Colorsofancientegypt

COLORSof

ANCIENT EGYPT

COLORSof

ANCIENT EGYPTby Brooke Porter

TAble of contentsIntroduction ..................................................................................The Main Color Palette of Ancient Egypt Red ............................................................................... Yellow .......................................................................... Blue .............................................................................. Green ........................................................................... Black ............................................................................ White ........................................................................... Producing Pigments .................................................Colors In Context Color And Religion .................................................. Color And Race ......................................................... Resources .......................................................................................

IntrodUction

Color (‘iwen’ in Ancient Egyptian) was a highly essential part of an object’s or person’s nature in Ancient Egypt. The term ‘iwen’ was used interchangeably in varying contexts to mean color, appearance, character, being, or nature. Thus, in terms of the artwork produced by Ancient Egyptians, items depicted with similar colors were thought to have similar properties. Egyptians were master artsist and crafstmen, and used color systematically to depict both realistic and representational views of their world.

Just as Ancient Egyptian artwork was highly functional and almost always served a purpose, colors were used in functional ways. Colors were often paired together, as the Ancient Egyptians revered the concepts of balance and

symmetry in all aspects of life and art. For example, silver and gold were thought to be complementary colors (they represented the duality of opposites like the sun and moon). Red and white were complements of one another (especially in a political/geographic context when used in the red and white crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt). Green and black were representative of different parts of the regenerative processes. Color was also used logically to distinguish items that were lined up in procession; tones of a single color alternated between light and dark to show individualism.

Artists of Ancient Egypt were trained to revere the purity of color in a piece of art. After laying out grid lines, sketching, then refining a relief carving or tomb/temple painting, an artist would use one color to paint sections before moving on to the next. Fine brushwork to outline the work and add detail finished off the work.

The degree to which Ancient Egyptian artists and craftsmen mixed colors varies across the ages and styles of artwork, but generally speaking color mixing was limited. The Ancient Egyptians worked

Even in very early days of Egyptian society, pigments were used to give color to artwork.

Vessel, Predynastic Period, Naqada II, ca. 3450–3300 B.C.. Egyptian Painted pottery

The Ivory Palette of Merytaten

This painter’s palette was found in the treasury of the tomb of King Tutankhamen, between the paws of the jackal mounted on a shrine. This palette is thought to have been a gift from Princess Merytaten to Tutankhamen. Its six paint cavities still held pigments of the traditional color palette of ancient Egypt, and would have been used with animal hair or reed brushes to create paintings on plaster or textile surfaces.

Nebamun hunting in the marshes, fragment of a scene from the tomb-chapel of Nebamun

Thebes, Egypt. Late 18th Dynasty, around 1350 BC

primarly in a six-color palette, using red, yellow, blue, green, white, and black. The lack of color mixing found in typical Ancient Egyptian artwork can be attributed to the fact that certain pigments chemically reacted with one another to produce unfavorable results. Nonetheless, paintings, ceramic works, relief carvings, and statuary were highly detailed, despite their lack of color range and tonal values.

Ancient Egyptians used natural resources and also synthetically produced pigments to achieve their signature color palette. As detailed in the sections of this book, a wide variety of materials were used to produce colors that were physically vibrant, and symbolically charged in their representational contexts. Color was an essential part of Egyptian life, and is reflected in the nature of their artwork.

THE MAIN

COLOR PALETTE

OF ANCIENT EGYPT

RED (Desher)Red (Ancient Egyptian name ‘desher’) was commonly derived from naturally occurring red ochre and iron oxides, and it primarily represented chaos/disorder/negativity/hostility. In addition, the color red could also be representative of solar and kingship associations, and was the heraldic color of Lower Egypt (as seen in the crown). Red is considered the opposite of white in relation to ideas of chaos (see the crown of lower Egypt), and also the opposite of green and black in terms of respresentations of death.

Red ochre was obtained from the desert of Egypt, and thus red was considered the primary representational color of the desert (Ancient Egyptians’ called the desert of the south ‘deshret’, or ‘the red land’). Sybolically, the desert was was considered to be the opposite of the fertile black land of the northern delta region (‘kemet’).

