Art of ancient Egypt

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

Ancient Egyptian art is the painting,

sculpture, architecture and other arts
produced by the civilization of ancient
Egypt in the lower Nile Valley from about
3000 BC to 30 AD. Ancient Egyptian art
reached a high level in painting and
sculpture, and was both highly stylized and
symbolic. It was famously conservative,
and Egyptian styles changed remarkably
little over more than three thousand years.
Much of the surviving art comes from
tombs and monuments and now there is
an emphasis on life after death and the
preservation of knowledge of the past. The
wall art was never meant to be seen by
people other than the afterlife for when
they needed them.

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.

Overview
Egyptian art is famous for its distinctive
figure convention, used for the main
figures in both relief and painting, with
parted legs (where not seated) and head
shown as seen from the side, but the torso
seen as from the front, and a standard set
of proportions making up the figure, using
18 "fists" to go from the ground to the hair-
line on the forehead.[1] This appears as
early as the Narmer Palette from Dynasty I,
but there as elsewhere the convention is
not used for minor figures shown engaged
in some activity, such as the captives and
corpses.[2] Other conventions make
statues of males darker than females
ones. Very conventionalized portrait
statues appear from as early as Dynasty II,
before 2,780 BC,[3] and with the exception
of the art of the Amarna period of
Ahkenaten,[4] and some other periods such
as Dynasty XII, the idealized features of
rulers, like other Egyptian artistic
conventions, changed little until after the
Greek conquest.[5]
The Egyptian figure convention, with the torso shown
frontally, the head and legs from the side; fragment
from the Tomb of Amenemhet and His Wife Hemet

Egyptian art uses hierarchical proportion,

where the size of figures indicates their
relative importance. The gods or the divine
pharaoh are usually larger than other
figures and the figures of high officials or
the tomb owner are usually smaller, and at
the smallest scale any servants and
entertainers, animals, trees, and
architectural details.[6]
Depiction of craftworkers in ancient Egypt

Symbolism can be observed throughout

Egyptian art and played an important role
in establishing a sense of order. The
pharaoh's regalia, for example, represented
his power to maintain order. Animals were
also highly symbolic figures in Egyptian
art. Some colors were expressive: blue or
gold indicated divinity because of its
unnatural appearance and association
with precious materials, and the use of
black for royal figures expressed the
fertility of the Nile from which Egypt was
born.[7]

Painting

Wall painting of Nefertari

Not all Egyptian reliefs were painted, and

less prestigious works in tombs, temples
and palaces were merely painted on a flat
surface. Stone surfaces were prepared by
whitewash, or if rough, a layer of coarse
mud plaster, with a smoother gesso layer
above; some finer limestones could take
paint directly. Pigments were mostly
mineral, chosen to withstand strong
sunlight without fading. The binding
medium used in painting remains unclear:
egg tempera and various gums and resins
have been suggested. It is clear that true
fresco, painted into a thin layer of wet
plaster, was not used. Instead the paint
was applied to dried plaster, in what is
called "fresco a secco" in Italian. After
painting, a varnish or resin was usually
applied as a protective coating, and many
paintings with some exposure to the
elements have survived remarkably well,
although those on fully exposed walls
rarely have.[8] Small objects including
wooden statuettes were often painted
using similar techniques.

Many ancient Egyptian paintings have

survived in tombs, and sometimes
temples, due to Egypt's extremely dry
climate. The paintings were often made
with the intent of making a pleasant
afterlife for the deceased. The themes
included journey through the afterworld or
protective deities introducing the
deceased to the gods of the underworld
(such as Osiris). Some tomb paintings
show activities that the deceased were
involved in when they were alive and
wished to carry on doing for eternity.

In the New Kingdom and later, the Book of

the Dead was buried with the entombed
person. It was considered important for an
introduction to the afterlife.

Egyptian paintings are painted in such a

way to show a profile view and a side view
of the animal or person at the same time.
For example, the painting to the right
shows the head from a profile view and
the body from a frontal view. Their main
colors were red, blue, green, gold, black
and yellow.

Paintings showing scenes of hunting and

fishing can have lively close-up landscape
backgrounds of reeds and water, but in
general Egyptian painting did not develop a
sense of depth, and neither landscapes
nor a sense of visual perspective are
found, the figures rather varying in size
with their importance rather than their
location.

Sculpture
Facsimile of the Narmer Palette, c. 3100 BC, which
already shows the canonical Egyptian profile view
and proportions of the figure.
Menkaura (Mycerinus) and queen, Old Kingdom,
Dynasty 4, 2490 – 2472 BC. The formality of the pose
is reduced by the queen's arm round her husband.

