Egyptian Art Flashcards
(27 cards)
What are the approximate dates of the ancient Egyptian civilization?
3000 BC -332 BC
How did the Nile river shape Egyptian world view?
-good climate, navigable flooded fields in the summer at the right time -basin irrigation -lots of surplus with little work -free time= built stuff
How did the Egyptians view the afterlife?
- optimism
- buried with useful things used in regular bc the afterlife was seen as a continuation of life
What are the 3 broad categories or periods within the ancient Egyptian civilization?
- 2649 -2152 BC = Old Kingdom
- pyramids of giza, sun king Ra, rich but 2250 BC= droughts→ pharaohs started fighting
- 2040-1640 BC= Middle Kingdom
- outside rulers from Nubia
- Amenra (new gods)
- conquered/got conquered
- superior military tech (bronze, compound bows)
- 1550-1070 BC= New Kingdom
- no more geographical isolation–> go conquer
- Hatshepsut
- Akhenaten
How were the pharaohs regarded?
considered a god/close to a god, acted like a God→ act like the Niles (calm, benevolent)
During which period were pyramids primarily built? What was their function?
- Pyramids= political/social control over population
- people make a tomb for another person
- 2475-2465 BC= most famous pyramids made
- Sphinx built for Kefren
- Great Pyramid built for Khufu
- built by peasants who were required to work for gov for a certain number of months per year and slaves
Who was Ra? What purpose did the gods serve?
- sun god, god of creation, started off as a regional god, became central
- if humans did their jobs, the pantheon of god would keep cosmic order
- bc pharaohs became god when they died, it made sense to please them during their life
What types of writing systems did the Egyptians use?
- hieroglyphics for sacred writings
- demotic wiring for contracts….agreements
What was special about the pharaoh Hatshepsut?
- woman, ruled Egypt for 22 yrs
- expanded Egypt through trade, not military conquest
How did the pharaoh Tutankhamen come to power? What makes him so important to Egyptology today?
-his tomb was found by 20th century British people, it wasn’t robbed by ancient people
What are some of the functions of Egyptian art? How were they used and in what context?
- not meant to be seen
- to honor a divine person or a dead person
- statues =designed to be facing straight forward to face a ritual
- placed in niches/architectural settings
- make frontality look natural /correct
What are some of the functions of Egyptian statuary?
- allowed the spirit to interact with the real world
- cult statues were part of a daily ritual of clothing, anointing, and perfuming with incense
- served as intermediaries between the ppl and the gods (chapels with statue of dead forefather= family temple)
What are some of the modes of representation in 2-dimensional art?
- provide representative aspects of each element in scenes rather than attempting to copy the real world
- each object rendered from a most recognizable angle
- not just one viewpoint
register
- parallel lines in which scenes are ordered in
- ground-line
- without it= unusual, used to portray chaos (battles, hunting)
- used to convey info about scenes (the higher up the scene the higher the status)
hierarchy of scale
-shows the importance of a person/status in size (the bigger the image, the more important it is)
How did text function in conjunction with art?
- text is accompanied in a majority of images
- hieroglyphics are like pieces of art
- the name of an artwork/figure would have an identification at the end (ex. verbs of motion are followed by a pair of walking legs..)
canon of proportions
- each body part is proportional to a different part of the body
- it was thought that using this system would portray the ideal human body and its beauty
- it would make the image easier to recognize (shoulders and eye are frontal, arms and legs are profile)
Palette of Narmer
- Narmer (pharaoh)–> not very popular but still made a huge impact
- shows important moment in Egyptian politics→ the unification of upper and lower Egypt
- one side shows Narmer (lean, muscular, god-like qualities) is wearing the bowling pin crown of upper egypt and the other shows him wearing the red cobra crown of lower egypt (hieroglyphics let us know that the 2 pharaohs are the same person)
- single king rules Egypt
- hierarchy of scale→ Narmer is much bigger than all the other ppl depicted in the piece
purpose of the Pyramids of Giza
- mortuary complex
- tombs of pharaohs, temple at the base, stone causeway
- place of regeneration for a dead ruler
In what ways did the pyramid reference the sun?
- made to look like a solidified version of the sun’s rays
- the sun’s rays were believed to the the way a pharaoh climb to the sky
Menkaure and Khamerernebty statue
- stance of Menkaure= assertive, powerful, ideal many beauty; stiff
- wife= more realistic posing kinda→ subordinate?, hair/wig is symbol of maturity
How did Hatshepsut come to power?
- assumed authority before and during the time her son could rule
- most women rulers only ruled in the time until a man was old enough to assume power
What kind of mythology did Hatshepsut create about herself?
- described her divine birth
- an oracle predicted she would be king
How did art and architecture serve Hatshepsut’s interests?
- interested in the power of art to convey royal authority
- adopted the forms of previous statues of pharaohs to show herself as king
- looked like a male (no breasts, broad shoulders, beard, headdress)
- there was no word for queen at the time
