Egyptian Art

1
Egyptian Art

• What kind of art did the Egyptians create?

2
When did the Egyptian Civilization take place?

• The Old Kingdom
• 2650-2134BC
• The Middle Kingdom
• 2040-1640
• The New Kingdom
• 1550-1070

So this artwork is anywhere from 4650-3070 years
old!
3
Why did Egyptians create art?

• Geographic location created a surplus of food
  which allowed Egyptians to create art instead of
  hunting and gathering.
• Strong religious beliefs also contributed to a
  influx of creating artifacts
• Art and artifacts were also made to honor the
  Pharaoh (king)

4
What kind of art did they create?

• Architecture-Pyramids were built
• as tombs for pharoahs
• Sarcophagi- Stone coffins
• Sculptures- Carvings of pharaohs portraits
• Paintings-These were
• Actually painted, low relief
• Sculptures on the walls of
• tombs

5
Pyramids

• The pyramids were used as entombment for the dead
  kings to provide protection and appropriate
  transformation into the afterlife for them and
  their belongings
• Originally, Egyptians built low, flat tombs
• called mastabas
• These slowly transitioned into
• stepped pyramids
• Lastly, turned into
• the true pyramid

6
The Great Pyramids at Giza

• 2530-2470 BCE
• 4th Dynasty
• Giza
• Some stones
• weighed over 40 tons!
• The stones were
• floated on rafts down
• the Nile
• The largest, central
• pyramid, covers 13 acres and is 55 stories high
• It originally contained over 2 million blocks of
  limestone

7

• The limestone and capstone were later stolen off
  the surface along with
• the pyramids contents
• The pyramids are
• astonishing in size and
• mathematical precision
• The four sides are
• perfectly oriented with the
• four cardinal
• directions
• Each side is 230 meters long
• with only centimeters of difference
• The pyramids were built by slaves and paid
  laborers who were faithful to their kings.

8
Summary

• Use key vocab words from the lesson today
  (pharaoh, mastaba, pyramid, tomb) and others we
  may have used today that were in your Alphabox to
  write a 3-5 sentence summary in the JOURNAL
  section of your notebook.

9
Tutankhamen Mummy Case

• 1352 BCE
• Gold inlaid with enamel and semiprecious stones
• The tomb of Tutankhamun contained four gilded
  shrines nested one inside the other in order of
  decreasing size. Inside the innermost shrine was
  a red quartzite sarcophagus which protected three
  anthropoid coffins (man-shaped). The first two
  coffins were made of gilded wood but the final
  coffin was made of solid gold. The solid gold
  coffin housed the mummy of King Tut and his
  fabulous golden death mask.
• 73 high
• Egyptian Museum, Cairo
• His modern fame and popularity stems from the
  fact that his tomb in the Valley of the Kings was
  discovered almost completely intact, and is still
  the most complete ancient Egyptian tomb ever yet
  found.
• Ruled from age 9-19

10
Sculptures

• Sculptors were commanded to carve pharaoh's
  portrait incase their mummified bodies were
  destroyed
• The sculpture would serve as a place for their
  ka, or soul to live
• Egyptian sculpture is characterized by (1)
  compactness (2) symmetry of form and (3) its
  block-like shape
• Queen
  Nefertiti

11
The Seated Khafre

• Khafre (Chefren or Chephren) Dynasty 3,
  c2570-2544 BCE
• Solid-Blocklike form
• Head is simplified (stylized)
• Seated on a throne
• Example of In-the-Round sculpture
• In- the Round sculpture
• Free-standing sculpture, sculpture that is
  surrounded on all sides, except the base, by
  space. It is also known as sculpture "in the
  round", and is meant to be viewed from any angle

12
Relief Sculpture and Painting

• low relief is the quality of a projecting image
  where the overall depth is shallow. The
  background is very compressed or completely flat,
  as on most coins, on which all images are in
  low-relief.
• Covered the walls of tombs
• The figures are placed in
• registers- a series of horizontal
• bands
• Descriptive perspective-
• most important figures are
• shown larger than less
• important ones
• (to show social status)

13

• These paintings followed very specific rules
• Every part of the body must be depicted in the
  most familiar point of view.
• Twisted perspective-Many
• legs, arms, and faces are in
• profile but with the shoulders
• and eyes seen from the front
• turned toward the viewer
• Therefore the body looked
• distorted
• They did this so that the Ka
• could recognize their bodies

14
Hieroglyphics

• Hieroglyphics (a form of picture writing) were
  used
• in the paintings to help tell the story
• Hieroglyphics was also used for cartouches
• A cartouche was an oval circle with a name
  written in
• it like a nameplate
• In the early days of ancient Egypt, a cartouche
  was
• attached to the coffins of kings and queens. As
  time
• went on, many people hired an artist to create a
• cartouche for their own coffins. 
  Reign of Akhenaten,
  13531336 B.C.
• The ancient Egyptians believed that you had to
  have
• your name written down somewhere, so that you
  would
• not disappear when you died.
• Today many people have golden cartouche
• Necklaces made to wear