Art in Antiquity essay

Art in Antiquity essay Art in Antiquity essay Art in Antiquity essayIn modern sense, the term â€Å"age of gold† often refers to any period of flourishing, prosperity, and moral purification. In the ancient context, however, it was associated with Greek mythology, in which there was a record of better times. Hesiod (c. 700 B.C.), a Greek poet, fixed the legend in Works and Days to make people know about the Golden Age of Cronus, when people lived like gods, free from grief and misery. Later, the Romans adopted the story about ideal world to their reality. Thus, Ovid (43 B.C. – c. 17 A.D.), a Roman poet, echoed Hesiod in Metamorphoses, but the main difference was in the idea that the era of prosperity was a perspective for the Romans’ future, not a ‘forever-lost-past’. While for the Greek the Golden Age was over because Cronus was defeated and the circumstances were beyond human control, the Roman poets believed that the decline took place because human virtues turned into vices and human, so hu man virtues could bring the Age of Gold back. It was the propaganda of the concept that the Golden Age was again achievable that made the Romans believe in the ideal world and take their own effort to create it. The first Roman emperor Augustus (63 B.C. – 14 A.D.) tried his best to bring about the legendary Golden Age. He paid much attention to the development of sciences and art, which helped his empire develop and flourish and his glory grow in the meantime. Current study is intended to explore how propaganda of the Age of Gold idea contributed to the growth of Roman power along with the development of warfare, politics, and legislation. The study investigates how the longed-for ideal world was fixed in the artwork. In this way, it is expected to provide the evidence that Augustus worked not only for his own ambition, but he did have a clear program to bring peace, security, and glory to his people.The Murals of the Garden Room at Prima PortaIn 1863 archaeologists discovere d a wonderful room at Prima Porta. Due to the documents left by Pliny and Cassius Dio, the location was known for the Villa of Livia, Augustus’ wife. According to the legend, a white hen fell to the lap of Livia just from the clutches of an eagle. In its beak, the hen held a branch of laurel. The crown-bearing couple planted the branch, and the laurel grew into a grove with amazing vigor, thus becoming a symbol of Augustus glory. Today, the place itself (available for the visitors of Museo Nazionale Romano) is famous for the illusionistic murals of partially underground triclinium painted c. 30-20 B.C. The semi-subterranean Garden Room embodied arboreal mythology that became popular in the times of Augustus. The frescoes represent a vista of garden in which different trees and shrubs blossom and fruit at once. The oak, the umbrella pine, the red fir are seen in the foreground. Box trees, cypresses, holm oaks, viburnums, and date palms neighbor pomegranates, oleanders, apple q uinces, strawberry trees, together with ivy, acanthus, laurels and myrtles beyond the marble enclosure. Meanwhile, the variety of flowers includes chamomiles and roses, chrysanthemums and poppies. Violets, irises, and ferns also grow along the footpaths. All the birds enjoy their freedom, except the one put into a gilded cage depicted on the low wall.Order neighboring disorder, woodland and garden displayed together, and wild birds beyond the balustrade all create a utopian landscape to welcome a guest into the realm of harmony. Although it is a celebration of naturalistic technique in blue and green, the view is not the reproduction of nature. Such a combination of flora and fauna representatives, â€Å"as protean and mulitvalent in their structures and meanings as the contemporary poetry of Virgil† (Kleiner 200), is not possible, but it is a cordial invitation to the world specially made for humans, an ideal world more specifically. The artwork rather creates nature than re produces it, and the purpose will be clear if to turn to the idea of the Golden Age.Propagation of the promised Golden Age As for the purpose of the Garden Room, it had both pragmatic and cultural meaning. On the one hand, it was a dining room in the suburbs intended to give shelter for the guests during hot summer days. It goes without saying that the triclinium stayed cool due to its partially underground disposition, so the guests could have rest from heat and enjoy summer banquets in comfort. The emperor had no opportunity to grow real gardens as he did outside, but he found an effective alternative. The pictured gardens were also good at creating the atmosphere of peace and rest due to the ornamental illusion of natural surroundings, so necessary during the scorching summer months.The beneficent world of nature was an allegory for â€Å"fertility and prosperity of the Augustan state† (Henig 192). Each of the trees and plants has its meaning, and most of them come from th e Ovid’s Metamorphoses in which pines, laurel, cypress trees as well as magpies, partridges, and nightingales played a specific role. The state cannot exist without an order, but a natural order of things has to be taken to account to make the state prosper, so the landscape of the Garden Room in which organic order compliments regular structure is obviously a symbol for Augustan powerful empire. The viewer is able to read the message that the close to nature, the pure the morals. What is more, the eye can read the propaganda of peace and stability as well as wealth and abundance through the plentiful motifs of floral character. In this way, the lush fertility of nature celebrates the vitality and renewal of Rome under Augustan peace (Toynbee 442).ConclusionsThe study has shown that in the ancient times art was a rewarding tool for visual expression of political and ideological intentions of a ruler. Augustus made it the cornerstone of his program to reinvigorate Rome and mak e it the most powerful and virtuous state in the world. While social and religious legislation helped him to re-establish moral virtues of the Roman citizens, powerful symbolism in art supported an image of greatness and confidence associated with Augustan renewal.All in all, a garden of imagination painted on the walls of the Villa of Livia is an eloquent example of well-planned propaganda of the idea that under the guidance of Augustus Rome was expected to experience the glorious return of the legendary Golden Age. Out of time and space, with each species fixed in the moment of their own glory, the painting of exotic fecundity deliberately symbolizes the perpetual spring of the Augustus prosperous reign.

