The Art of Ancient Egypt

The Art of Ancient Egypt
Prompt #1:
•Take out your AP Art History Themes worksheet
• Add two An. Near. East. Artworks to this worksheet
• 10 minute review
VOCABULARY
pharaohs, papyrus, Upper Egypt, Lower Egypt, Menes,
Hathor, Horus, Old Kingdon, mastaba, ka, Imhotep, Djoser,
Re, Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure, mortuary temple, valley
temple, sphinx, diorite, nemes, canon of proportions, bilateral
symmetry, Middle Kingdom, Thebes, Hatshepsut,
colonnades, Ramses II, Abu Simbel, pillars, pylon, pylon
temple, axial plan, hypostyle hall, capitals, clerestory,
basilica, Akhenaton, Nefertiti, Thutmose, Tutankhamun,
Howard Carter
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
• How does the primary focus of Egyptian life manifest in
their art?
• How did the Egyptians conceive of an ordered society?
• What deviations are there from traditional Egyptian art
during its long history?
• What is the legacy of Egyptian art on Greek and
Roman societies?
Map of Ancient Egyptian Art
Palette of King Narmer (back)
from Hierakonopolis, Predynastic Egypt
ca. 3000 - 2920 BCE
slate; approx. 2’1” high
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
•pharaohs
• What narrative is being told throughout this palette? How is
the same story being expressed in different ways?
• Identify the representations of Egyptian gods and goddesses
on the palette.
• How is the narrative divided on the palette?
•pharaohs
• Compare these works: 3S’s
Stepped Pyramid at the morturary temple of Djoser
Imhotep, architect; Saqqara, Egypt
Dynasty III; ca. 2630 - 2611 BCE; sandstone
• In the history of the world, this is the first building for which
we know the architect’s name: Imhotep.
Great Pyramids
Giza, Egypt
Dynasty IV
Khafre
Menkaure
Khufu
Menkaure ca. 2490 2472 BCE
Khafre ca. 2520 2494 BCE
Khufu ca. 2551 2528 BCE
Queens’ Pyramids
• Remember Khafre’s pyramid - it still has a limestone covering at its
peak.
• Remember Menkaure’s pyramid - it’s significantly smaller than the two
others.
• This leaves only Khufu’s the largest of all the pyramids to remember.
• Napoleon’s engineers calculated that the stones making up Khufu’s
pyramid counted enough to build a wall one foot thick and ten feet high
around the entirety of France.
Interior of Pyramid of Khufu
Giza, Egypt
ca. 2551 - 2528 BCE
sandstone with limestone casing
Great Sphinx
(w/the pyramid of
Khafre back left)
Giza, Egypt
Dynasty IV
ca. 2520 - 2494
BCE
sandstone
approx. 65’ high
and 240’ long
• Compare these two works: style, subject and significance.
Great Sphinx
(w/the pyramid of
Khafre back left)
Giza, Egypt
Dynasty IV
ca. 2520 - 2494
BCE
sandstone
approx. 65’ high
and 240’ long
• Of which pharaoh is the Sphinx supposedly a portrait? What
evidence is there to support this claim?
• Compare these two works: style, subject and significance.
Seated Khafre (ka statue)
Gizeh, Egypt
Dynasty IV
ca. 2520 - 2494 BCE
diorite
approx. 5’ 6” high
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
• Name and describe the features of
Khafre’s garments in this portrayal
of him.
• What is ka? What is a ka statue?
• Why is this sculpture
representative of pharaohic art?
Menkaure and His Queen
Gizeh, Egypt
Dynasty IV
ca. 2490 - 2472 BCE
graywacke
approx. 4’ 6” high
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Graywacke is a dark, coarsegrained sandstone containing
more than 15% clay.
• How is this statue representative
of pharaohic art?
Seated Scribe
from the Tomb of Kai
Saqqara, Egypt
Dynasty V
ca. 2510 - 2460 BCE
painted limestone
approx. 3’ high
Louvre Museum
• The Egyptians fashioned their common people with more realism
than their pharaohs, who were depicted idealistically.
• Alert eyes with quartz cornea, rock crystal iris, and ebony pupils
• Scribing of hieroglyphics was perhaps the most prestigious
profession in ancient Egypt.
• What are some of the naturalistic details of the scribe?
Mortuary Temple of
Hatshepsut
Deir el-Bahri, Egypt
Dynasty XVIII
ca. 1473 - 1458 BCE
(To the left is the
mortuary temple of
Mentuhotep II)
• This funerary temple belongs to a special pharaoh. Who? What
makes this pharaoh special?
• What explains the shift from pyramid building in these middle
kingdom dynasties?
• What do you see in the architecture that might be borrowed by later
cultures (we haven’t yet studied)?
• If you were to describe this to a blind person, how would you do it?
• What was the fate of the imagery of this pharaoh and why?
Temple of
Ramses II
Abu Simbel, Egypt
Dynasty XIX
ca. 1290 - 1224 BCE
sandstone
collosi approx. 65’ high
• Notice the figure in the doorway of this temple to get a sense
of the statue’s scale.
• Of who are these four statues representations?
• How do you explain the impulse to build on a colossal scale?
• What extraordinary engineering feat was performed on this
temple?
Hypostyle Hall, Temple
of Amen-Re
Karnak, Egypt
ca. 1290 -1224 BCE
• First, notice the scale of
these columns.
• What is the type of capital on
these columns?
• What is the grided space you
see in the top center of the
photograph?
• Show How Art Made the World Film
Akhenaton and
His Family
Tell el-Amarna,
Egypt
Dynasty XVIII
ca. 1353 - 1335 BCE
limestone
approx. 12 1/4” high
Egyptian Museum,
Berlin
• Akhenaton stands alone in Egyptian history as a unique pharaoh.
What made him so unique?
• How does Akhenaton’s art reflect his unique vision?
• Who was Akhenaton’s queen? What makes this “family portrait” so
compelling?
• How do Egyptologists explain Akhenaton’s strange appearance?
• Compare these works using the 3 “S”s.
Death Mask of
Tutankhamen
Thebes, Egypt
Dynasty XVIII
ca. 1323 BCE
approx. 1’ 9” high
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Last Judgement of Hu-Nefer
Thebes, Egypt; Dynasty XIX
ca. 1290 - 1280 BCE; painted papyrus scroll
approx. 1’ 6” high; British Museum, London
•papyrus
• This scroll represents a story-telling. What is that story? Who
does it involve? What is his goal?
Last Judgement of Hu-Nefer (detail)
• Name the gods pictured here. With what object are they
engaged, and what are they doing with it?
•papyrus
Key Concepts
• Egyptian art is, for the purposes of most art historians, almost
exclusively funerary. Their art was either for death or in
preparation of death.
• Egyptian art left sculpture, painting, and buildings for
subsequent cultures to discover and imitate; much of Western
art, particularly Greco-Roman art, borrows heavily from
Egyptian sources.
• Egyptian culture was the first to build on a colossal scale. Why
do you think they did this?
• Egyptians had a “canon of proportions” by which they
measured and made their pharaoh sculpture. This will begin the
idea of standardization for the sake of a beauty myth. Consider
how this has been carried even into our contemporary culture.