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Style: Predynastic
Subject: People, Boats, and animals, detail of a watercolor copy of a wall painting from Tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis, Egypt, Predynastic, ca. 3500-3200 BCE. Paint on plaster, entire painting approx. 16’ 3” long. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
Significance:
- Heraldic grouping of two animals surrounding one human figure is very similar to images in Mesopotamian art, indicating influences had passed between the cultures (Egypt wasn’t isolated).
- No gorund line, randomly placed figures is reminiscent of Neolithic paintings in catal hoyuk.
- Scene taking place on a river with boats, indicating the nile’s importance to the Egyptian people.
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Style: Predynastic
Subject: Palette of King Narmer, from Hierakonpolis, Egypt, Predynastic, ca. 3000-2920 BCE. Slate, approx. 2’1” high. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
Significance:
-Commemorates the unification of upper and lower Egypt (though we now know this happened over a century or so.
-The first labeled artwork (contains the hieroglyphs for Narmer’s name in a box)
-Lots of symbols, including: bowling pin shaped crown of upper Egypt, papyrus plant of lower Egypt, victory pose, red crown of lower Egypt, etc.
-stylization of the dead bodies and hierarchy of scale and registers used.
-Presentation of the pharaoh as a supreme, godlike ruler, always displayed as isolated from and larger than other men, and displayed in the palette as solely responsible for the victory.
-establishes most aspects of Egyptian canon which will be used for the next several millennia in a single artwork. |
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Style: Predynastic
Subject: Imhotep, Stepped Pyramid and mortuary precinct of DJoser, Saqqara, Egypt, Dynasty III, ca. 2630-2611 BCE.
Significance:
-the architect who designed it is the first known name of an Artist recorded in history.
-one of the oldest stone structures in Egypt, and the largest in the world in it’s time. (first truly grandiose royal tomb).
-The tomb and pyramid are surrounded by an monumental white limestone wall- in contrast to Sumerian burial sites which did not have restrictions on entrance.
-Appearance of engaged columns. They are ridged, to resemble bundles of reeds used in temporary structures built for festivals (pharaohs are always partying in the afterlife.) and have papyrus shaped capitals. |
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Subject: Great Pyramids, Gizeh, Egypt, Dynasty IV. Pyramids of Menkaure, ca. 2490-2472 BCE; Khafre, ca. 2520-2494 BCE; Khufu, ca. 2551-2528 BCE.
Style: Old Kingdom
Significance:
-pyramids are symbols of the sun, whose rays the pharaoh used to ascend to the heavens.
-the four sides oriented towards the four cardinal directions, with temples on the east sides, facing the rising sun. |
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Subject: Great Sphinx, Gizeh, Egypt, Dynasty IV, ca. 2520-2494 BCE. Sandstone, approx. 65’ high.
Style: Old Kingdom
Significance:
-bottom half is carved from existing rock, head carved from separate rock that was brought there.
-largest statue in the near east
-composite figure of lion and human indicates the immense strength of a lion (as the king of beasts) and the intelligence and power of human beings. |
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Subject: Khafre, from Gizeh, Egypt, Dynasty IV, ca. 2520-2494 BCE. Diorite, approx. 5’ 6” high. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
Style: Old Kingdom
Significance:
-cubic (carved from a block of stone, and the position of the figure indicates that shape, leaving the figure looking fairly stiff.
-Diorite displays the power of the pharaoh, being an extremely difficult stone to carve, so expensive to commission.
-Displays idealistic convention used for pharaohs. |
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Subject: Menkaure and Khamerernebty, from Gizeh, Egypt, Dynasty IV, ca. 2490-2472 BCE. Graywacke, approx 4’ 6.5” high. Museum of fine arts, Boston.
Style: Old Kingdom
Significance:
-Marriage pose
-hard stone indicates power
-left foot forward convention utilized
-was once painted
-idealized features |
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Subject: Seated Scribe (Kay?), from his Mastaba at Saqqara Egypt, Dynasty V, ca. 2450-2350 BCE. Painted Limestone, approx 1’ 9” high. Louvre, Paris.
Style: Old Kingdom
Significance:
-Not idealized because he’s not a pharaoh- sharply intelligent and alert personality is fully displayed. Indicates that while stylization and idealization might have been favored for pharaoh’s imagery, Egyptian artists were capable of very realistic and genius human portrayal.
-painted limestone- easier to carve stone than pharaoh’s statues=less power and wealth
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Subject: Ka-Aper from his mastaba at Saqqara, Egypt, Dynasty V, ca. 2450-2350 BCE. Wood, approx. 3’7” high. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
Style: Old Kingdom
Significance:
-made of wood, significant because wood rarely survives thousands of years.
