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Philosophy and Religion in Greek and Egyptian Art
| Article
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11727 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1994 |
4,152 Words |
| Author
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Francis J. Greene
Francis J. Greene is professor and chairman of the Department
of Fine Arts and International Cultural Studies at St. Francis
College, Brooklyn, New York. |
* This article is an expansion of one that appeared in Measure, no. 111, December 1992, published by the University Centers for Rational Alternatives. The author is grateful to the editors of Measure for permission to use and expand upon the material therein.
A comparison of ancient Egyptian and ancient Greek architecture and sculpture offers many insights into the similarities of these two great civilizations and also into profound differences between them. Such a study reveals that ancient Egyptian thought and art were oriented toward religion and religious experience, while the ancient Greeks were given to the practice of philosophy, to examining and probing this world, and this life, to asking why things are the way they are. This investigation was carried out without recourse to religious revelation, relying, rather, on the human mind and its ability to reason. The ancient Egyptians, by contrast, viewed almost everything in terms of death and passage to the next life. They preferred to dwell in mystery and in the domain of "not understanding."
It is precisely ancient Egyptian and Greek art and architecture that point up the differences and individual strengths of the religious approach to reality by contrast with the purely philosophical. These two approaches should not be seen as diametrically opposed or conflicting, for, ideally, they can be complementary, but surely they are discrete.
In contrasting these two ancient civilizations, my point is not to suggest that one is better that the other but to highlight their decided differences as revealed through art and architecture.
With rare exceptions, ancient Egyptian sculpture depicted the individual in the next life. Sculptures were usually created for the grave, which was to serve as a potential resting place for the soul of the deceased when it needed respite from its journeys. Thus the faces of such sculptures are marked by impassivity and a lack of specification of age. Both characteristics, of course, were intended to suggest figures in eternity, where one would be in the eternal present and thus beyond changes such as those of emotion or the passing years.
Other aspects of these tomb sculptures reveal a similar disinterest in capturing the realities of this life. For example, sculptures do not exist in three-dimensional space. The backs of figures are almost always left in block form and are even used for inscriptions. In most cases, interest in anatomical detail and
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