Consider the statues of Menkaure and Khamerernebty and the Burghers of Calais. Describe the medium of each of these works and identify each by artist or culture. Then discuss the similarities and differences in these representations of the human form in relation to the themes of each work and its relationship to the viewer

What will be an ideal response?

The carved stone sculpture Menkaure and Khamerernebty depicts a pharaoh and his royal wife. Employing the conventions of Egyptian sculpture, the couple are portrayed with idealized, youthful bodies and similar facial features with stiff, frozen arms. This formal, frontal pose suggests the power of the rulers and their serene, eternal existence. In contrast, Rodin's cast bronze sculpture Burghers of Calais memorializes the heroic 14th-century townsmen, who offered their lives as a ransom during a siege. The sculpture is an emotional presentation of individuals facing death and defeat. They are arranged in an irregular circle, requiring the viewers to pace alongside of them, for there is not an angle from which all of their faces are visible.