Art of ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians found significant cultural expression in art. Indeed, although they invented or revolutionized such practices as bookkeeping, shipbuilding, urban design, and sustainable agriculture, most of the contemporary perceptions of ancient Egyptian civilization, which dominated much of the lands along the massive length of the Nile River for just over three millennia, is defined by images of that civilization’s art: its distinctive squarish statues; its two-dimensional paintings, most often of deities or battlefields; the elaborate wall carvings and bas-relief works that adorned its temples and palaces; and its wide assortment of pottery and glassware, as well as intricately designed household and agrarian implements that have been recovered during archaeological digs. Perhaps the most recognizable expressions of the art of ancient Egypt are the great pyramids, made of stacked sun-dried bricks, which served as tombs for the pharaohs and their families and palace entourages. These stunning architectural gems are laced with elaborate networks of passageways that took centuries to complete, even using relatively advanced building technologies for the time, and have withstood centuries of adverse meteorological phenomena and pollution to still maintain their structural integrity.

Background

The two primary functions of art in ancient Egypt, as far as can be determined from what has been recovered by the modern world, were to celebrate and honor the gods—including the pharaoh, considered to be a deity on earth and hence the central religious and political authority in the kingdom—and, among a small elite class, to ensure eternal life and prosperity for the deceased in the afterlife. Although cultural anthropologists estimate that this elite class, including the pharaoh and the ministerial construct of the court, accounted for only 5 to 10 percent of the Egyptian people, it had the wealth and commanded the respect to essentially create its own art and aesthetics. Workshops under the sponsorship and direction of the court employed the finest artisans in the region to produce art on demand; the rest of Egypt worked the land, served in the military, or maintained the empire’s international commerce network. Art was designed to commemorate the power and benevolence of the gods and to establish a direct and unassailable link between the pharaoh and such might. Thus, images of pharaohs dominate the surviving artifacts, most often with exaggerated perspectives to reflect the pharaoh’s importance.

Although murals, frescoes, and wall hangings were all used to decorate the residences of the living elite, including the pharaoh’s palace, the best-known examples of ancient Egyptian art come from temple and tomb decorations. Routine lootings of pyramids and other tombs by Western archaeologists during the nineteenth century have ensured that this tomb art is the type of art most associated with Egyptian civilization. These familiar images include carved sarcophagi, gold statues of the gods of the underworld, bejeweled statuary, and wall relief carvings with gorgeously realized hieroglyphic inscriptions.

Overview

What is remarkable for a contemporary audience accustomed to art designed to be viewed, and hence to having a clear role to play in the appreciation of that art, is that these stunning works of tomb art, carefully crafted with an eye for aesthetics and often inlaid with a fortune in jewels, were never actually designed to be seen by living eyes. Instead, they were buried with the deceased and expected to remain undisturbed for eternity. This art was intended to comfort the deceased and, ultimately, to please the deities so that they may grant eternal life.

The contorted poses of human figures in Egyptian art were not meant to be realistic, but rather were intended to show as much of the body as possible. In the case of tomb art representing the deceased, this was so that the gods might be able to recognize them. Faces, legs, and feet were shown in profile, while bodies were shown from the front, and both hands were visible. The size of the figure symbolized the person’s importance, so that pharaohs appeared larger than those around them, and the primary occupant of any tomb was depicted larger than their spouses, children, and servants.

Much of the use of color in ancient Egyptian art was symbolic, though this was not always the case. The earliest Egyptians had four basic colors at their disposal: green, associated with life, the earth, vegetation, growth, and resurrection; red, representing the sun, anger, fire, victory, destruction, and the desert; black, representing death and night, but also resurrection and fertility; and white, representing purity, omnipotence, and sacredness. Yellow, representing eternity and indestructibility, and blue, representing the sky, water, the heavens, and rebirth, were introduced later. The symbolism of these colors often manifested in the skin color of the people and deities represented in art. For example, the god Osiris was often portrayed with green skin, signifying his power over vegetation as well as his resurrection, and images of the deceased in their tombs were sometimes colored green to associate them with Osiris and thus ensure their rebirth.

When skin color was not intended to be symbolic, Egyptian men were colored red or reddish-brown, and Egyptian women were shown with yellow or gold skin. This was possibly a reflection of the fact that men typically spent more time outdoors; during the Old Kingdom period, Egyptian men in positions of administrative power were sometimes painted yellow as well to indicate that they, like women, did not spend their time in the sun. People of other ethnicities were depicted with similarly stylized skin tones, not as an accurate representation of their individual appearances, but rather to differentiate them from Egyptians. Libyans and other North African and Near Eastern peoples were typically also given yellow skin, and Nubians were often depicted as dark brown or black. Variations in these color schemes may have been intended to provide visual contrast, such as, for example, to differentiate one figure from another in a large group.

Rather than being simply decorative, art in ancient Egypt was inextricably entwined with religion and ritual. Much of what may strike a modern viewer as odd about ancient Egyptian art is based on layers of symbolic meaning, designed to protect, to supplicate, to honor, and to guide the dead to the next life.

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