How were animals portrayed differently in the art of the ancient worlds? Choose three works that depict animals, from three different time periods and cultures (Prehistoric, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Aegean, and Classical Greece and Rome), and discuss how animals were depicted in each period. Consider what these different portrayals say about the cultures and eras.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In prehistoric art, such as that found in Chauvet cave, animals are depicted naturalistically. Artists sought to capture a primal, animalistic energy that must have been ever present at that time. Human figures and animals were depicted as separate entities. As art moves into Mesopotamian and Egyptian times, animals and humans are often fused together, as in the Assyrian human-headed winged lion or Egyptian Sphinx. Later, in the Greek and Roman worlds, animals were depicted as subservient to humans, as in the equestrian statues, or as a cause of suffering, as in the Laocoön Group.