04 the art of mesopotamia and egypt

The Art of Mesopotamia

and Egypt

In Art: A Brief History, 2nd ed. (2004) by

Marilyn Stokstad

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Mesopotamia

• Tigris and Euphrates

• Agriculture: basis of

wealth

• Kingship: government

• Religion: central role in

government and daily life

• Few natural defenses

• Repeated invasions and

internal conflicts

Egypt

• Nile

• Agricultures: basis of

wealth

• Kingship: government

• Religion: central role in

government and daily life

• Mountains and deserts

• Remained a unified state

for some 3,000 years

Introduction

Mesopotamia

• Pictographs – simple

pictures that represent a

thing or concept

• Phonograms –

representations of the

sounds of syllables

• Cuneiform – Latin

“wedge-shaped;” named

after the shape of the

marks made by the stylus

Egypt

• Hieroglyphs – earliest

Egyptian writing system

which employed symbols

• Hieratic writing –

shorthand version of

hieroglyphs

• Demotic writing – 18th C;

from demos, “the people;”

less formal and easy to

master

Cuneiform Symbols evolved from pictures into phonograms thus

becoming a true writing system.

Hieroglyphs Used in combinations, such phonogramic hieroglyphs were

especially useful in rendering foreign names.

MESOPOTAMIA

Mesopotamia

• Means “between the rivers”

• Developed around 3500 BCE into

independently governed city-states

• Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians,

Assyrians

Mesopotamia: Sumerians

• Invented the wagon wheel and the plow

• First to cast objects in copper and bronze

• Invented a system of writing, cuneiform,

between 3300 and 3000 BCE

• Ziggurat – stepped pyramidal structures

with a temple or shrine on top

Anu Ziggurat and White Temple The Anu Ziggurat, Uruk (modern Warka, Iraq). c. 3100 BC.

This was built up in stages over centuries, rising to a height

of about 40 feet. (reconstruction drawing)

Cone Mosaics A decoration invented at Uruk. This decorates the courtyards

and interior walls of the Inanna and the Anu Compounds.

Carved Vase From Uruk. c. 3500-3000 BCE. Alabaster, height 91

cm. Iraq Museum, Baghdad. Design shows the

ritual marriage between the goddess and a human.

Nanna Ziggurat Located in Ur (modern Muqaiyir, Iraq), c. 2100-2050 BCE. A

mud-brick ziggurat dedicated to the moon god Nanna.

Mesopotamia: Sumerians

• Sculpture was associated with religion

• Large statues were commonly placed in

temples as objects of devotion

• Votive figures – small statues that

individual worshippers identified as

portraits of themselves

Votive Statues From the Square Temple Eshunna (modern Tell Amar, Iraq),

c. 2900-2600 BCE. Limestone alabaster, and gypsum, height

of largest figure approx. 76.3 cm. The Oriental Institute of the

University of Chicago; Iraq Museum, Baghdad.

From the tomb of Queen Pu-abi, Ur (modern

Muqaiyar, Iraq), c. 2680 BCE. Wood with gold,

lapis lazuli, and shell, reassembled in modern

wood support. University Museum, University

of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Bull Lyre

Mythological Figures Detail of the sound box of the bull lyre from the tomb

of Queen Pu-abi, Ur (modern Muqaiyir, Iraq), c.

2680 BCE. Wood with shell inlay, 31.1x11cm.

University Museum, University of Pennsylvania,

Philadelphia.

The top and the bottom registers – bands – seem to

illustrate scenes that are found in the epic of

Gilgamesh, a 3,000-line Sumerian epic poem.

Mesopotamia: Sumerians

• Developed flat stamps and more elaborate

cylinder-form seals for securing and

identifying documents and signaling

property ownership

• Cylinder seals – usually less than 2

inches high; made of hard and/or semi-

precious stones with designs incised into

the surface

Cylinder Seal From Sumer and its impression, c. 2500 BCE. Marble, height

approx. 4.5 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

(Gift of Walter Hauser, 1955)

Mesopotamia: Akkadians

• Warring invaders who settled the area

north of Uruk (near modern Baghdad)

• Spoke a Semitic language

• Sargon I – ruled c. 2332-2279 BCE;

powerful military and political figure;

conquered Sumerian cities

• Akkadian empire fell around 2180 BCE to

the Guti

Stela of Naramsin c. 2254-2218 BCE. Limestone, height 1.98m.

