The Sumerian, Greek and Gothic Examples of Art, Essay Example

In comparing the Sumerian, Greek and Gothic examples of art, Brown’s primary thesis is that over time, to paraphrase, a more life like and personal style develops. Brown does not view this change as the result of technical advantages and developments that may have facilitated the production of art, thereby allowing the artists to perhaps create such a more “personal” style. Rather, to the extent that technical changes do not contribute to the differences between the works, there is rather a cultural and civilization world-view that is continually growing. In other words, a new vision of the human being —  from a being that is almost impersonal, static and inanimate to an individual, lifelike being – marks the anthropological changes of these distinct historical periods which in turn influence the art of these same historical periods.

In this regard, looking at a sculpture such as Apollo suggests an almost idealized figure of the human being. There is not a darkness, or some insecurity in this sculpture. This suggests that Apollo’s figure is also composed by excluding its other: namely, the binary opposition of Dionysus. Whereas Apollo is associated with the rational, the scientific and knowledge, Dionyisus is associated with the irrational, the hedonistic and the animal. Arguably, the changes in art Brown describes are the result of understanding the human figure in terms of both these images, instead of only one, thereby making the conception of the human being more lifelike and real, a truer representation of what it means to be human.

Myth is the source of many of these sculptures: it is a worldview with its own specific figures, ideals and normativities. However, perhaps myth is not so distant from us. On an intuitive level, we tend to think of myth as a thing of the past, an archaic belief system. On the other hand, do we not promote our own myths in everyday life, for example, the myth of the progress of technology and the culture of fame? In this sense, myth’s relation to culture is almost indistinguishable: they are merely a set of values, a set of normativities to which we commit. These values and norms changer over time and this marks the distinction between myth and culture. But in the end they are merely two sides of the same essence.