, 66(10), 911-6.
Andrew, K., Iwanaga, J., Loukas, M., Chapman, J., Oskouian, R. J., & Tubbs, R. S. (2018).
Does the Venus de Milo have a Spinal Deformity?. Cureus, 10(8).
De Jonge, P. (2017). Philological and historical commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus
XVIII. Brill.
Matić, U. (2018). „Her striking but cold beauty “: gender and violence in depictions of queen
Nefertiti smiting the enemies. Archaeologies of gender and violence.