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Egyptian art can be divided into three main categories: Old Kingdom (2686 -2150 BCE)

Middle Kingdom (2100 – 1700 BCE)

New Kingdom (1500-1085 BCE)

Each kingdom is further divided into dynasties. (A dynasty was a period during which a single family provided a succession of rulers).

The Pharaoh or Egyptian rulers, were worshipped as gods and held in complete authority over the kingdom.

Pharaoh

Nobles, aristocracy, priests

Skilled craftworkers, painters, sculptors, merchants

Farmers, domestic servants (There were very few slaves)

Egyptians believed in life after death and as a result they preserved the bodies of the pharaohs in preparation for the afterlife.

A person’s favorite possessions would be placed with them in the tomb to let the mummy be prepared for the afterlife.

The entire process of mummification took 70 days to complete.

The stomach, intestines, liver, and lungs were removed and preserved by drying them in a special salt called natron.

Once thoroughly dried, the organs would be put into separate containers called canopic jars.

Egyptian Canopic Jars

Sculpture and paintings followed a rigid formula for representing the human figure.

The human form is depicted with a front view of the eye and shoulders and profile view of head, arms, and legs.

In wall paintings, the surface is divided into horizontal bands separated by lines.

The broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped figure wears a headdress and kilt.

The figure stands rigidly, with the arms at his side, one leg advanced.

The size of the figure indicates rank, with pharaohs presented as giants towering over pygmy-like servants.

Ancient Egyptian writing uses more than 2,000 hieroglyphic characters.

Each hieroglyphic represents a common object in ancient Egypt.

Hieroglyphics could

represent the sound of an object or an idea associated with the object.

For fifteen centuries, scholars had studied hieroglyphics uncomprehendingly; but in twenty-two years, Jean-Francois Champollion cracked the code.

In 1824 he showed that the glyphs represented sounds as well as concepts, depending on context.  

This pyramid was built by Imhotep for King Zoser.

It was a solid stone structure of six huge steps rising over twenty stories in the desert air.

It was the first huge stone structure built on earth.

Step Pyramids of Djoser, Saqqara, (2680 BCE)

Supplies:

2,300,000 limestone blocks, each weighing an average of 2 ½ tons

Rudimentary copper and stone cutting tools

Barges to float blocks from quarry on east side of nile to west bank

Log rollers, temporary brick ramps, wooden sledges to haul stone to construction site

Pealy white limestone facing to surface finished 480-foot-tall pyramid

Labour:

4,000 construction workers to move blocks weighing up to 15 tons, without benefit of draft animals (i.e. horses), the wheel,or block-and-tackle (the ropes or chains and blocks used in a hoisting tackle).

Estimated Completion Time:

23 years (average life span at the time was 35)

One of 80 remaining pyramids, the Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza is the largest stone structure in the world.

Ancient Egyptians leveled its 13-acre-site-the base a perfect square- so successfully that the southeast corner is only one-half inch higher than the northwest.

The Great Pyramids, Giza (2530-2470 BCE)

The final chamber was reached through the Grand Gallery and was ventilated by two narrow air shafts (1 and 2). After the Ascending Corridor was sealed from within by stone plugs, workmen in the Gallery escaped down a shaft (3) and up the Descending Corridor (4).

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3 4

This sculpture is cut from a single block of slate. Stylized and formal appearance.

It is 56”(142 cm high).

Arms are rigid, faces look straight ahead, and each foot is slightly forward (frontal pose).

The sculpture is not an accurate depiction of the king and queen (idealized bodies).

Mycerinus and His Queen, (2470 BCE)

Architecture:

During this period architecture shifted away from pyramids to the construction of funerary temples.

These were designed to hold the mummies of the rulers.

Part of the building would be cut into the cliff.

Art:

Art continued to flourish and craftspeople still held an honored position in society.

They carved wood into figures, boats, weapons, etc.

These carvings were then painted to create an illusion of reality.

Part of the building was cut into the cliff and part was built outside (following Middle Kingdom style).

The queen spent most of her reign constructing this temple (she strapped a false beard to her chin and wore men’s clothing when she visited the site).

Funerary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, (1480 BCE)

This is a funerary sculpture.

Image of Akhenaten is not so idealized, since he has a visible belly.

Akhenaten ruled for 17 years and during his reign he declared a single new supreme god in Aten (THE SUN).

Akhenaten then declared himself Atens’s representative on earth and a god himself.

Akhenaten and his Family,

(1350 BCE)

Akhenaten’s successor was his nine-year-old relative Tutankhaten who later changed his name to Tutankamen.

Died at the age of 19.

He only ruled for nine years

He is Egypt’s most famous king because of the wealth of objects found in his tomb (near-original condition).

More than 20 people connected with unsealing the tomb died under mysterious circumstances, giving rise to the “curse of the pharaoh” stores. Mask of King Tutankhamen,

(1352 BCE)

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