EGYPT ART

EGYPT ART


Wood Gilded Statue of Lady Tiye, mother of Akhenaten, Egypt ca. 1390-1352 B.C.E. Amarna Period


Tomb of Sarenput II.

Queen Tiye (?), ca. 1352-1336 B.C.E. Sandstone. Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 33.55

ü  Ancient Egyptian art is the painting, sculpture, architecture and other arts produced by the civilization of ancient Egypt in the lower NileValley from about 3000 BC to 30 AD.
ü  Ancient Egyptian art reached a high level in painting and sculpture, and was both highly stylized and symbolic.
ü  It was famously conservative, and Egyptian styles changed remarkably little over more than three thousand years.
ü  Much of the surviving art comes from tombs and monuments and thus there is an emphasis on life after death and the preservation of knowledge of the past.
ü  Ancient Egyptian art included paintings, sculpture in wood (now rarely surviving), stone and ceramics, drawings on papyrus, faience, jewelry, ivories, and other art media. It displays an extraordinarily vivid representation of the ancient Egyptian's socioeconomic status and belief systems.

Architecture



Capital, limestone model. Roman period. From Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London 
ü  Ancient Egyptian architects used sun-dried and kiln-baked bricks, fine sandstone, limestone and granite. Architects carefully planned all their work.
ü   The stones had to fit precisely together, since there was no mud or mortar. When creating the pyramids, ramps were used to allow workmen to move up as the height of the construction grew.
ü  When the top of the structure was completed, the artists decorated from the top down, removing ramp sand as they went down. Exterior walls of structures like the pyramids contained only a few small openings.
ü  Hieroglyphic and pictorial carvings in brilliant colours were abundantly used to decorate Egyptian structures, including many motifs, like the scarab, sacred beetle, the solar disk, and the vulture. They described the changes the Pharaoh would go through to become a god.





Hellenistic Era (c.323-27 BCE)

·         The influence of Greek Hellenistic art on Egyptian artists, a process accelerated during the Ptolemaic Era, encouraged the naturalistic representation of individuals in paintings and sculpture, not unlike the process initiated by Akhenaton.
·         Portraits became realistic and the rules of colour were relaxed. This trend was further encouraged by the practical Roman style of art.
·         The most famous example of Hellenistic-Egyptian painting during the era of classical antiquity, is the series of Fayum Mummy Portraits, discovered mainly around the Faiyum basin, west of the Nile, near Cairo. A type of naturalistic portraiture, strongly influenced by Greek art, notably Hellenistic Greek painting (323-27 BCE),
·          Fayum portraits were attached to the burial cloth of the deceased person. Preserved by the exceptionally dry conditions, these paintings represent the largest single body of original art which has survived from Antiquity.

Fayum Mummy Portrait (Louvre)
From c.100-200 CE, after the Rules
of Painting were relaxed under the
influence of Greek art

1.      A common preconception is that Ancient Egyptian art all looks the same. In reality, it is very diverse and the style and symbolism of the art depends on the region.
2.      When Egyptian art does look the same, it is for a very good reason; it is often based on religious beliefs.
3.      A lot of the artists or architects from Ancient Egypt are unknown and remain anonymous.
4.      Some forms of art were created purely for sacred or magical purposes.
5.      Much of Ancient Egyptian art was not meant to be seen by ‘normal people’. The art was created in secret to be viewed by the elite and it was “too powerful to be viewed by the general public.”
6.      A lot of the buildings you can see and visit in Egypt, such as temples, pyramids, and tombs, would have only been seen at the time by very few people.
7.      We think of Mummies as an Ancient Egyptian burial ritual but they were actually very sacred objects. Only very few people were ever mummified in Ancient Egyptian history and only the Priests were allowed to see them.
8.      It was only modern studies on race and racial differences that made Mummies become “medical objects.”
9.      Ancient Egypt isn’t necessarily more interesting than other ancient empires. Perhaps it is seen as more exotic by Europeans because it is so different to our modern culture, whereas we still see similarities between our culture and Ancient Greece for example.
10.  You will see Ancient Egyptian art and architecture everywhere, and not just in Egypt. Ancient Egyptian art and architecture continues to inspire and influence modern designers all around the world.

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