Egypt3000 - 500BC

Old, Middle, and New KingdomsA History of Art - H.W.Janson

Jewels of the Pharoahs - Cyril Aldred

Tutankhamen - C.D.Noblecourt

http://www.moyra.com/jewels/minentrance.html

• Contemporary application– Egyptian– Art Deco– Fantasy

Prehistory into Memorable History

• Prehistory– Paleolithic

• simple tools• fire• fetish objects, use of clay vessels, cave

paintings– magic– ritual

• sewn items

• Neolithic– move into agrarian culture

• crops• domesticated animals

– fortified villages - Jericho, Jordan– evidence of ancestor worship - trepanned skulls, reconstructed

skulls as portraits – Bronze age– invention of the wheel

– evolution of written language• laws• bureaucracy• organised religion• spread of knowledge through libraries of stone or clay tablets -

– Code of Hamurrabi, – cunieform alphabet, – symbolic representations of spoken words

Mesopotamia & the Nile Valley

• Egyptian civilisation regarded as the most conservative ever

• Plato - said Egyptian art had not changed in 10,000 years (an exaggeration)

• But 3000 - 500 BC art shows little change on the surface

• Egyptian basic pattern of institutions, beliefs and artistic ideas were formed during the first few centuries and kept reasserting itself

• not as static as it seems

• alternates between conservative and innovative

Dynasties

• Predynastic Period– transition from prehistory to the first

dynasty– First Dynasty - just before 3000 BC

Old Kingdom

• 1st major division after the First Dynasty

• ends with overthrow of the Sixth Dynasty ca. 2185 BC

• Counting historic time by accession of dynasties – strong Egyptian sense of continuity

• Importance of the Pharaoh - as the supreme ruler and a god– largely determines the character of

Egyptian art

• Pharoah was seen as being responsible for molding the Nile valley into a single, effective state and

• for increasing the fertility of the Nile valley by organising the construction of dams and canals

Crown & hairpieces of Princess Sit-Hathor

Necklace of Princess Sit-Hathor

Influences on art nouveau and art deco

Lavish use of gold and semi-precious stones

Cult of the Dead

• A preoccupation of Egyptian life and a link to Neolithic past

• Fundamental change from Neolithic– Neolithic - superstitious and fearful of the

spirits of the dead– Egyptian - serene, each man provides for

his own happy afterlife by supplying his tomb with pleasurable items

Ka

• Tomb equipped as a shadowy replica of everyday life

• ka (spirit or soul) could live in the tomb but had to have a physical body - – mummy - or – statue of him/herself

Mummies

King Tutankhamen ca.1360 BC

King Tut’s Mummy

King Tut as a child

http://www.virtual-egypt.com/

Can you Read This??

Reconstruction

King Tutankhamen’s canopic chest with lid removed; tops of sarcophagi immersed in unguents and resin ca.1360BC

King Tut’s finger stalls with rings

Judgment Day

• After the Old Kingdom, the Ka or spirit is divided into two or more identities

• the concept of judgment is introduced

• tomb frescoes begin to show images of a weighing of the soul

• fear of death introduced into Egyptian religion; accountability

Old Kingdomca. 2686-2160BC• (1st Intermediate Period 2160-2040BC)

King Zoser’s Pyramid designed by Imhotep ca.2650BC - Old Kingdom

Old Kingdom

relief sculpture, wood

Portrait Panel of Hesy-ra, from Saqqara, c.2650BC

Middle Kingdom ca. 2040-1633BC

• 2nd Intermediate Period 1633-1559BC

New Kingdom ca.1559-1085BC

• Tanites 1085BC-945BC

• Libyans 945BC-751BC • Late Period 751BC-332BC