The monumental sculpture of ancient

Egypt's temples and tombs is world-
famous,[9] but refined and delicate small
works exist in much greater numbers. The
Egyptians used the technique of sunk
relief, which is best viewed in sunlight for
the outlines and forms to be emphasized
by shadows. The distinctive pose of
standing statues facing forward with one
foot in front of the other was helpful for
the balance and strength of the piece. The
use of this singular pose was used early
on in the history of Egyptian art and well
into the Ptolemaic period, although seated
statues were particularly common as well.
Egyptian pharaohs were always regarded
as gods, but other deities are much less
common in large statues, except when
they represent the pharaoh as another
deity; however the other deities are
frequently shown in paintings and reliefs.
The famous row of four colossal statues
outside the main temple at Abu Simbel
each show Rameses II, a typical scheme,
though here exceptionally large.[10] Most
larger sculptures survive from Egyptian
temples or tombs; massive statues were
built to represent gods and pharaohs and
their queens, usually for open areas in or
outside temples. The very early colossal
Great Sphinx of Giza was never repeated,
but avenues lined with very large statues
including sphinxes and other animals
formed part of many temple complexes.
The most sacred cult image of a god in a
temple, usually held in the naos, was in the
form of a relatively small boat or barque
holding an image of the god, and
apparently usually in precious metal –
none have survived.
 Play media
Head of Pharaoh & face from a coffin

By Dynasty IV (2680–2565 BC) at the

latest the idea of the Ka statue was firmly
established. These were put in tombs as a
resting place for the ka portion of the soul,
and so we have a good number of less
conventionalized statues of well-off
administrators and their wives, many in
wood as Egypt is one of the few places in
the world where the climate allows wood
to survive over millennia, and many block
statues. The so-called reserve heads, plain
hairless heads, are especially naturalistic,
though the extent to which there was real
portraiture in ancient Egypt is still debated.

Early tombs also contained small models

of the slaves, animals, buildings and
objects such as boats necessary for the
deceased to continue his lifestyle in the
afterworld, and later Ushabti figures.[11]
However the great majority of wooden
sculpture has been lost to decay, or
probably used as fuel. Small figures of
deities, or their animal personifications,
are very common, and found in popular
materials such as pottery. There were also
large numbers of small carved objects,
from figures of the gods to toys and
carved utensils. Alabaster was often used
for expensive versions of these; painted
wood was the most common material, and
normal for the small models of animals,
slaves and possessions placed in tombs
to provide for the afterlife.

Very strict conventions were followed

while crafting statues and specific rules
governed appearance of every Egyptian
god. For example, the sky god (Horus) was
essentially to be represented with a
falcon's head, the god of funeral rites
(Anubis) was to be always shown with a
jackal's head. Artistic works were ranked
according to their compliance with these
conventions, and the conventions were
followed so strictly that, over three
thousand years, the appearance of statues
changed very little. These conventions
were intended to convey the timeless and
non-aging quality of the figure's ka.

Head from a statue of an old man, probably

Mentuemhat from the 25th Dynasty.

A common relief in ancient Egyptian

sculpture was the representation between
men and women. Women were often
represented in an idealistic form, young
and pretty, and rarely shown in an older
maturity. While men were shown in either
one of two way; either in an idealistic
manner or in more realistic depiction.[12]
Sculptures of men often showed men that
aged, since the regeneration of aging was
as positive thing for them, women are
shown as perpetually young.[13]
Wooden tomb models, Dynastry XI; a high
administrator counts his cattle.

The Gold Mask of Tutankhamun, c. late

Eighteenth dynasty, Egyptian Museum

The Younger Memnon c. 1250 BC, British

Museum
Sunk relief of the crocodile god Sobek
Osiris on a lapis lazuli pillar in the middle,
flanked by Horus on the left, and Isis on
the right, 22nd dynasty, Louvre
The ka statue provided a physical place for
the ka to manifest. Egyptian Museum,
Cairo
Block statue of Pa-Ankh-Ra, ship master,
bearing a statue of Ptah. Late Period, ca.
650–633 BC, Cabinet des Médailles.
A sculpted head of Amenhotep III
 Queen Ankhnes-meryre II and her Son,
Pepy II,c. 2200 BC. Brooklyn Museum

Faience, pottery, and glass

Miniature Egyptian glassware from the New Kingdom

period.
Egyptian faience, made from sand and
chemicals, produced relatively cheap and
very attractive small objects in a variety of
colours, and was used for a variety of
types of objects including jewellery.
Ancient Egyptian glass goes back to very
early Egyptian history, but was at first very
much a luxury material. In later periods it
became common, and highly decorated
small jars for perfume and other liquids
are often found as grave goods.