Musée du Louvre, Paris. Commemorates a

military victory of Naramsin, Sargon’s grandson

and successor.

Stela means upright stone slab.

Votive Statue of Gudea From Lagash (modern Telloh, Iraq), c. 2120

BCE. Diorite, height 73.7cm. Musée du Louvre,

Paris.

The cuneiform inscription on the statue relates

that Gudea dedicated himself, the sculpture, and

the temple in which the sculpture resided to the

goddess Geshtinanna, the divine poet and

interpreter of dreams.

Mesopotamia: Babylonians

• Amorites, a Semitic-speaking people from

the Arabian Desert, reunited Sumer under

Hammurabi (ruled 1729-1750 BCE)

• Babylon – capital city

• Written legal code that recorded laws and

penalties

Stela of Hammurabi From Susa (modern Shush, Iran), c. 1792-1750

BCE. Basalt, height of stela approx. 2.13m, height

of relief 71.1cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

This contains the written legal code. Most of the

three hundred entries deal with commercial and

property matters. Only sixty-eight relate to domestic

problems, and a mere twenty deal with physical

assault. Punishments depended on the gender and

social standing of the offender.

Stela of

Hammurabi In the introductory section of

the stela’s long cuneiform

inscription, Hammurabi

declared that with this code of

law he intended “to cause

justice to prevail in the land

and to destroy the wicked and

the evil, that the strong might

not oppress the weak nor the

weak the strong.”

Mesopotamia: Assyrians

• Rose to dominance in 1400 BCE and

controlled most of Mesopotamia by the

end of the 9th century BCE

• Early 7th century BCE: extended their

influence as far west as Egypt

• Adopted the ziggurat and preserved the

Sumerian texts

• Built fortified cities and vast palaces

Human-Headed Winged

Lion (Lamassu) From the palace of Assurnasirpal II, Nimrud.

883-859 BCE. Limestone, height 3.11m.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

(Gift of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 1932)

Assurbanipal and His Queen in the

Garden From the palace at Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik, Iraq), c. 647

BCE. Alabaster, height approx. 53.3cm. The British

Museum, London.

Mesopotamia: Assyrians

• Assurbanipal – powerful Assyrian king

ruled 669-c. 627 BCE)

• After his reign, the empire collapsed by

600 BCE

• Mesopotamia was absorbed by the

Persian Empire under Cyrus II (ruled 559-

530 BCE)

EGYPT

Egypt

• Fertile valley and delta of the Nile

• Predynastic period – 4500-3300 BCE;

Egypt was unified under a succession of

powerful families or dynasties

• Manetho – Egyptian priest and historian;

drew up a list of rulers in the third century

BCE

Early Dynastic & Old Kingdom

• Egypt became a consolidated state along

the banks of the Nile River

• Evolved along into Upper Egypt (south)

and Lower Egypt (north)

• King-god Menes – merged the lands into

a single kingdom (King Narmer, Dynasty

1, ruled c. 3150-3125 BCE)

Palette of Narmer From Hierakonpolis Dynasty 1, c. 3150-3125 BCE. Slate,

height 63.5cm. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. This may have

been a votive offering.

Early Dynastic & Old kingdom

• Conventions of Egyptian Painting and

relief sculpture (dignitaries):

(1) heads are shown in profile to best

capture the subject’s identifying feature

(2) eyes are rendered in frontal view

(3) shoulders are represented frontally

(4) hips, legs and feet are drawn in profile

• Persons of lesser social rank are

represented more naturalistically

Early Dynastic & Old Kingdom

• Central to ancient Egyptian belief was the

idea that every human being had a life

force – the ka or spirit. The ka lived on

after the death of the body, forever

engaged in the activities it had enjoyed

during his earthly existence.

• Ka statues, and elaborate funerary rites

and tombs filled with supplies and

furnishings

Early Dynastic & Old Kingdom

• Mastaba – most common type of tomb

structure; a flat-topped, one-story building

with slanted walls erected above an

underground burial chamber

• Necropolis – a city of the dead; at the

edge of the desert on the west bank of the

Nile

Stepped Pyramid of Djoser Saqqara, Limestone, height 62m. This is the earliest truly

monumental architecture in Egypt.

Plan of Djoser’s Funerary Complex Saqqara. Dynasty 3, c. 2681-2662 BCE. The designer of the

complex, a man called Imhotep, laid out Djoser’s tomb as a stepped

pyramid consisting of six mastabalike elements placed on top of each

other, and originally covered with a limestone facing, or veneer.

