Friday, September 21, 2007

It is my birthday...

So this guy has to wear a party hat:

Finial of a Grave stele (grave marker) of a youth and a little girl. In the form of a sphinx, ca. 530 B.C. (click here for hatless image)





NOTE: We have been given a new classroom! Starting Monday we will meet in GH 195. This will be posted by our classroom door as well.



Comments for this post are due by Monday 9/24.

16 comments:

skiye said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
skiye said...

Happy Birthday!

Like the hat . . . haha

Anyway, he is a bit scary. I mean he has a snake tail, or what looks like a snake anyway, and then wings that probably don't belong on his body. The human head really doesn't help too much with the non-scariness either. I definitely would not wont this as my grave stone, I don't think anyone would come see me if it was. All in all it looks really nice though. He's got that same hairstyle we've been looking at for the past few days, I'm glad we have more then one in the present day. How boring would that be? Ha

side note:: I copy pasted the wrong one into this so thats why I deleted it. I type them in word first...

Anonymous said...

Wow...Happy Birthday! :)
I think this statue is really cool...it has a sort of creepy, old mansion sort of a feel to it. It's interesting that it was used as a grave marker for a little girl. I wonder why they chose such a strange animal/gargoyle type of stone art for a child's grave. It makes me think that maybe it had to do with some kind of religious representation or maybe it was a symbol of the family she came from. Maybe her family was very wealthy and this was a representation of her family heritatge...?

Anonymous said...

Okay, I'm more excited about the new classroom than I am about the grave marker. Anyway, back to the point...
Grave markers are pretty much monuments to our greatness. For the the most part, all of us will have a headstone on our graves. Over the years, headstones have become more simplified. I, however, want a really big, super elaborate headstone that is just a bit over the top. At any rate, check out this article at Wikipedia. It gives a pretty good overview of gravestones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_stone

Anonymous said...

Happy Belated Birthday by the way!

I would have to agree with everyone, it is kind of cool, but awkward at the same time. I'm not a big fan of mixing human and animal body parts, but I can see how it symbolizes different characteristics/attributes. This grave stone would have to be of a child from a family of wealth, because it does not seem like a common citizen would be able to afford a grave stone like this, but I may be wrong. I would figure a stone like that would represent a small mausoleum of today.

Anonymous said...

Yeah it would be kind of neat to have grave markers the way they did back then. But lets stick to 100% human statues, not half sphinx/human statues haha
The statue is ok, but lets face it, it's weird...it looks like a dog in the bathroom postion with the head of a ..royal queen or something. but intersting....
happy birthday btw why didn't you tell us in class???

Anonymous said...

Happy b-lated!
I think this grave marker looks kinda creepy, especially for being a grave marker for a little kid. I see how each part of the body represents something else, which I think is kinda cool.

Rexus Lunazul said...

I guess I only have one thing to say

Happy Birthday! XD

I think is a good idea a grave marker, as I said the first day of class I like Anthropomorphic animals and art, this if nobody remember is animal/thing with human characteristics, this for some can bring the human nature and animal instincts in a mystical way for some, a good example of this, can be the sirens of Greek mythologies
and other creatures, demigods, demons, and also gods that were placed as statures over the cementeries

http://www.grisel.net/athens_museum.htm

artperson said...

Happy b-day.http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=13&viewMode=0&item=11.185a-d,f,g,x
I found some info on the monument at the "met" web page. this is a very large and elaborate sculpture made around 530 b.c. I think it is a bit odd yet it is extremely interesting. The human figures seem to be pretty detailed and the animal like creature on the top adds character to the monument.

jpayne said...

The idea of the statue as a grave marker is kind of neat but yet kinda unnerving. I like the idea of the marker as opposed to what we have today, because like you said its more personable rather than just a stone with our name on it. But yet at the same time, I agree that I dont like the idea that theyre putting the sphinx with the human head. (Especially if this was for a child.) Was there some significance of the sphinx to them Such as some form of good luck that they decided to combine it with the human? At any rate, I like the idea of the statue, just not the specific choice of the sphinx with the human head.

aydin1107 said...

Happy Belated Birthday!!!
The hat's great!

So these stelae usually represented people who they were made for. However, if I saw a lady who looked like this..... But, anyways this sculpture looks a lot like the sculpture we saw in class, who was thought to be Athena. This would make more sense since she is represented with animal characteristics. Maybe she was put there to protect the person in the afterlife.

Unknown said...

It seems odd that they would have sculptures in the same perspective as the paintings and carvings. Even this mythological creature should follow the constraints of the anatomy and not have it's head so contorted. I enjoy the very festive attire.

Anonymous said...

I would actually prefer this creepy statue over my grave than a stinkin flat dull things we have now. This statue though is a bit strange but maybe the girl who was buried here might have had a thing for half human objects. But it would be pretty cool if all our stones were like that...I'd vote for it! :o)

HAPPY belated BIRTHDAY by the way! We should of had a party! :o)

James Almquist said...

I've always liked grave markers (apparently thats what there called). Most of the time they have a creepy way about them and this one is no different. The mixing of human and animal body parts is nothing new but this one seems different then most of them because it doesnt look right. The human head doesnt sit on the body right.

Anonymous said...

Happy belated birthday... i like what you did with the statue

Anonymous said...

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