Ancient Egyptians used steatite (some

varieties were called soapstone) and
carved small pieces of vases, amulets,
images of deities, of animals and several
other objects. Ancient Egyptian artists also
discovered the art of covering pottery with
enamel. Covering by enamel was also
applied to some stone works. The colour
blue, first used in the very expensive
imported stone lapis lazuli, was highly
regarded by ancient Egypt, and the
pigment Egyptian blue was widely used to
colour a variety of materials.

New Kingdom pottery c.1400 BC

Different types of pottery items were
deposited in tombs of the dead. Some
such pottery items represented interior
parts of the body, like the lungs, the liver
and smaller intestines, which were
removed before embalming. A large
number of smaller objects in enamel
pottery were also deposited with the dead.
It was customary to craft on the walls of
the tombs cones of pottery, about six to
ten inches tall, on which were engraved or
impressed legends relating to the dead
occupants of the tombs. These cones
usually contained the names of the
deceased, their titles, offices which they
held, and some expressions appropriate to
funeral purposes.

Architecture

Capital, limestone model. Roman period. From Egypt.

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London

Ancient Egyptian architects used sun-dried

and kiln-baked bricks, fine sandstone,
limestone and granite. Architects carefully
planned all their work. 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. 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.
Hieroglyphic and pictorial carvings in
brilliant colors 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.[14]

Amarna period

Two daughters of Akhenaten; Neferneferuaten

Tasherit and Neferneferure, c. 1375–1358 BC

The Amarna period and the years before

the pharaoh Akhenaten moved the capital
there in the late Eighteenth Dynasty form
the most drastic interruption to the
continuity of style in the Old and New
Kingdoms. Amarna art is characterized by
a sense of movement and activity in
images, with figures having raised heads,
many figures overlapping and many
scenes full and crowded. As the new
religion was a monotheistic worship of the
sun, sacrifices and worship were
apparently conducted in open courtyards,
and sunk relief decoration was widely
used in these.

The human body is portrayed differently in

the Amarna style than Egyptian art on the
whole. For instance, many depictions of
Akhenaten's body give him distinctly
feminine qualities, such as large hips,
prominent breasts, and a larger stomach
and thighs. This is a divergence from the
earlier Egyptian art which shows men with
perfectly chiseled bodies. Faces are still
shown exclusively in profile.

Not many buildings from this period have

survived the ravages of later kings,
partially as they were constructed out of
standard size blocks, known as Talatat,
which were very easy to remove and reuse.
Temples in Amarna, following the trend,
did not follow traditional Egyptian customs
and were open, without ceilings, and had
no closing doors. In the generation after
Akhenaten's death, artists reverted to their
old styles. There were still traces of this
period's style in later art, but in most
respects Egyptian art, like Egyptian
religion, resumed its usual characteristics
after the death of Akhenaten as though the
period had never happened. Amarna itself
was abandoned and considerable trouble
was gone to in defacing monuments from
the reign, including dis-assembling
buildings and reusing the blocks with their
decoration facing inwards, as has recently
been discovered in one later building.

The Late Period

In 525 B.C., the political state of Egypt was
taken over by the Persians, almost a
century and a half into Egypt's Late Period.
By 404 B.C., the Persians were expelled
from Egypt starting a short period of
independence. These 60 years of Egyptian
rule consisted of an abundance of
usurpers and short reigns. Again the
Egyptians were plagued with Persians as
they conquered Egypt again until 332
B.C.with the arrival of Alexander the Great.
Sources state that were cheering when
Alexander entered the capital since he
drove out the immensely disliked Persians.
The Late Period is marked with the death
of Alexander the Great and the start fo the
Ptolemaic Dynasty.[15] Although this period
marks political turbulence an immense
change for Egypt, its art and culture
continued to flourish.

Nectanebo I temple on Philae.

Starting with the Thirtieth Dynasty, the fifth

dynasty in the Late Period, and extending
into the Ptolemaic era. These temples
ranged from the Delta to the island of
Philae.[15] While Egypt was outside
fluencies through trade and conquered by
foreign states, these temples were still in
the traditional Egyptian style with very little
Hellenistic influence.

Another relief originating from the Thirtieth

Dynasty was the rounded modeling of the
body and limbs.[15] This rounded modeling
refers to giving the subjects the sculpture
or painting a more fleshy or heavy effect.
For example, for women, their breast
would swell and overlap the upper arm in
painting. In more realistic portrayals, men
would be fat or have wrinkled.
Magical stela or cippus of Horus

Another piece of art that increasingly

common during was Horus stela.[15] Horus
stela originates from the late New
Kingdom and intermediate period but was
increasingly common during the fourth
century to the Ptolemaic era.These
statues would often depict a young Horus
holding snakes and standing on some kind
of dangerous beast. The depiction of
Horus comes from the Egyptian myth
where a young Horus us saved from a
scorpion bite resulting in him gaining
power over all dangerous animals. These
statues were used "to ward off attacks
from harmful creatures, and to cure snake
bites and scorpion stings."[15]

