Egyptian Art

• Hieroglyphics


  Pictorial system of recording and writing used by ancient Egyptians

  
• The Rosetta Stone was discovered during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign in 1799 and provided the first clue to deciphering hieroglyphics

  
• Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered the first word on the Rosetta Stone, which was the name of the ruler Ptolemy, showing that hieroglyphics was based on phonetics rather than an alphabet

  
• Ma'at


  The concept of harmony that was the basis of ancient Egyptian society
• Egyptian art was always first and foremost functional, with aesthetic beauty not being the driving force
• Geography of ancient Egypt

  • Surrounded by desert on three sides and ocean on the other, providing natural barriers
  • The Nile River gave Egypt prosperity and made it an agricultural paradise
• Papyrus


  One of the most important technological developments of ancient Egyptians, enabling them to record information in a more permanent way
• Periods of ancient Egyptian history

  • Predynastic
  • Old Kingdom (2635 B.C. - 2060 B.C.)
  • Middle Kingdom (2060 B.C. - 1554 B.C.)
  • New Kingdom (1554 B.C. - 1080 B.C.)
• Ka


  The counterpart of the body, equivalent to the soul, that continued through life and into the afterlife
• Book of the Dead


  Included hymns and advice to help the dead person in the afterlife
• Law of Frontality in 2-D Egyptian art


  • Head in profile
  • Eye frontal
  • Shoulders frontal
  • Torso frontal
  • Hands with thumbs separate from fingers and two 'left' hands
  • Below waist in profile
  • Feet on same level, one in front, in profile
  • Males dark tan, females lighter
• Hierarchy of scale


  Larger scale figures are more important, with pharaohs and deities being the largest, followed by the elite, and servants being the smallest
• Stylisation in Egyptian art

  • Follows set conventions, flattened and impersonal
  • Pigment applied in flat areas with no shading
  • Naturalistic elements arranged in an unnaturalistic way
• Register


  Parallel lines that separate and provide ground lines for figures in Egyptian art
• Scenes without registers were unusual and generally only used to specifically evoke chaos
• Fowling in the Marshes, a hunting scene from the tomb in Thebes


  • The noble is standing in his reed boat, driving the birds from the papyrus swamp with a boomerang. His wife and daughter are with him and are drawn smaller as they are less important. all the objects are stylised and flattened. There is no perspective or foreshortening. The papyrus grass has a pattern-like quality and above it is a mass grouping of birds. The birds are naturalistic but are arranged in an unnaturalistic way. The noble is making a gesture of activity but because of his status, he is portrayed as a dignified person. Servants are usually more naturalistically shown. Colours are muted and don't have a great deal of contrast.
• Scenes were ordered in parallel lines, known as registers. These registers separate the scene as well as providing ground lines for the figures. Scenes without registers are unusual and were generally only used to specifically evoke chaos; battle and hunting scenes will often show the prey or foreign armies without groundlines. Registers were also used to convey information about the scenes—the higher up in the scene, the higher the status; overlapping figures imply that the ones underneath are further away, as are those elements that are higher within the register.
• During the reign of Akhenaten, a pharaoh of the New Kingdom, art moved closer to naturalism for a short while. He introduced monotheism as he worshipped the sun ATEN only. He ruled for 17 years during the 18th dynasty and is portrayed as a real flesh and blood person. His long narrow face and sensuous lips, pot belly and slack muscles are so naturalistic that medical experts have been able to diagnose an illness from which he is believed to have suffered, based on his appearance in art works.
• As Akhenaten identified himself with the sun god, and his family was considered to be a divine family, domestic scenes of him, and his wife Nefertiti and their daughters are of religious significance. There is a new fluidity in the stance and representation of the body. The torso and the limbs are elongated and pot-bellied. The neck is elongated, as is the back part of the skull. The old law of frontality still influenced the art, but is subtly modified; eg. There are right and left hands. Also the figures have more movement.
• Akhenaten's feminine ideal


  Small upper torso, elongated body with a large belly, hips and thighs
• When Tutankhamen became pharaoh he reverted back to the orthodox polytheism. Much of the art was also adapted and changed. Even though the art went back to the old style, new elements had crept in. After Tutankhamen, Ramses II had a prolific amount of art produced and also completed and altered unfinished works of art. Much of the art was reworked that had been produced in Akenaten's time.
• Relief sculpture


  Neither truly 2D nor 3-D, it occupies more space than a flat painting or drawing
• Sunk relief


  • A type of intaglio carving, where the strongly defined outline dominates the composition. This outline casts a shadow which highlights the object. The figures themselves are scarcely moulded, and it is mainly the deeply incised outline which defines the object. One of the main advantages of this sunk relief was durability. No amount of weathering could wear away the incised image.
• The Pallette of Narmer


  • The theme of the palette is the victory of Upper Egypt over Lower Egypt, under the rule of King Narmer.
• Egyptian sculpture


  • Stylised and static, figures posed in frontal positions, no movement of space between the masses of stone. Arms and legs are generally bound to the block of stone, with no attempt to separate them or to open up natural spaces between the limbs. Clothing is stiff and rigid, hair is stylised and symmetrical, ears are usually large and protruding. Arms are either pinioned to the body or held stiffly with one arm against the body, with the fist clenched and positioned on the left thigh, while the right arm is held tightly against the chest. Occasionally one foot is shifted slightly in front of the other, and sometimes one arm is freed from the block to allow space between the body and the arm.
• Law of Frontality in Sculpture in the Round


