Sculpting Civilizations: The Influence of Artwork in the Maintenance of Ancient Cities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/pur.2024.67Keywords:
Ancient Cities, Ancient china, ancient egypt, Art HistoryAbstract
The role of art in the development of urban life is an important topic relating to communication, creativity, and the Great Traditions of urbanism. Art is a necessary way to communicate ideals and traditions; for example, stained glass in orthodox churches is used as an alternative to the Bible to teach the illiterate the stories about orthodox religion. Trends in art forms, styles, and subject could indicate a lot about urban values and how these values change over time as cities develop. This free range of expression gives insight into what city populations valued. Styles reveal how conservative a community is, or what mindsets and way of thinking people have. For instance, abstract styles tell us about the more scattered ways people approach issues and themes, while something like pop art can tell us about the value of cultural revolution and a progressive mindset. Art, particularly public art, illuminates political ideologies, inequalities, public consciousness, narratives, and religions. The study of urban art can also simply help us visualize and recreate what experiencing a city is like in the viewpoint of the citizens living there. Through a close analysis of the impact of artwork in Ancient Egypt and Ancient China, we can see which famous theories on the development on ancient cities can be applied to explain the role of art in its maintenance.
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