The color red was also used to represent the destructive nature of fire and fury, and often represented something dangerous. Red became associated to the god Seth, traditionally depicted as a god of chaos, and was sometimes also associated with death or punishment. The desert of Egypt was a place where people were exiled or sent to work a life of labor in the mines. In Egyptian culture, the desert was also thought to be an entrance to the underworld, as it was where the sun disappeared each night. However, red was one of the most potent colors of Ancient Egypt, and could also be used to embody ideas of life and protection, being derived from the color of blood and life-supprting fire. Red was a common color of protective amulets.

PIGMENT SHADES:

Red Lead

Red OchreDed

Madder Lake

Carmine Lake

8

Footed Bowl, Predynastic Period, probably late Naqada I–early Naqada II, ca. 3750–3550 BCE.

DESIGNER’SCOLOR KEY

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Red LeadImentet and Ra from the tomb of Nefertari, ca. 1298-1235 BCE.

The Tyet knot, also called the "Girdle of Isis" depicts a looped and folded cloth; these amulets were placed on the neck of the deceased and symbolizes strength/power/protection. They were often made of red stone, representing the blood of often red, for blood, as they represent the blood of Isis, whose protection and association with magic derives from her connection to her husband/god Osiris of the dead.

King Nebhepetre II Mentuhotep, found in a rock cut chamber under the first court of the funerary temple of Mentuhotep II at Deir el-Bahari, is painted sandstone. 11th dynasty, 2046 BC – 1995 BCE.

R: 210 G: 40 B: 14

C: 11.54% M: 96.69%Y: 100% K: 2.64%

PANTONE 485 C

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A tyet amulet dating to the early 18th Dynasty, discovered at Abydos, ca 1550 BCE.

YELLOW (Khenet)Yellow (Ancient Egyptian name ‘khenet’) was used to represent the color of women’s skin, as well as the skin of people who lived near the Mediterranean - Libyans, Bedouin, Syrians, and Hittites. Yellow was also considered the color of the sun, and in addition to gold, could also represent the idea of utlimate perfection. Yellow and gold also designtated an object or person to have eternal and indestructable qualities. Statues of gods were often fabricated from gold or were gold-plated, reflecting the belief that the Egyptian gods’ skin and bones were made from gold. Many funerary objects (sarcophagi, mummy masks, and jewelry) were also made of gold, supporting the idea that the deceased enjoyed eternal life after death.

As with blue and green pigments, the Ancient Egyptians produced a synthetic yellow – lead antimonite. The synthetic yellow’s Ancient Egyptian name, however, is unknown. Shades of natural yellow ochre ranged from bright yellow to reddish orange, and would be ground into fine pigments.

It can be difficult to distinguish between lead antimonite (pale yellow in color) and lead white, which tends to darken over time to a yellow color. Orpiment, a strong yellow shade, lightens and fades over time when exposed to sunlight. Because it can be hard to tell the difference between these colors when looking at Ancient Egyptian art, some historians believe white and yellow were used relatively interchangeably.

PIGMENT SHADES:

Lead Antimonate

Orpiment

Yellow OchreSety

Ochre

GoldNebw

1298-1235 BCE Imentet and Ra from the tomb of Nefertari.

A golden “Shen” amulet was placed over the breast of the mummy to give the deceased the protection of Ra and ensure that he or she would live as long as the sun shone, rising again like Ra himself.

Fragment of the face of a queen, New Kingdom, Amarna Period, Dynasty 18, reign of Akhenaten, ca. 1353–1336 b.c.Egypt, Middle Egypt, el-Amarna (Akhetaten); inc. el-Hagg QandilYellow jasper


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Yellow Ochre

R: 223 G: 166 B: 53

C: 12.68% M: 35.68%Y: 93.69% K: 0%

PANTONE 137 C

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BLUE (Irtyu)Blue (Ancient Egyptian name ‘irtyu’) was the color of the heavens, the dominion of the gods, as well as the color of water, the yearly inundation, and the primeval flood. Although Ancient Egyptians favored semi-precious stones such as azurite (Ancient Egyptian name ‘tefer’) and lapis lazuli (Ancient Egyptian name ‘khesbedj’, imported at great cost across the Sinai Desert) for jewelery and inlay, technology was advanced enough to produce the world’s first synthetic pigment, known since medieval times as Egyptian blue. Depending on the degree to which the pigment Egyptian blue was ground, the color could vary from a rich, dark blue (coarse) to a pale, ethereal blue (very fine).