Ptolemaic period

Female's face, probably a goddess. Sculptor's model,

used for plaster casts. Possibly originally from a
statue. Limestone. Ptolemaic period. From Egypt.
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
Terracotta figurine of Isis/Aphrodite

Discoveries made since the end of the

19th century surrounding the (now
submerged) ancient Egyptian city of
Heracleum at Alexandria include a 4th-
century BC, unusually sensual, detailed
and feministic (as opposed to deified)
depiction of Isis, marking a combination of
Egyptian and Hellenistic forms beginning
around the time of Egypt's conquest by
Alexander the Great in 332-331 BC.
However this was untypical of Ptolemaic
sculpture, which generally avoided mixing
Egyptian styles with the general Hellenistic
style which was used in the court art of
the Ptolemaic Dynasty,[16] while temples in
the rest of the country continued using late
versions of traditional Egyptian
formulae.[17] Scholars have proposed an
"Alexandrian style" in Hellenistic sculpture,
but there is in fact little to connect it with
Alexandria.[18]
Marble was extensively used in court art,
although it all had to be imported, and use
was made of various marble-saving
techniques, such as making even heads up
from a number of pieces, and using stucco
for beards, the back of heads and hair.[19]
In contrast to the art of other Hellenistic
kingdoms, Ptolemaic royal portraits are
generalized and idealized, with little
concern for achieving an individual
portrait, though thanks to coins some
portrait sculpture can be identified as one
of the 15 King Ptolemys.[20] Many later
portraits have clearly had the face
reworked to show a later king.[21] One
Egyptian trait was to give much greater
prominence to the queens than other
successor dynasties to Alexander, with the
royal couple often shown as a pair. This
predated the 2nd century, a series of
queens did indeed exercise real power.[22]

In the 2nd century, Egyptian temple

sculptures did begin to reuse court models
in their faces, and sculptures of priest
often used a Hellenistic style to achieve
individually distinctive portrait heads.[23]
Many small statuettes were produced, with
Alexander, as founder of the dynasty, a
generalized "King Ptolemy", and a naked
Aphrodite among the most common
types. Pottery figurines included
grotesques and fashionable ladies of the
Tanagra figurine style.[24] Erotic groups
featured absurdly large phalluses. Some
fittings for wooden interiors include very
delicately patterned polychrome falcons in
faience.

Notes
1. Smith, Stevenson, and Simpson, 33
2. Smith, Stevenson, and Simpson, 12–13
and note 17
3. Smith, Stevenson, and Simpson, 21–24
4. Smith, Stevenson, and Simpson, 170–
178; 192–194
5. Smith, Stevenson, and Simpson, 102–
103; 133–134
6. The Art of Ancient Egipt. A resource for
educators (PDF). New York: The
Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 44.
Retrieved July 7, 2013.
7. Historical Atlas of Ancient Egypt, Bill
Manley (1996) p. 83
8. Grove
9. Smith, Stevenson, and Simpson, 2
10. Smith, Stevenson, and Simpson, 4–5;
208–209
11. Smith, Stevenson, and Simpson, 89–90
12. Gay., Robins, (1997). The art of ancient
Egypt . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press. ISBN 0674046609.
OCLC 36817299 .
13. Sweeney, Deborah (2004). "Forever
Young? The Representation of Older and
Ageing Women in Ancient Egyptian Art" .
Journal of the American Research Center
in Egypt. 41: 67–84.
doi:10.2307/20297188 .
14. Jenner, Jan (2008). Ancient
Civilizations. Toronto: Scholastic.
15. Gay., Robins, (1997). The art of ancient
Egypt . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press. ISBN 0674046609.
OCLC 36817299 .
16. Smith, 206, 208-209
17. Smith, 210
18. Smith, 205
19. Smith, 206
20. Smith, 207
21. Smith, 209
22. Smith, 208
23. Smith, 208-209, 210
24. Smith, 210

References
Smith, R.R.R., Hellenistic Sculpture, a
handbook, Thames & Hudson, 1991,
ISBN 0500202494
Smith, W. Stevenson, and Simpson,
William Kelly. The Art and Architecture
 of Ancient Egypt, 3rd edn. 1998, Yale
University Press (Penguin/Yale History
of Art), ISBN 0300077475

Further reading
Hill, Marsha (2007). Gifts for the gods:
images from Egyptian temples . New York:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
ISBN 9781588392312.

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related
to Ancient Egyptian art.

Ancient Egyptian Art – Aldokkan

 Senusret Collection : A well-annotated
introduction to the arts of Egypt

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