Early Dynastic & Old Kingdom

• Characteristics of 3D-sculptures:

(1) lifelike figures

(2) rigidly frontal, simple conceptions

(3) rectilinear and block-like

(4) figures mostly stands in a typical

Egyptian balanced pose with one foot in front of

the other, arms straight on the side, fist clenched

Khafre From Giza. Dynasty 4, c. 2570-2544 BCE.

Diorite, height 1.68m. Egyptian Museum,

Cairo.

An over-lifesize statue of the Old Kingdom,

the Dynasty 4 King Khafre (ruled c. 2570-

2544 BCE), represents the ruler enthroned

and protected by the falcon-god Horus.

Menkaure and His Wife,

Queen Khamerernebty From Giza. Dynasty 4, c. 2515 BCE.

Graywacke with traces of red and black

paint, height 142.3cm. Museum of Fine Arts,

Boston (Harvard University-MFA Expedition)

The Red Pyramid Dahshur, height 104m. This is the first true pyramid, and

was built by Pharaoh Sneferu. This is believed to be the final

resting place of “Sneferu the Great Pyramid Builder.”

Great Pyramids Giza. Dynasty 4, c. 2601-2515 BCE. Erected by Menkaure,

Khafre (Chephren) and Khufu (Cheops). Granite and

limestone, height of pyramid of Khufu 137m.

Plan of

the

Funerary

Complex

at Giza

Ti Watching a

Hippopotamus Hunt Tomb of Ti, Saqqara. Dynasty 5, c.

2510-2460 BCE. Painted limestone

relief, height approx. 114.3cm.

The relief forms part of the

decoration of a mastaba tomb

discovered by the French

archeologist Auguste Mariette in

1865.

The hunt depicted on the relief had

symbolic value.

The Middle Kingdom

• Political authority became less centralized

• The grid pattern became the first rational

city plan

• Subdivided into lots for houses which

indicates three distinct economic and

social levels within the population:

(1) governmental and ceremonial center

(2) the quarter with large dwellings

(3) large district of smaller mud-brick homes

The Middle Kingdom

• During Dynasties 11 and 12, wealthy

members of the nobility and high-level

officials commissioned labor-intensive

rock-cut tombs that proclaimed their status

• Artists are admired and respected

• The patron’s and the artist’s desire for

clarity permeates Egyptian art

Harvest Scene Tempera facsimile by Nina de Garis Davies of a wall painting in the

tomb of Khnumhotep, Beni Hasan. Dynasty 12, c. 1928-1895 BCE.

The farm workers are shown with their shoulders in profile, not in the

unnatural pose prescribed for royalty.

Pectoral with the name of Senwosret II From el-Lahun. Dynasty 12, c. 1895-1878 BCE. Detail of a

necklace. Gold and semi-precious stones, length 8.3cm. The

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (Purchase, Rogers Fund

and Henry Walters Gift, 1916.

The New Kingdom

• Egypt prospered both politically and

economically

• Tuthmose III – the most dynamic king of

Dynasty 18; ruled 1479-1425 BCE;

extended Egypt’s influence along the

eastern Mediterranean coast; first ruler to

refer to himself as pharaoh (“great

house”)

• Extensive building programs along the Nile

Funerary Temple of Hatshepsut Deir el-Bahri. Dynasty 18, c. 1478-1458 BCE. At the far left

are the ramp and base of the funerary temple of Mentuhotep

I. Dynasty 11, c. 2009-1997 BCE.

Plan of the funerary temple of Hatshepsut Deir el-Bahri. Hatshepsut’s temple was constructed on three levels,

which were connected by ramps and adorned with rows of columns,

or colonnades. The temple’s innermost sanctuary was cut deep into

the cliff in the manner of Middle Kingdom rock-cut tombs.

Great Temple of Amun Karnak Dynasty 19, c. 1294-1212 BCE. Access to the heart of the

temple, a sanctuary containing the statue of Amun, was

through a series of pylons and courtyards.

Plan of the Great

Temple of Amun

Karnak New Kingdom

Hypostyle hall Great Temple of Amun Karnak. Hypostyle hall is a vast

column-filled space. This is the principal structure of the

temple.

Pylon of

Ramesses II Temple of Amun, Mut and

Khonsu, Luxor. Dynasty 19,

c. 1279-1212 BCE.

Pylon of Ramesses II Two colossal statues of Ramesses and a pair of obelisks

stood in front of his pylon.

