Art can be appreciated in a variety of ways. This concept is better understood after learning about one these ways, how the depiction of the human form has changed thought out history. First, you may ask, can the human form be fine art? The answer is yes. It may not have started out as a type of fine art but many cultures have deemed it worthy of a considerable amount of attention. Therefore, it has become one of the highest forms of fine art to be made, studied, remade and restudied. After viewing the documentary "How Art Made the World: More Human than Human" you are to discuss one or more of the following questions. You do not have to discuss all of them, they are simply a starting point if you have writers block.
· Why are so many statues and paintings of female nude and semi-nude named Venus?
· How has the way in which the human body is viewed changed over the past 10,000, 1,000, 100 and 10 years?
· Why do artists feel the need to over exaggerate certain body parts and ignore others?
· Egyptians and Greeks represented the human body differently, what are some of the differences and why? What did the Greeks learn from the Egyptians?
· Why did the Greeks construct the male nude as the embodiment of athletic prowess, military valor, epic heroism and ethical virtue?
· In what ways did both the Egyptians and Greeks use math to construct their figures?
· Would the artists after the Greeks, such as Michelangelo, have been able to create such magnificent human form works of art without the Greeks superb examples?
· The poet T. S. Eliot once wrote, "Human kind cannot bear very much reality." What do you believe is meant by this statement? Can humans not bear true reality? If so, why are so many of us captivated by "reality" shows?
The below question must be answered in additional to one of the above questions:
In what ways has your idea of the human form changed after watching the documentary?