Art Comparison

The "Female Head" (64) was the piece of art that I choose to compare. The piece is a perfect example from the Sumerian period. The art piece that I have chosen to compare the "Female Head" to is the "Head of the Young Girl or Goddess" from the Hellenistic East. The piece is done in the Greco Roman style. Each of these statues are made to depict that of the same thing, a female head, but they each are very different in their own ways.

The first statue is the "Female Head" from the ancient city of Uruk. The statue has been dated from 3500-3000 B.C.E., which is the Sumerian Art period. It is about 8" in height and is made of limestone. The statue is thought to be the headpiece of a statue depicting a mother goddess of the people in the Sumerian region. The head was probably the only part of the statue that was made of limestone; the rest would have been made of wood or something else that was able to rot or erode away. The sculptor seemed to be treating the statue as respectfully as possible with the artistic abilities of the time period. The main feature of the statue head that is evident is the wide hollow eyes. The face of the statue is made to seem very solemn, almost serious with a god-like expression. The eyes are too large than what would be called anatomically correct. These were probably inlayed with jewels to give the eyes a more god-like look. The nose, though most of it is broken off, is very large and flat and seems a little too big to seem anatomically correct. The mouth is small and very detailed, with an almost real shape to them. The single eyebrow that runs across the top of the large eyes is embedded into the stone. The hair is flattened on to the head with no real detail to it; it just seems to be a waded mass of hair. It runs from the top of the head down to the top of the neck. The hair doesn't cover the ears, but it runs down behind them. The neck is a bit small for the size of the head. It just doesn't seem to be large or thick enough to support the head. The statue is not prepared without flaws though; there are a few small chips in the upper left temple of the head.

The second piece is the "Head of a Young Girl or Goddess". The sculptor of the statue is unknown. It has been dated from 100 B.C.E.-100 A.D., which was during the Hellenistic period in Greece. It is carved out of white marble and stands about 12" tall. The head is very well sculpted and implies the new idea at the time that the human body was a beautiful thing. The sculptor seems to treat the head with the respect that a goddess deserves. The careful detail that the sculptor used proves that this work was extremely important to them. The statue seems to be of a young woman or a goddess in her twenty's with a beautiful face. It is carved very expertly from the soft curves in the cheeks to the creases in the edges of the eyes and nostrils. The head seems almost perfectly anatomically correct with no facial features seeming to be exaggerated. This statue follows in suit with the artwork of the time where the Greeks made the bodies seem in motion, but the faces motionless, such as the Diskobolos, or Discus Thrower by Myron or the Dying Niobid (131). The face seems to be emotionless and calm, but there is no way of knowing what the body, if there was a body, was doing because the face shows no expressions. The eyes are very solemn and have no detail to them. This could have been because it gave the face a more god-like look, or to just make the face seem more serious. The eyes, nose, and mouth of the statue have been shown a great amount of detail. The hair has a great amount of detail to it, unlike the earlier kores and kouroses created by the Greeks. The hair has a wavy feel to it and stretches from the top of the head down to the top of the neck where it is tied up. If it weren't for the hair being tied up it would probably fall down to the back of the statue if there were a back on the statue. The beautiful neck is slender and seems to be anatomically correct to the rest of the body.

These statues depict the same thing, a young woman or a goddess. They may depict the similar things, but their style, composition, and detail are different in many ways. The