Queen

Nefertari

Making an

Offering to

Isis

Wall painting in the tomb of Nefertari, Valley of Queens near Deir el-Bahri.

Dynasty 19, c. 1279-1212 BCE. (J. Paul Getty Trust, 1991)

The New Kingdom

• Amenhotep IV – Dynasty 18, 1352-c.

1348 BCE; founded a new religion

demanding a belief in a single god, the

life-giving sun disk Aten; changed his

name to Akhenaten (“one who is effective

on behalf of Aten”)

Akhenaten and His Family From Akhetaten (modern Tell el-Amarna). Dynasty 18, 1348-

1336/5 BCE. Painted limestone relief, 31.1x38.7cm.

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz,

Ägyptisches Museum.

Queen Tiy From Kom Mendinet Ghurab

(near el-Lahun). Dynasty 18,

c. 1390-1352 BCE. Boxwood,

ebony, glass, gold, lapis lazuli,

cloth, clay, and wax. Height

9.4cm. Staatliche Museen zu

Berlin, Preussischer

Kulturbesitz, Ägyptisches

Museum.

“The Woman who Knows”

Nefertiti From Akhetaten (modern

Tell el-Amarna) dynasty

18, c. 1348-1336/5 BCE.

Limestone, height 51cm.

Staatliche Museen zu

Berlin, Preussischer

Kulturbesitz, Ägyptisches

Museum.

She is sometimes called

“The lady of the two lands,”

“Fair of Face,” “Mistress of

Happiness,” and “Endowed

with Favors.”

The New Kingdom

• Tutankhaten – ruled 1336/35-1327 BCE;

returned to all traditional religious beliefs;

changed his name to Tutankhamun

(“Living Image of Amun”)

• He died at a young age and was buried in

the Valley of the Kings near Thebes. His

tomb was discovered in 1922 containing

amazing treasures.

Inner coffin of Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus From the tomb of Tutankhamun, Valley of the Kings. Dynasty 18,

1336/5-1327 BCE. Gold inlaid with glass and semiprecious stones,

height 1.85m. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

In November 1922, English archeologist Howard Carter discovered the

entrance to the tomb of King Tutankhamun.

Funerary mask of

Tutankhamun This is as it appears today. Gold inlaid

with glass and semiprecious stones,

height 54cm. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

In this image, Egyptian artists

emphasized clarity of line in color,

simplified forms, and the reduction of

nature to elemental geometric shapes,

thus establishing an unsurpassed

standard of technical and aesthetic

excellence.

The New Kingdom

• Egyptian funerary practices revolved

around Osiris, his resurrection, and a

belief in the continuity of life after death by

Egyptians of all ranks.

• These beliefs gave rise to additional

funerary practices popular among non-

royal classes. Family members

commissioned papyrus scrolls containing

magical texts or spells to help the dead.

Judgment before Osiris Illustration from a Book of the Dead. Dynasty 19, c. 1285

BCE. Painted papyrus, height 39.8cm. The British Museum,

London.

The Late Period

• C. 747-332 BCE

• Saw the country and its arts in the hands

and service of foreigners

• Piye – Nubian leader from the Kingdom of

Kush conquered Egypt and established

capitals at Memphis and Thebes

• The Nubians adopted Egyptian religious

practices and architectural forms.

Sphinx of Taharqo From Temple T, Kawa, Nubia. Dynasty 25, c. 690-

664 BCE. Height 74.7 cm. The British Museum,

London.

The Late Period

• The Nubians were followed by Assyrians,

Persians, and Macedonians until the

Ptolemies regained control of Egypt after

the death of Alexander the Great in 323

BCE.

• In 30 BCE the last Egyptian ruler,

Cleopatra VII, dies a suicide and the

Romans added Egypt to their empire.

LRMC/2013

The Middle Kingdom

Inscription on the tombstone of a Middle

Kingdom Sculptor:

“I am an artist who excels in my art, a man

above the common herd in knowledge. I know

the proper attitude for a statue [of a man]; I know

how a woman holds herself, [and how] a

spearman lifts his arm…. There is no man

famous for this knowledge other than myself and

my eldest son”

(cited in Montet, page 159)

Mummification

• Remove brain

• Empty body of internal organs

• Soak body and internal organs in “vat of

natron” for more than one month

• Retrieve body → dry → dye

• Body cavity packed with clean linen

• Wrap major organs separately

• Wrap body; limb first