-obesity is a symbol of status of those NOT divine, because it shows a comfort of lifestyle, don’t’ need to do hard labour and lots of food. |
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Subject: Ti watching a hippopotamus hunt, relief in the mastaba of Ti, Saqqara, Egypt, Dynasty V, ca. 2450-2350 BCE. Painted limestone, hunting scene approx 4’ high.
Style: Old Kingdom
Significance:
-made so that Ti could hunt hippos in the afterlife.
-success in hunt was also a metaphor for triumph of good over evil.
- ti’s immobility and position delineate him as being separate from the hunt, he isn’t participating in it, rather he’s depicted in a timeless manner, but the hunts success is conferred onto him. |
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Subject: Fragmentary Head of Senusret III, Dynasty XII, ca. 1860 BCE. Red quartzite, approx. 6.5” tall. Metropolitan museum of art, New York.
Style: Middle Kingdom
Significance:
-significant because it reflected the brooding and unrest of the times in the expression on the pharaoh’s face. ONLYT departs from idealism in the facial features, his body was always still idealistically portrayed. |
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Subject: Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1473-1458 BCE.
Style: New Kingdom
Significance:
-it’s a temple, not a tomb, because her body isn’t buried there. (Though it may have been intended to initially, it never was). She is buried in her nurses tomb away from here, unmarked.
-use of colonnade
-visually suited to it’s natural setting
-was once a garden filled with the plants that Hatshepsut brought from punt and other foreign lands. |
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Subject: Hatshepsut with offering jars, form the upper court of her mortuary temple, Deir el-Bahri, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1473-1458 BCE. Red granite, approx. 8’ 6” high. Metropolitan museum of art, New York.
Style: New Kingdom
Significance:
-cubic
-Shows her piety- offering to the gods
-Still idealized
-hatshepsut displayed as a man, not because she wanted herself to be seen as such, but because a pharaoh being displayed in this way was one of the conventions of Egyptian art.
-smashed up and then put back together-historical reference |
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Subject: Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel, Egypt, Dynasty XIX, ca. 1290-1224 BCE. Sandstone, colossi approx 65’ high.
Style: New Kingdom
Significance:
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-four colossal statues of ramasis, my wasn’t he narcissistic?
-hierarchy of scale, he’s really huge four times, and his wives are pretty tny comparatively.
-Statues in the interior depict him as all sorts of major gods. (these are pillars that are shaped like men, also called atlantids).
-detail up close is sacrificed by huge size.
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Subject: Hypostyle Hall, temple of Amen-re, Karnak, Egypt, Dynasty XIX, ca. 1290-1224 BCE.
Style: New Kingdom
Significance:
-architectural innovations of hypostyle halls and clerestory lighting (raised columns in center admit natural light).
-Columns in the hall used to bear images and messages. |
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Subject: Temple of Horus, Edfu, Egypt, ca. 237-47 BCE.
Style: Ptolemaic
Significance:
-pylon temple built after Alexander in Egypt, indicative of the continuation of the canon of egyptian art and its unchanging aspects.
-pylon temples for worshipping gods NOT PHARAOHS!! This is distinctive of pylon temples and new |
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Subject: Senmut with Princess Nefrua, from Thebes, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1470-1460 BCE. Granite, approx 3’ ½” high.
Style: New Kingdom
Significance:
-takes cubic to a whole new level
-allows for writing on the statue.
-faces remain idealized for royalty |
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Subject: Musicians and Dancers, detail of a fresco from the tomb of Nebamun, Thebes, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1400-1350 BCE. Fragment approx. 1’X2’ 3”.
Style: New Kingdom
Significance:
-less strict use of twisted perspective, especially in the dancers. More movement displayed, uncharacteristic of traditional Egyptian canon.
-Frontal view |
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Subject: Akhenaton, from the temple of Aton, Karnak, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1353-1335 BCE. Sandstone, approx. 13’ high. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
Style: Amarna
Significance:
-characteristic of the changes which occurred in art during the Amarna period |
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Subject: Thutmose, Nefertiti, from Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1353-1335 CBE. Painted Limestone, approx. I’8” high.
Style: Amarna
Significance:
-Nefertiti was a very powerful figure during the reign, more so than other Egyptian queens might have been. (She is often depicted at the same size as her husband and wearing pharaoh’s garb)
-Shows change in standards of sculpture, especially elongated neck. A little more realism, though could be simply a different idealism.
-unfinished, made in a cheap stone, would have been a rough draft for a more finished, expensive piece. |
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Subject: Tiye, from Gurob, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1353-1335 BCE. Wood, with gold, silver, alabaster, and lapis lazuli.
Style: Amarna
Significance:
-afro like hair is actually a substance used to cover up pre-Amarna religious iconography in her headdress.
