Civilisations: How Do We Look?

SYNOPSIS

The depiction of human bodies, in portraits and otherwise, is a revealing part of a cultural identity. Sometimes its a major or even the only source for many undocumented aspects of a civilization, as in the case of the Olmecs, who left more portraits -albeit mostly divinity and ruling class- then all other Central American Indians. Formalism and symbolism can express social order and religious beliefs, as in Ancient Egypt, as opposed realism and ideals of beauty as in Ancient Greece, where Praxiteles's 'invention' of the perfect erotic nude remains the reference of Western aesthetics. Sometimes nothing else remains of a forgotten people, as one coinciding with the Qing dynasty which was to unify China. Under the Romans, Hellenism was a crucial part in shaping an empire unified in controlled diversity.