As blue is also the colour of water and hence the colour of the Nile and the primeval waters of chaos (known as Nun). As a result the colour blue was associated with fertility, rebirth and the power of creation. Blue glass or faience hippopotami were a popular symbols of the Nile

Blue was the colour of the heavens and hence represented the universe. Many temples, sarcophagi and burial vaults have a deep blue roof speckled with tiny yellow stars.

Blue was used for the hair of gods (specifically lapis lazuli, or the darkest of Egyptian blues) and for the face of the god Amun – a practice which was extended to those Pharaohs associated with him.

PIGMENT SHADES:

Egyptian Blue

AzuriteTefer

Lapis LazuliKhesbedj

Indigo

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Egyptian Blue

R: 16 G: 99 B: 234

C: 82.36% M: 63.28%Y: 0% K: 0%

PANTONE 2726 C

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This is a Middle Kingdom Dynasty 12 Funerary Collar of Wah from the Early reign of Amenemhat I. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Wah’s faience broad collar (40.3.2), anklets and bracelets (40.3–.10) were made as funerary ornaments for the burial and were found in the layer of wrappings closest to the body. The broad collar is one of the finest examples of its type from the early Middle Kingdom.

Rameses III wearing blue crown

King Tut scarab breast plate, made of lapis lazuli.

GREEN (Wahdj)

PIGMENT SHADES:

Malachite

VerdigrisHes-byah

Chyscolla

TurquoiseMefkaht

Green (Ancient Egyptian name ‘wahdj’) was the color of fresh growth, vegetation, new life, and resurrection (the latter along with the color black). The hieroglyph for green is a papyrus stem and frond.

Green was the color of the ‘Eye of Horus’, or ‘Wedjat’, which had healing and protective powers, and so the color also represented well-being. To do ‘green things’ was to do behave in a positive, life affirming manner.

When written with the determinative for minerals (three grains of sand) ‘wahdj’ becomes the word for malachite, a color which represented joy.

As with blue, the Ancient Egyptians could also manufacture a green pigment – verdigris (Ancient Egyptian name ‘hes-byah’ – which actually means copper or bronze dross (rust). Unfortunately, verdigris reacts with sulphides, such as the yellow pigment orpiment, and turns black. (Mediaeval artists would use a special glaze over the top of verdigris to protect it.)

Turquoise (Ancient Egyptian name ‘mefkhat’), a particularly valued green-blue stone from the Sinai, also represented joy, as well as the color of the sun’s rays at dawn. Through the deity Hathor, the Lady of Turquoise, who controlled the destiny of new-born babies, it can be considered a color of promise and foretelling.

Egyptian Faience Uraeus Amulet, Late Period ca 664-332BC

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Malachite

R: 63 G: 153 B: 91

C: 77.01% M: 17.07%Y: 83.45% K: 2.84%

PANTONE 354 C

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Isis depicted with outstretched wings (wall painting, c. 1360 BCE)

coffin and mummy peftjauneith (rmo leiden, egypt 26d 664-525bc)

BLACK (Kem)

PIGMENT SHADES:

Ivory (Bone) Black

Carbon Black

Lamp Black

Black (Ancient Egyptian name ‘kem’) was the color of the life-giving silt left by the Nile inundation, which gave rise to the Ancient Egyptian name for the country: ‘kemet’ – the black land. Black symbolized fertility, new life, and resurrection as seen through the yearly agricultural cycle. It was also the color of Osiris (‘the black one’), the resurrected god of the dead, and was considered the color of the underworld where the sun was said to regenerate every night. Black was often used on statues and coffins to invoke the process of regeneration ascribed to the god Osiris. Black was also used as a standard color for hair and to represent the skin colour of people from the south – Nubians and Kushites

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Ivory Black

R: 34 G: 23 B: 16

C: 62.74% M: 68.13%Y: 72.36% K: 80.14%

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WHITE (Hedj)

PIGMENT SHADES:

Chalk White

Lead White

Silver

White suggested omnipotence and purity. Due to its lack of color white was also the color of simple and sacred things. The name of the holy city of Memphis was originally known as “Ineb hedj” meant “White Walls.” White sandals were worn at holy ceremonies. The material most commonly used for ritual objects such as small ceremonial bowls and even the embalming table for the Apis Bulls in Memphis was white alabaster. White was also the heraldic color of Upper Egypt. The “Nefer”, the crown of Upper Egypt was white, even though originally is was probably made of green reeds.

