Monday, June 6, 2011

Viewpoint effecting artworks> Colossi

I'd just like to say my thoughts on this issue were correct (or according to my bias they are)!!!!!

Theres this thing in art called the "conceptual framework" that art students (and one would hope art historians) consider when examining an artwork.

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It is a tool which shows the relationships between artworks, their contexts, audiences and the artists.


From this i began to think of one of the David statues and how it is said that if u position yourself correctly the statue moves; or something like that. But the point is with statues the intentions (artistic practice) are effected by and audience or context an artist creates for.


Anyway, as the colossi are VERY big (though not as big as others colossi-like statues from the Osirian festival, but there something like 4m) and so any GOOD artist who needs their statue to be seen a particular way, and KNOWS that the height of a statue, and the point of the audience/observer will effect it. Thus, they may change the proportions to suit this view point, which may lead to the exaggeration of proportions as are seen with the colossi. This achieves a really weird looking statue if seen in profile , but more normal if seen from a distance.


Nicholas Reeves observed this:


"when seen from below the peculiar distortion of the king's face is far less apparent, the impression is one of unadulterated power"> 2001, "Akhenaten. Egypt's False Prophet"


Lise Manniche in "The Akhenaten Colossi of Karnak" then explains that the colossi were "never meant to be seen face to face... the artists allowed for this, for example in the angle of the eyeball and the exaggerated size of the upper lip".


I also want to mention that I am 'hypothesising' that the eyeballs were looking down (as was noticed by Desroches Noblecourt in 1972) in order to stare at the audience, to establish their power and confront the audience with the new religion. NOT medical reasons!!!


Which then, I suppose could justify opinions about the colossi as a large piece of rhetoric (as is mentioned previously in my blog), but it doesn't seem as likely as the proportions theory does.

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