Art History

History

The first great civilizations emerged about 3000 B.C. Egypt is one of the oldest.

Other people settled in places like Mesopotamia, China and India.

Location

Ancient Egyptians built their civilizations along the banks of the Nile River.

The Nile floods multiple times a year, making the soil fertile.

It also serves as a means of transportation.

Writing

Egyptian picture writing is called hieroglyphics.

Symbols were used instead of words to relay a message.

The goddess Isis represented motherhood

Painting

A stele is a painted or carved upright stone or wood slab used as a monument.

Egyptians believed that painting was a reflection of the real person in the afterlife.

Artists followed a strict set of rules, called a canon, that showed them how to properly paint a person. If a person wasn’t painted with all his limbs showing, he wouldn’t have them when his ka returned from the afterlife!

Cranes represented immortality, or the god Ra.

Pharaohs

The leaders of Ancient Egypt were called Pharaohs, which means “living god.”

After a pharaoh died, he was buried and thought to go directly to the afterlife, where he became a true god.

Death & Afterlife

When an Egyptian died, his/her body was mummified because they believed that a person’s ka (spirit) would need the body in the afterlife.

Architecture

The purpose of Egyptian architecture is a reflection of their religious beliefs.

Pyramids are some of the oldest stone buildings in the world.

They were built using thousands of people over decades.

Pyramids were prone to being robbed, so the pharaohs started building hidden tombs in Thebes.

The Great Pyramids at Giza are tombs for the

pharaohs Kaufre, Khufu and Menkaure.

Architecture

Pharaohs would bury jewels, their family and close servants in their tombs with them so they would have them in the afterlife.

Ramses II built a grand temple to honor his favorite gods and to demonstrate his power.

Four colossal statues of Ramses II are on the

outside of his temple in Abu Simbel. The figure in

the middle is Ra, the Sun God.

More Temples

Temple of Queen Nefertari Temple at Luxor was built on by at least four

different rulers and was dedicated to several

gods.

Religion

Ancient Egyptian religion wasn’t separate from their everyday lives.

The common focus of religion was to bridge the connection between the mortal world and the afterlife.

Each deity, or god/goddess, has a purpose that reflects the Egyptians understanding of the world. Obsidian sculpture of Anubis, God of Death

Sculpture

Along with mummification, another way to preserve an Egyptian’s image was to make a sculpture.

This was done just in case something happened to his actual body, like a substitute.

Hatshepsut was one of the few female

rulers of Ancient Egypt. She is often

depicted with a beard.