Module 8 film review

I chose the film "The Measure of All Things: Greek Art and the Human Figure" along with "More Human than Human". It is my belief that the former film is encapsulated in the latter film. I additionally believe that the former film is enhanced by the second film because of a chance encounter between two cultures, this enhancement would advance the science and add to the styling and development of the human figure changing how we see ourselves. The first film gives us a history of human development and the psyche. The film takes the viewer on a journey illustrating the development of man in his natural environment, and the development of art that represented what man and woman looked like. It began in the cradle of creatio in the Nile Valley before and after it was developed into an advanced civilization. The figurine art of the nomads who had no interest in exemplifying arms and faces on the human body but instead crafted figures with exaggerated stomachs and breasts (usually female). Because much of the Nile where the nomads lived was lush with vegetation these exaggerated figures represented bounty and fertility. This showed the advancement of Egypt as a civilization and the change of body imaging over this period of time. This body image evolved from the exaggerated figure that looked little like a real human form to a more realistic two dimensional form that looked more realistic and had arms (hands) and a face (eyes). This view of the human form was the standard for the next 3,000 years until a chance meeting with a Greek tribe called Ionians. The Greeks were enamored with the human body and its form but lacked the proper techniques to create any likeness of themselves except for small representations. The Egyptians taught the Greeks the necessary science to develop their art and scale. The Greeks taught the Egyptians how to beautify their two dimensional art while additionally making the art three dimensional.  The second film demonstrated the advancements in representational art by the Greeks, the more realistic statutes that seem to move in stone. The Greeks embellished Egyptian art and advanced it, changing how people of that time period and afterward viewed themselves in art. The change in art, and the change in how we viewed ourselves evolved simultaneously with the advancement of civilization. The Nomads and their armless, faceless fertility god reflected how humans viewed themselves in the Nile Valley while the Greeks reflected their affinity for realism by crating gods who looked like the Greeks themselves carved in stone.