  • Figures look block-like and are rigid. They are best viewed from the front. In standing figures the left leg is forward but rigid. In seated figures both feet are together. Faces look forward. Hands are usually clenched and are sometimes drilled to hold a stick. In standing figures arms are held to the sides or holding a staff (one bent). In seated figures, usually one arm is folded across the chest and the other follows the contours of the thigh and torso.
• Materials used in Egyptian sculpture

  Wood (Lebanese wood or ebony), limestone, sandstone, granite, diorite, quartzite. Woodworkers tools like adze and chisel were used.
• The Seated Figure of Khafre c2000 B.C.


  • Khafre is seated on a throne, at the base of which is carved the intertwined lotus and papyrus, symbol of a united Egypt (the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt). Sheltering his head are the protective wings of the falcon HORUS, the protector of the kings. He wears the simple kilt of the Old Kingdom and a linear headdress that covers his forehead and falls over his shoulders. the face of the king, which is individualised, has the mood of repose. The back of the throne is a slab to which the body is attached. His arms follow the line of his torso and thighs, and his legs are together.

  
• Sheik - El - Beled c2 500 B.C.


  • He is a servant and he is not idealised as a pharaoh would have been - he is plump and has a paunch. The Sheik is a standing figure in the frontal pose, with the left hand forward, while in the other he holds a staff. He does not have the dignity that the pharaohs are given.
• Mastaba


  The resting place of a person destined to return in the afterlife. Mastabas were simply flat topped tombs with sloping sides, made of mud or brick. They were usually divided into several chambers or compartments - one for the body and others for the objects that the dead person needed in the afterlife.
• Mastaba


  • The chapel - reception room for the KA and was the place where the family and priests placed offerings in front of a false door. This door faced East and the Ka entered through this door from the West. The serdab contained the statue that could represent the deceased in the spirit world should anything happen to the actual body.
• The first mastaba to be built by an identifiable architect was the Step Pyramid at Sakkarah, Built for the pharaoh Djoser by the architect Imhotep, who was also a writer and physician. This 'pyramid' was, in fact, a series of six mastabas set one on top of the other. It was believed that Djoser (Zoser) could climb the six steps towards heaven and so reach the sun-god Ra.
• Less than two centuries later - during the Fourth Dynasty - The first true pyramids were constructed. It was during this period, around 2 600 B.C. that the great pyramid was built for Khufu at Giza. It is difficult to visualise the enormous size of this pyramid from photographs, because of the vastness of the desert that surrounds it. The height of the pyramid is around 137 meters and it covers an area of over four hectares.

  
• The great age of pyramid building continued for about 400 years, from the fourth to the sixth dynasty. Although smaller pyramids were built as late as the Middle Kingdom, the emphasis had changed by the beginning of the New Kingdom. Other gods were worshipped, and temples were built in their honour. Temples were also built for the pharaoh's, but their burial chambers were now in a separate location generally behind the funerary temple, carved into the rock of the mountains of the VALLEY OF KINGS.
• Pyramid Complex


  • The Pyramid which housed the mummy of the pharaoh and his treasure. The Mortuary Chapel which adjoined the pyramid on the East side. A covered causeway from the mortuary chapel to the valley temple. Valley Temple which was situated on the Nile banks, and served as a reception area for people who had come down the Nile to offer gifts in the chapel. In the pyramid complex of Khafre there is also a Sphinx carved from the rock to commemorate the pharaoh. The sphinx has the body of a lion and the head of a man, possibly Khafre's.

  
• The Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) at Giza 2 600 B.C.


  • An almost solid mass of masonry, (yellow limestone), except for the burial chambers and galleries which are relatively small. More than two million stone blocks, some of which weighed as much as 15 tons, were used in its construction. The pyramid was built before the invention of the wheel, without the assistance of binding materials like cement, and long before modern equipment like mechanical lifts or cranes were available. Labourers worked with the simplest of tools and without the help of draught animals. Logs of wood were used as sleds, onto which stone blocks were loaded. These sleds were dragged by men pulling on ropes tied around the blocks. The limestone blocks were quarried from the banks of the East bank of the Nile, and floated during the floods, to the Western banks. They were then cut by stone masons to their right shapes, and marked to indicate their position on the whole structure. The steps left by each course were then covered in pearly white limestone. The casing stones fitted so perfectly that the joints were undetectable. Measurement with modern instruments indicates that there was only 1-cm error over an area of 13 acres, Which is the size of the base of the pyramid. The 4 corners face North, South, East and West and each side measures 236m. There are approximately 2 300 000 blocks.
• Building the pyramids


  1. Quarrying limestone blocks from the East bank of the Nile

  2. Floating blocks during floods to the West bank

  3. Cutting blocks to shape and marking their position

  4. Covering steps with pearly white limestone

  5. Fitting casing stones perfectly
• Measurement with modern instruments indicates that there was only 1-cm error over an area of 13 acres, which is the size of the base of the pyramid
• The 4 corners of the pyramid face North, South, East and West and each side measures 236m
• There are approximately 2,300,000 blocks in the pyramid