Egypt: possible Key Works Conservative Millenia and The First Individual in History

1. Joshua & Bella Stele of Naram-sin,

2. Elisabeth & Cebastian: Namer Palette,

3. Emma & Scout Pyramid of Khufu

4. Ki & Fletch: Menkaure & Khamerernebty
5.  Naveah & Nick Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut
6. Brooke & Nate Tomb of Tutankhamun
7. Cody & Em Mask of Tutankhamun

Palette of Narmer, 3000-2920 bce, slate, 2'1"

Great Pyramids of Giza, 2560-2510 bce; Menkaure, Khufu, Khafre

Great Pyramids of Giza, 2560-2510 bce; Menkaure, Khufu, Khafre

3.     The Egyptians achieved extraordinary things:  monumental discoveries in art, science, medicine, architecture, engineering, empire, and far more. So generations who followed them in history until today have felt captivated by what they accomplished.

the Giza side

Pyramids of Giza, the other side. 

Menkaure and Khamerernebty, greywacke stone, ~2475 bce

Artist Unknown
2500 BCE
Giza, Egypt; Dynasty 4 

Funerary Temple of Hatshepsut, ~1460 bce

Possibly a merging of masculine and feminine.  All curvilinear, and there’s a vertical thrust, creating more of an illusion of power. Forcing people standing at the base of the statue to crane their heads back. Reinforces the ideal of Pharaoh also being a God among men. 

Colossal Statue of Akhenaten, ~1350 bce

Tahtiana, Brett, Lauren

18th Dynasty Pharaoh

Significance is that it differs from most Egyptian art of the “classic” Pharaoh. His body is more feminine and he has a larger belly. He wears traditional garb, a shenti, the crook and flail as well as beard of Pharaoh, the Double Crown of Egypt to show it was unified during his reign. Highly detailed in pleats on shenti and the bracelets and symbols. He is 4 meters tall so there is some Hieratic Hierarchy going on because he is much taller than a normal human. Breaks with the traditional image of Pharaoh to actually depict his own features. Similar statue made of Nefertiti where she is also shown in relatively the same size and shape, so they mirror and balance each other.

Bust of Nefertiti 
Formal Analysis

Title: Nefertiti

Artist: Unknown artist

Date: c. 1348-1336/5 BCE.

Period: Dynasty 18

Description: Smooth, chiseled features. Saturated hues of blue, green, red, and gold.

Refined bone structure. Detailed “jewel” necklace and beautiful head dress show hierarchy and

importance. High check bones, distinguished nose, and a thin elegant neck.

Significance: Possibly propaganda of the queens beauty, to make it well known that she

in fact was the most beautiful in all the land. It could be an absolute replica of her face, but it

could also be fabricated to hide all of her imperfections and make her seem naturally beautiful.

Also, in that time, many sculptures were of men, so the fact that this is a bust of a very strong

and powerful woman, is very significant. She stands tall and her head is arched upwards which

gives a feeling of arrogance and high importance. Though it is just a bust, and one of the eyes is

unfinished, she still has a beauty and grace that is incomparable.

Akhenaten, Nefertiti and Three of their Daughters, House Altar, Sunk Relief,  1350 bce. great source.

From wikipedia: The north wall of the burial chamber. On the left side, Tutankhamun, followed by his ka (an aspect of his soul), embraces the god Osiris. In the center, Tutankhamun greets the goddess Nut. On the right side, Ay performs the Opening of the Mouth for Tutankhamun.^[59]

Mask of Tutankhamun, 1323 bce, 21 x 15 x19" copper alloy, high-karat gold plating, coloured glass and gemstones, including lapis lazuli (the eye surrounds and eyebrows), quartz (the eyes), obsidian (the pupils), carnelian, amazonite, turquoise, and faience

Mask of Tutankhamun, 1323 bce, showing inscription from book of the dead. 

King Tuthankamun's Painted Box, c. 1325-- and its contents

Perhaps no period in Art has as much Face Recognition as Egyptian Art. Several facts begin to explain this:

The Egyptians had a genius for preserving things. For this reason, a great deal of their artwork remains intact for 5000 years and more to today.

1Egyptian Mummified Cats. ~ 750 - 400 bce. 