-Use of dark wood may have been an indicator of her being a sub-saharan African (which she is likely to have been) though some scholars debate the choice of wood having any implications.
-Her elderly portrayal is consistent with the relaxation of canon in the Amarna period. |
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Subject: Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and three daughters from Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1353-1335 BCE. Limestone, approx 12” high.
Style: Amarna
Significance:
-Shows the family together, “moment in time” breaking away from traditional canon.
-Sun disk shown in top center
-Daughters are full grown but small and naked, hierarchy of scale.
-Combination of writing and imagery |
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Subject: Death mask of Tutankhamen, from the innermost coffin in his tomb at thebes, Egypt, dynasty XVIII, ca. 1323 BCE. Gold with inlay of semiprecious stones.
Style: New Kingdom (Post Amarna)
Significance:
-while the idealization of the new kingdom returns, some aspects of Amarna (fuller lips, elongated eyes, prominent ears- are still visible. Still different from other pharaoic imagery from old kingdom. Tut’s images are also notably slightly younger looking than the ideal age. Round face etc.
-tut’s really just important because his grave wasn’t robbed. We see gold and precious stones in his stuff, where most of what was left in other pharaoh’s tombs was either of little monetary value, or too heavy to steal. (or both) |
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Subject: Last Judgement of Hu-Nefer, form his tomb at Thebes, Egypt, dynasty XIX, ca. 1290-1280 BCE. Painted papyrus scroll approx I’ 6” high.
Style: New Kingdom
Significance:
-writing and imagery combined
-the use of a paper-like substance to record things
-the fact that it’s paper and it survived is significant.
-early Egyptian mythology doesn’t incorporate any kind of judgment of the dead, whereas this scroll indicates that in later dynasties such a judging was integrated into religion. |
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Subject: Painted Chest, from the tomb of Tutankhamen, Thebes, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1333-1323 BCE. Wood.
Style: New Kingdom (Post Amarna)
Significance:
-Order v. chaos=good v. evil (order and chaos symbolized in use of registers and lack thereof on each side of the image.
-hierarchy of scale showing tut larger
-propaganda, tut never fought battles or would have been a successful hunter because he was sickly and died fairly young. (it was part of being a pharaoh that you were displayed as a conqueror in art.)
-fluid curvilinear forms reminiscent of Amarna despite traditional conventions utilized. |
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| Where the organs of a mummified egyptian would be kept. |
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| slightly trapezoidal shapes- used to create the facades of Pylon temples to gods, not pharaohs. |
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| THe traditional way of creating art. the rules or conventions of a particular culture's artmaking. |
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| A statue of a dead person put in their tomb to house their soul in case their body is taken or destroyed. |
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| A "city of the dead" where people are buried and all sorts of tombs and temples are built for the dead. It's where the dead live in their afterlife. |
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| a column which is not freestanding, but rather supported by wall behind it. |
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| A pyramidal shaped mound that was said to have risen from the mud during the creation of the world. |
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| a temple built for a pharaoh to worship their patron gods during their lifetime, and then to become a temple to that pharaoh for others to use after their death. |
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| Polished and perfectly cut limestone that looks smooth, rather than rough (covers the main structural rock) |
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| A composite figure which is half lion half man, and is a symbol of the pharaoh's intelligence and also strength |
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| Visibly cut from a block of stone. Keeps the shape of the block somewhat. |
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| An advancement of middle kingdom art which was an attempt to discourage robbers from looting the graves of pharaohs. TOmbs were cut into the sides of mountains and the like. |
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| A column shaped like a person, caryatids being female and atlantids being male. |
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| a natural lighting style created in the new kingdom, where it a hypostyle hall the center is raised so as to allow natural light through the level break. |
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| Building style where the room can go on forever because it is held up by collumns to create posts and lintels, to hold up the ceiling. Utilized clerestory lighting to let in natural light. |
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| Small mounds under which people were buried in ancient egypt. The precurser to the pyramid, which was still used by lesser egyptians throughout the old kingdom. |
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| An egyptian god, depicted with a falcon head, the son of Osiris and Isis. |
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| The egyptian goddess of justice, represented by a scale. her feather was used to weigh the ka or heart of an egyptian hoping to go to the afterlife. |
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| A plant representative of lower egypt. It grew along the nile, and could be hammered together to create a substance similar to paper which could be written or drawn on to create scrolls. |
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| Relief in which the outlines of a figure are carved in, rather than the stone beign carved so that the figure sticks out. Creates an otherwise smooth surface, but creates shadows that allow you to see images. |
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| A maze, where the minotaur was kept prisoner in the greek myth about Theseus. Could also be confused with the greek word for double axis, and so the existance of the labyrinth under the palace at Knossos could have been a mistranslation. |
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