Friday, January 16, 2009

Is Ancient Art Like Special Effects?

Last night, my oldest daughter and I did a Daddy/Daughter date and went to the art museum at Cal State San Bernardino. They had a great display called Excavating Egypt, which I guess isn't their normal Egypt display, but was a lot of fun.

Among the things we saw was this mummy mask:



And it made me wonder.

See, this thing is even more cross-eyed in real life. And one eye bulges out farther than the other.

So it makes me wonder--do you think they noticed it? Do you think they thought this thing was beautiful, or do you think they were going, "Thanks, man. You gave my Mom's mummy mask a lazy bug eye?"

I think about special effects from the early 80's. Now, they seem really bad. But at the time, you didn't get so worked up about it. They were special effects, and that's what we all understood special effects looked like at the time.

Was it that way for these things? Did people just know that the eyes came out a little wonky sometimes, and they didn't really think it was that big a deal, or did this guy just get jipped?

Either way, Daddy/Daughter dates are still a good time.

1 comment:

Scott H. said...

I've never thought of it like that, but it makes sense that the progress of Art from flat, unbalanced figures to realism is comparable to special effects evolving from cheesy to spectacular now.