Egyptian Art

Chapter 3

Egypt

• 2500 BCE

• What is backbone of Egypt?

• Defined cultures

• Discovery in 18th century ?

• Napoleon

• Rosetta Stone

Hierakonpolis – Egypt – Predynastic – 3500 BCE – Paint and Plaster

1st Dynasty – Narmer Palette

• Creation of Kingdoms of Two Great Lands• Upper and lower Egypt• Goddess Hathor• Horizontal bands• Crown = upper Egypt• Horus- God Protector• Intertwined animals = unification?

Palette of Narmer – Is the beginning of Egyptian laws of representation

• Commemorative rather than funerary

Mastaba -

• Insure happiness in the afterlife

• Rectangular

• Brick with slope

• Shaft connected this chamber w/ outside providing a place for the Ka to leave and come back into the Mastaba.

• What was inside of the Mastaba?

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What do the Egyptians do to prepare tomb for the afterlife?

• Embalming the body to keep it intact for as long as possible

• Organs removed• Canopic Jars• 40 days for salt to dehydrate the body• Amulets and scarabs with the corpse• Spells• Happiness in the afterlife = Goal of the tomb• Eye of Horus

Stepped Pyramid

• Imhotep – Royal builder for King Djoser 2630

• High Priestess • Pyramid had

chambers underground and galleries

• North side placement facing Northern Stars

Columnar Entrance to the Mortuary area of Djoser – 2630-2611BCE

• Resemble Greek Columns

• Emerged into a courtyard

• Engaged columns not freestanding

Mortuary Precinct of Djoser – 2630 BCE –courtyards, temples, courts

The Old Kingdom –Gizeh, Egypt

Great Pyramids 2490 BCE Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure

• Enormous cost • New style – due to a new

type of religion• Symbols of the sun• Kings in the Pyramids

were -Reborn in the afterlife

• Limestone coating• 450 FT• East side placement –

with the rising sun• Sun rays ramp to the sun

Valley of the Kings

Khafre, - 2520BCE, Diorite,wears a kilt, sitting upright, God Horus, False beard, royal linen headdress, and cobra of kingship. Intertwined lotus

and papyrus plants

• Menkaure and the Queen, 2490BCE

• Left leg advancement• Martial Status, How?

Seated Scribe- from his Mastaba – 2450BCE -Limestone

• Egyptian Realism• Position of Honor• Some statues were

painted, not all.• What is a scribe?• Signs of age?

Ka –Aper – from his Mastaba 2450 BCE –WoodAlmost looks alive, on a ground, realism, Saggy stomach

Ti watching a hippopotamus hunt, relief in Mastaba of Ti – 2450BCE

• For adornment of a tomb

• Stems• Egyptian canon of

proportions- fixed number of squares

The Middle Kingdom

• 2150 Pharaoh’s power was challenged, the Pharaoh of Upper Egypt Mentuhotep II united Egypt again = Middle Kingdom

• What is so different about this face?

• ( Fragmentary head of Senusret III, 1860BCE)

• Senusret’s tomb was mud brick

Rock cut tombs- Beni Hasan – Egypt -1950BCE

Rock cut tombs replaced Mastabas - columned hallways, like Greek columns

Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut @ Deir el-Bahri - Egypt- 1473BCE

• Ramps, colonnades, in natural setting• Gardens and rare plants would be placed around the tomb area• Inside art of her coronation and birth

Hatshesput with offering Jars – 1473BCE – Red Granite

around 200 sculpture were made of Hatshesput, seen often as a sphinxPortrayed as a male

Ramses

• Great warrior Pharaoh

• Lived longer than any Pharaoh

• Wanted to restore empire

• 4 collosal statues stand in front of his Temple façade

• 8 times as large as Hatshesput’s statues

• Lack detail

Temple of Ramses II -1290 – 1124 BCE

Hypostyle Hall- @Karnak, Egypt – 1290-1224 BCE

• New Kingdom temples often had Hypostyle halls

Senmut with Princess Nefrua 1470BCE

• Ka may find home in block sculptures

• Hatshepsuts (Hat-shep-sutt) chancellor holds the baby girl Princess Nefrua ( Neff-err-roo-ray)

Fowling Scene form the tomb of Nebamun- 1400-BCE

• Enjoying his afterlife• Hieroglyphics• Birds• Wild cat• Wife and daughter are with

him hunting• Fresco secco ( dry fresco)

used to create wall painting. (let plaster dry before painting on it)

Akhenaton and the Amarna Period

• Nerbamun laid to rest in his tomb• Pharaoh Akhenaton (1353bce) rises as

Pharoah• He abandoned worshipping Egyptian

Gods for just one God. • Emptied temples of gods• Worshipped in art as a sun disk or a

animal• Religious Revolution

Akhenaton – Karnak – Egypt 1353 BCE

• Profound changes in art happened during his rule

• Went against established style?

Queen Nefertiti- 1353, Limestone

Found in Thutmose’s workshop, unfinished

Queen Tiye – 1353BCe- wood with gold and silver

• Lines in her face• Influential • Heavy set eyes, lips painted

red• headband

Akhenaton, Nefertiti and 3 daughters – 1353BCE

• Life giving rays of the god Aton

• Family picture

King Tut 1333-1323

• Most likely Akhenatons son by a minor wife

• 3 coffins• Beaten gold, inlaid with

stones, lapis lazuli, turquoise

• Portrait Mask• Egyptian power and pride

Book of Dead in Hu-Nefer’s Tomb – 1290BCE

• Cult of Osiris – spells and prayers, 70 ft. of spells, prayers, texts