Artwork is any form of art that communicates a message to the audience or one developed with a purpose. This includes paintings, sculpture, photography and collages. There is a lot of development in artwork, in the contemporary world, and most of the developments are just transformations of ancient artwork.
Most of the pieces of art can be found in museums and art galleries. This paper outlines information about The Seated Goddess with a Child and the Winged Deity, found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This brings out a comprehensive understanding of the two pieces of art.
Seated Goddess with a Child and the Winged Deity
The artworks represented in this article take similar forms. They are sculptures. The Metropolitan Museum houses the two pieces of artwork (Metropolitan Museum of Art). The Seated Goddess with a Child is a three-dimension piece of art made through the lost-wax technique around the 13th and 15th centuries. It has epic and pastoral styles. The winged deity is a three-dimension of work made with the Hittites style (Beckman, 1989).
The Seated Goddess with a Child is a perfect result of cutting and twisting gold. The Winged Deity is a result of casting bronze and gold. The Seated Goddess with a child has a golden colour which is bright enough to characterize a goddess associated with illumination. It also depicts a peaceful mood and creates a high level of unity.
On the other hand, the Winged Deity has grey and yellow colours, which bring out a sombre mood. The artists used contour lines to show the faces, horizontal and vertical lines to show the other body parts, and an outline to enclose the images. The image looks smooth and balanced. There is a balance in the work since images cover the entire space. The goddess image has a value of light due to the vibrant colour employed in the artwork.
The Winged Deity has curved lines shaping the wings and the arms. There is a visual appearance of roughness and a value of darkness, as well as symmetrical balance. Both artists have an aspect of the Hittite Empire period, a period whose information is not widely known.
The Seated Goddess with a Child depicts a woman adorned with a headdress which is extremely bright. This brightness represents the glamour and illumination that comes from the sun. Therefore, this is Arinna, the sun goddess. The chair on which the statue sits has lion caws.
This shows bravery. The child shows simplicity and humility. The long gown has an association with modesty of women. The two loopholes suggest that the figure is a pendant. The loop earrings and a necklace, indicate beauty of Hittite women (Beckman, 1989). The work has a substantial influence in contemporary societies. It challenges modern artists to make sculptures which are symbols of creativity and imagination.
The Winged Deity represents a god of the Hittites. He is most likely the Prinki, a god of Ishtar, made around the 13th century (Metropolitan Museum of Art). The deity has a circular cap around his head, a gold leaf as well as a kilt. He has a rod on his right arm representing the protection that gods offered to the Hittites. He has two wings in the shape of a sickle, and the left wing is incomplete. The wings show the possibility of flying and signify that god could go to any place unusually fast to offer aid. The sculpture helps to reconstruct the history of Hittite culture (Beckman, 1989). The artist has the ability to use a traditional style (Hittite style) with creativity. The work has also influenced modern sculptors. They are trying to make replicas of the sculpture, and sculptures which have similar features to those on the Winged Deity.
In essence, ancient artworks have significant influence to the modern artworks. This is evident in the modern artworks displayed in the art galleries of modern museums. Therefore, the impact of ancient art on contemporary artworks cannot be underrated.
References
Beckman, G. (1989). The Religion of the Hittites. The Biblical Archaeologist 52 (2/3):98-108.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. (n.d). The Seated Goddess with a Child and the Winged Deity. Web.