Confidence Interval for a Population Proportion

Confidence Interval for a Population Proportion Confidence intervals can be used to estimate several population parameters. One type of parameter that can be estimated using inferential statistics is a population proportion. For example, we may want to know the percentage of the U.S. population who supports a particular piece of legislation. For this type of question, we need to find a confidence interval. In this article, we will see how to construct a confidence interval for a population proportion, and examine some of the theory behind this. Overall Framework We begin by looking at the big picture before we get into the specifics. The type of confidence interval that we will consider is of the following form: Estimate /- Margin of Error This means that there are two numbers that we will need to determine. These values are an estimate for the desired parameter, along with the margin of error. Conditions Before conducting any statistical test or procedure, it is important to make sure that all of the conditions are met. For a confidence interval for a population proportion, we need to make sure that the following hold: We have a simple random sample of size n from a large populationOur individuals have been chosen independently of one another.There are at least 15 successes and 15 failures in our sample. If the last item is not satisfied, then it may be possible to adjust our sample slightly and to use a plus-four confidence interval. In what follows, we will assume that all of the above conditions have been met. Sample and Population Proportions We start with the estimate for our population proportion. Just as we use a sample mean to estimate a population mean, we use a sample proportion to estimate a population proportion. The population proportion is an unknown parameter. The sample proportion is a statistic. This statistic is found by counting the number of successes in our sample and then dividing by the total number of individuals in the sample. The population proportion is denoted by p and is self-explanatory. The notation for the sample proportion is a little more involved. We denote a sample proportion as pÌ‚, and we read this symbol as p-hat because it looks like the letter p with a hat on top. This becomes the first part of our confidence interval. The estimate of p is pÌ‚. Sampling Distribution of Sample Proportion To determine the formula for the margin of error, we need to think about the sampling distribution of pÌ‚. We will need to know the mean, the standard deviation, and the particular distribution that we are working with. The sampling distribution of  pÌ‚ is a binomial distribution with probability of success p and n trials. This type of random variable has a mean of p and standard deviation of (p(1 - p)/n)0.5. There are two problems with this. The first problem is that a binomial distribution can be very tricky to work with. The presence of factorials can lead to some very large numbers. This is where the conditions help us. As long as our conditions are met, we can estimate the binomial distribution with the standard normal distribution. The second problem is that the standard deviation of  pÌ‚ uses p in its definition. The unknown population parameter is to be estimated by using that very same parameter as a margin of error. This circular reasoning is a problem that needs to be fixed. The way out of this conundrum is to replace the standard deviation with its standard error. Standard errors are based upon statistics, not parameters. A standard error is used to estimate a standard deviation.  What makes this strategy worthwhile is that we no longer need to know the value of the parameter p. Formula To use the standard error, we replace the unknown parameter p with the statistic pÌ‚. The result is the following formula for a confidence interval for a population proportion: pÌ‚ /- z* (pÌ‚(1 - pÌ‚)/n)0.5. Here the value of z* is determined by our level of confidence C.  For the standard normal distribution, exactly C percent of the standard normal distribution is between -z* and z*.  Common values for z* include 1.645 for 90% confidence and 1.96 for 95% confidence. Example Lets see how this method works with an example.  Suppose that we wish to know with 95% confidence the percent of the electorate in a county that identifies itself as Democratic.  We conduct a simple random sample of 100 people in this  county and find that 64 of them identify as a Democrat. We see that all of the conditions are met.  The estimate of our population proportion is 64/100 0.64.  This is the value of the sample proportion pÌ‚, and it is the center of our confidence interval. The margin of error is comprised of two pieces.  The first is z*.  As we said, for 95% confidence, the value of z* 1.96. The other part of the margin of error is given by the formula (pÌ‚(1 - pÌ‚)/n)0.5.  We set pÌ‚ 0.64 and calculate the standard error to be (0.64(0.36)/100)0.5 0.048. We multiply these two numbers together and obtain a margin of error of 0.09408.  The end result is: 0.64 /- 0.09408, or we can rewrite this as 54.592% to 73.408%.  Thus we are 95% confident that the true population proportion of Democrats is somewhere in the range of these percentages.  This means that in the long run, our technique and formula will capture the population proportion of 95% of the time. Related Ideas There are a number of ideas and topics that are connected to this type of confidence interval.  For instance, we could conduct a hypothesis test pertaining to the value of the population proportion.  We could also compare two proportions from two different populations.