Ancient Art

The definition of ancient art is considered to be including the types of art produced by the cultures of ancient societies such as China, Mesopotomia, India, Persia, Egypt, Israel, Rome and Greece. The ancient art played a great role in the lives of those civilizations.Those societies adopted the art as a life-style.The main branches of ancient art may be outlined as follows;

• Architecture
• Sculpture
• Painting
• Jewellery
• Literature
• Music

Many factors have played key role in the works of ancient art produced by those societies.For instance,the belief of immortality have led the Egyptians to build the pyramids.The Egyptians believed that the pharaohs would live forever even after they died.The most famous pyramids are Giza pyramides.And Cheops pyramid is known to be one of the seven wonders of the world today.

In the art of sculpture there were strict rules fort the artists to apply.They were valued as long as they obeyed those rules.The statues were shaped using certain materials such as granite,basalt and alabaster etc. in most societies.The figures in most statues are seen to be in fixed positions.

The art of painting in ancient civilizations had many features within itself.The main ideas were related to the religional ,military and daily events.The paintings were drawn to the walls of the tombs,graves and temples.They were drawn with great care and rigor.They also included many techniques which are still questionable today.The pictures drawn are sourced from the culture of the society in most cases.

Jewellery design and handling had many meanings in the ancient societies.The people were using jewellery not only to fancy up but also using them spiritually.The jewellery was believed to give power to the person having it.And it was seen as a privilege to approach to the Gods.They were separated as head,neck,hand,arm,clothes,dead body jewelleries.

The ancient societies have shown a great interest in literature.The literature was accepted to be the sign of sovereignty of a society.The Sumerians used the first writings in 3500 B.C.Later on, it became a phonetic language among other civilizations.The babylons have written on to the stone tablets reflecting their thoughts and ideas.These are called as” ideograms “ and they were widely used by babylons.The writing systems of those ancient civilizations have played a vital role on the cultural and mental aspects of the society.

Ancient civilizations have used music to a wide extent.Music was a branch of art widely used by both players and ordinary people.Music was played in temples and in homes of people especially during the night.The music was a key element of religional and mystic ceremonies ,festivals and war dances.The oldest music type is Chinese music and it has spread to neighboring countries as well as Europe afterwards.Music is accepted to be an educative factor in the old Chinese art.In ancient Greek ,dance,poems and religional ceremonies are the parts of an indivisible whole.Music was known to be as a sign from Gods having an important effect on the personality of the people.