White was particularly associated with symbolic religious objects and tools such as those used in the mummification rituals, many of which were made of white alabaster. Alabaster was highly prized by the Egyptians because of it’s beautiful shimmering white colour. As a result, it was often used for ritual items such as the canopic chest and offering vessels.

White was also seen as the opposite of red, because of the latter’s association with rage and chaos, and so the two were often paired to represent completeness. The two crowns which were combined to form the dual crown were the white crown of Upper Egypt and the red crown of Lower Egypt.

The word “hedj” represents both white and silver. Silver was very highly prized in Egypt, and fairly scarce. It was very popular in pharonic jewellery, when it was available, and was known as “white gold” (nub hedj). Silver and gold together represented the moon and sun respectively. White paint was

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Malachite

R: 255 G: 255 B: 224

C: 0.77% M: 0%Y: 13.74% K: 0%

PANTONE 7499 C

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Mentuhotep II on a relief from his mortuary temple in Deir el-Bahari

PRODUCING PIGMENTS

NATURAL MATERIALS

RED (desher)Iron oxide and red ochre were common materials sourced from the Egyptian deserts. Once ground into fine powders and mixed with binding agents, these materials made rich red pigments used for painting on plaster, ceramics, papyrus, and even for use in makeup (rouge and lipsticks). Red jasper stones were prized for their beautiful color, and were used to create jewelery beads and amulets; his stone was linked to the fertilizing blood of the goddess Isis.

Yellow (Khenet)Royalty was often associated with the color blue, making blue gemstones such as lapis lazuli and azurite highly prized. They were also expensive to procure, and were often imported from other areas such as Afghanistan.

Iron Oxide

GOLD

Red Ochre

ORPIMENT

Red JAsper

YELLOW OCHRE

BLUE (IRTYU)Royalty was often associated with the color blue, making blue gemstones such as lapis lazuli and azurite highly prized. They were also expensive to procure, and were often imported from other areas such as Afghanistan.

Green (WAHDJ)Royalty was often associated with the color blue, making blue gemstones such as lapis lazuli and azurite highly prized. They were also expensive to procure, and were often imported from other areas such as Afghanistan.

BLACK (IRTYU)Royalty was often associated with the color blue, making blue gemstones such as lapis lazuli and azurite highly prized. They were also expensive to procure, and were often imported from other areas such as Afghanistan.

WHITE (IRTYU)Royalty was often associated with the color blue, making blue gemstones such as lapis lazuli and azurite highly prized. They were also expensive to procure, and were often imported from other areas such as Afghanistan.

LAPIS LAZULI

MALACHITE

WOOD ASH

SILVER ORE

BLUE AZURITE

VERDIGRIS

CARBON

GYPSUM

BLUE OBSIDIAN

TURQOUISE

BLACK OBSIDIAN

ALABASTER

PRODUCING PIGMENTS

EGYPTIAN BLUEEgyptian Blue, also known as calcium copper silicate or cuprorivaite, is considered to be the first synthetic pigment, produced by the Ancient Egyptians around 2500 BCE (4th Dynasty). The pigment was manufactured out of the desire to replicate the beautiful hues of semiprecious stones such as lapis lazuili and turqouise, which were valued for their rarity and bright blue colors. The use of these stones and others, such as azurite, to be ground for pigments was impractical due to their rarity and difficulty to process. Thus, the Egyptians synthetically produced blue pigment to be used across a variety of mediums, including paints, ceramic glazes, faience, and jewelery making.

