Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Greek and Today

The Greeks changed their vision of the human body over many decades, always refining it to something more human. The same can be found with their beliefs of Humanism and its role in society. The great capacity for emotion captivated the Greeks as they had a focus on human form greater then others.

The belief of an ideal figure was strong in Greek culture as the gods and goddesses were immaculate. Want of such perfection lead the statues of mortals to also be well defined and polished. Beauty was well honored and practical flaws of people were few and far apart. Although with the later artworks, characteristics like body fat, wrinkles, and baldness were shown to increase the emotional power of a piece. In society the Greeks lead the way for democracy and more people oriented governments. Thou they still neglected cretin minorities in political decisions.

In modern society some of the Greek ideals are still present. As for image no other time period is as self absorbed with vanity and ideals as modern day. People are bombarded with images that usually reflect impractical standards and ideas of perfection. Men and women both have cultural cookie cutter standards that don’t reflect ones individuality. The Greeks did this to but with statue and painting. Today its advertisement, television, and pop culture. As for beliefs on the human being, I think we carried on the Greek passion for it. Today the slogan is “be all you can be” and to go for dreams and achieve. Then it was survive and marry well. We celebrate being human by being able to do it all to say. I think art schools are a prime example of modern ideals coinciding with Greek ideals of the human being in that emotion, expression, and socializing are about as human as it gets.

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