Solar Bark of Khufu (Cheops ), ~2500 bce, 

Marsh Scene, Tomb of Menna, 1924,  facsimile of original from ca. 1400-1352 BC, 
Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Prehistory: 

The work we recognize instantly as Egyptian did not come out of nowhere. For  more than 2000 years, from about 5500-3100bce, Neolithic peoples in Egypt developed skills in architecture, pottery, low relief and stone carving. Innovation, Influence, and Experimentation marked this work, and you might very well not recognize work from this time as Egyptian. Artisans found inspiration in objects from Mesopotamia and  the Aegean, and inspired artists in those places, and all made work of stylistic, conceptual, and representational variety.

Predynastic Egypt offers far greater variety of style and content than the strictly codified content of Dynastic or Pharaonic Egypt. 

Image from The Metropolitan Museum Website. You can read about this bowl at that site here.  Try telling me this isn't a cool old bowl. All other images this page are from wikipedia. I will cite them more fully....

Mask of Tutankhamun, ~ 1325 bce

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Predynastic Jackal Statue, ~3300 bce, Image Source. 

But this is what we recognize: 

First,  identify the markers of the Egyptian Style:

1.     heavily symbolic: particular markers indicate the pharaoh’s power

2.     heavily stylized

3.     colors used symbolically rather than naturalistically

4.     very strict conventions applied to depictions of gods

6.     very strict conventions applied to depictions of humans, particularly powerful ones… their power established the conventions and the conventions, in part, codified their power. Significant figures nearly always depicted with parted legs in profile, left leg stepping forward, chest presented frontally, face shown in profile.

These conventions served as markers of the continuity of power as pharaoh succeeded pharaoh, even as invasions from Nubia (present day Sudan)and Assyria (in Mesopotamia) meant dynasty displaced dynasty. Pharaohs constructed massive temples to themselves and dozens if not hundreds of statues of themselves, fitted to the heroic ideal of a pharaoh, to shore up their own power.

Often, when a ruler fell, the successor had these monuments destroyed. In the case of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut (1479-1458bce) many of the hundreds of representations she commissioned showed her as a female AND as a male pharaoh. She used representations of herself as a pharaoh (bearded, and with a male headdress) as well as exaggerations of her beauty, attaching to her image the powers typically associated with male and female. After her death, her successors erased her from many historical records, chiseling her name from historical records and demolishing statues representing her power. The tides had returned to assure Egyptian Continuity.

About 100 years after Hatshepsut, the 18^th Dynasty still reigned in Egypt. The pharaoh Amenhotep III brought Egypt to its period of greatest prosperity and artistic productivity. He ruled from an early age, left an extensive correspondence, and faced very little in terms of military challenge.

Amhotep III and Tiye, with Daughters

Perhaps all this ease gave his son the freedom to take great risks. Born Amenhotep IV, Akenaten made sweeping changes over the course of his reign: pushing the empire toward a monotheistic style of religion elevating the sun god Aten, changing his name to Akenaten to reflect his loyalty to Aten, construction and move to a new capital, Amarna, and sweeping changes in the style and content of visual art, which differs so strikingly from the art of his predecessors that it goes under  a different name, the Amarna style.... that notable exception I mentioned. 

The most notable difference in the art of this style is its distinct naturalism. Animals, plants, and movement have a decided proximity to visual truth, 

and the pharaoh and his family are depicted engaging in unprecedented acts of everyday life, the most famous of which is the depiction of the pharaoh in casual company with his family, even holding his children on his lap.

Akhenaten, Nefertiti and Three of their Daughters, House Altar, Sunk Relief,  1350 bce. great source.

Representations of the pharaoh himself, however, demonstrate decided and, it appears, exaggerated stylization. Artists show Akenaten and his family members with extremely elongated heads, protruding stomachs, heavy hips, thin arms and legs, and exaggerated faces. Akenaten has jawbones that compete with Cher, and frequently breasts, as well, traits that mark him as far more androgynous than the pharaonic standard.

When Akenaten died, it did not take long for his successor, Tutankhamun, the famous King Tut, to undo most of the changes that Akenaten had instituted, and Egypt resumed in the conventional mode for more than 1000 years until the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great of Greece in 332 bce.

Scene of Fishing and Fowling from Tomb of King Nebamum, 1350 bce, good source. 

King Tuthankamun's Painted Box, c. 1325-- and it's contents