Ancient Egyptians were not only fine artists, but also extemely skilled chemists. Egyptian Blue was created by mixing a calcium compound (usually

calcium carbonate), copper oxides (found in metal filings or malachite), and silica (sand). The mixture was first heated, and resulted in a coarse-textured product. Then, the mixture was gound into a powder and mixed with water to form a paste. The paste was then shaped into small slabs or balls and then fired again at tempratures of 850-950°C for one hour. This two-staged process produced a paste that was very fine; coarser-textured Egyptian Blue, however, would not have gone through the second firing and would have been ground for use as a blue painting pigment rather than use in faience or jewelry fabrication. The use of Egyptian Blue spread throughout Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and the far reaches of the Roman Empire.

The pigment is extremly stable, and exhibits beautiful luminesence thousands of years later. Egyptian Blue is luminescent under infrared light, and can be detected on objects though they appear unpainted to the human eye. This quality of the pigment indicates its use for high-tech, modern technology applications, including biomedicine, telcommunications, laser technology, and security inks.

WhAt is Egg TemperA?Egg tempera is made from egg yolk, powdered pigment, and water, and would have been used by Ancient Egyptians as a paint applied to plaster surfaces. The egg yolk serves as the binder that holds the pigment together. The addition of water turns the paint into a usable paste-like form. Tempera paint eventually cracks or wears off a surface after many years of exposure, but adheres to surfaces beautifully and produces rich colors.

TEMPERA PAINT RECIPE

MAteriAls:

• Eggs

•Commerically prepared dry pigments (available for purchase at art supply stores or online), or hand-prepared pigments (ground up chalk, for example)

• Water

• Pin/Needle

•Measure spoons

•Cups for mixing

•Wood or plastic stirrers

•Plastic wrap for preserving paints

STEPS:

A) Roll the separated egg yolk on a paper towel to absorb excess white.

B) Break the yolk sac with a pin.

C) Mix the contents of the yolk sac with ½ -1 tsp. of water and stir. Do not include the yolk sac.

D) Add water to the dry pigment to create a creamy paste. If necessary, add a drop of denatured alcohol to disperse the pigment. Mix with a stirrer.

E) The pigment is now a paste.

F) Add an equal amount of egg yolk to the pigment paste. Thin the tempered medium with more water as needed.

COLORS

IN

CONTEXT

Gold (Ancient Egyptian name ‘newb’) represented the flesh of the gods and was used for anything which was considered eternal or indestructible. (Gold was used on a sarcophagus, for example, because the pharaoh had become a god.) Whilst gold leaf could be used on sculpture, yellow or reddish-yellows were used in paintings for the skin of gods. (Note that some gods were also painted with blue, green, or black skin.)

Blue was used for the hair of gods (specifically lapis lazuli, or the darkest of Egyptian blues) and for the face of the god Amun – a practice which was extended to those Pharaohs associated with him.

Earth and fertility gods such as Geb and Osiris are depicted with green skin, indicating their power to encourage the growth of vegetation. However, the ancient Egyptians recognised the cycle of growth and decay and so green was also associated with death and the power of resurrection. Osiris was a god of the dead whose wife Isis magically conceived a son (Horus) and the ancient Egyptians believed that he could help them make their way to an eternal paradise which bore a striking resemblance to their earthly lives (but without any pain or suffering). This wonderful place was sometimes called “field of malachite”.

Tomb paintings showed gods with golden skin, and pharaohs sarcophagi were made from gold, since the belief was that a deceased pharaoh became a god.

COLORS AND RELIGION

19th Dynasty. Temple of Sethos I. Abydos. Egypt.

Read More: http://egyptian-gods.99k.org/amun-ra.html#ixzz3KbuYZJYF

Book of the Dead of Hunefer - The judgment of the dead in the presence of Osiris, Thebes Egypt, around 1275BC.

Yellow (Ancient Egyptian name ‘khenet’) was the color of women’s skin, as well as the skin of people who lived near the Mediterranean - Libyans, Bedouin, Syrians, and Hittites.

Red (Ancient Egyptian name ‘deshr’) was primarily the color of chaos and disorder – the color of the desert (Ancient Egyptian name ‘deshret’, the red land) which was considered the opposite of the fertile black land (‘kemet’).

COLORS AND RACE

A painted scene from the tomb of Sobkhotep at Thebes.

Racial imagery from Tutankhamen’s tomb: Above, the ecclesiastical throne, shown assembled, and a full view of the footrest below. Bound Semitic and black prisoners appear on the footstool. The Egyptian king would rest his feet on his foes.

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