How Have Female Figures Played a Role in Art History Essay

Throughout history female figures have played an important role as subject matter. The female figure is very subjective, as peered through the different lenses of varying cultures. The status and functions of women in these cultures are the primary factors that influence how they are portrayed in art of a certain culture. However, the female figure itself through its natural and inherent iconography represents fertility and the importance of women in society. This natural iconography creates certain parallels in content between all works that use the female figure as subject matter. This varying subjectivity of a female’s status based on an artist’s culture will create differences in content and themes; however some aspects remain similar†¦show more content†¦This statue has played an important role in representing the religious and political culture of the Yoruba using themes of the female figure. In the Athena Parthenos created by Phidias and housed in the Pa rthenon of Athens, the female subject primarily exhibits the power of a goddess and various idiosyncrasies of the Ancient Greek culture. The picture that emerges is a standing, fully armed, and elaborately dresses Athena, holding a small statue of Nike in her outstretched right hand and cradling her spear with he left. The Statue of Athena is very representative of fertility not because of any particular content but because of the subject. In Greek mythology, Athena was supposedly born from the mind of Zeus. She represents a symbol of life and birth without any particular styles of the art that agree. Undeniably, she is also a goddess. She is capable of great power and her size commands respect. Her armor and weapons, phallic symbols, show that even as a female she can be revered as a goddess of power. Greek culture reveres its gods and goddesses and her power is derived from the status that she has gained from her wisdom and birthright. The fact that she, and all other female figur es of Greece were clothed, while men were often nude, shows that women did not have as high a social status as men did. Nudes wereShow MoreRelatedVitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid:1529 Words   |  7 Pages1940s, studied together in the Moscow Art School from 1958-1960 (DAF 1). They began their collaborative work in 1965, and in 1967, they established the SOTS Art movement (the Soviet version of Western Pop Art). Through their SOTS Art movement they worked along with other Soviet nonconformist artists to create work that challenged the rigid official style of Socialist Realism (DAF 1). 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