Ancient Mediterranean

3500 B.C.E.-300 C.E.

ANCIENT EGYPT

Historical Background

• Relevant Periods:-Old Kingdom 2575-2134 BCE-New Kingdom 1550-1070 BCE• Funerary objects dominate,

large scale sculptures, stone architecture, and tomb artifacts to serve the purpose of venerating the god-like pharaoh.

• Strict codes apply to the creation of art and the portrayal of gods and pharaohs (to show others to be subordinate and lacking idealization).

Historical Background

• Begins with the unification of upper and lower Egypt by King Narmer.

• Pyramids are done in Old Kingdom.• During Middle Kingdom pyramid

structures are abandoned for hidden cave and underground tombs.

• In New Kingdom, Akhenaton, abandoned the worship of many gods for Aton (sun-disk); brought in the Amarna Period, which died with Akhenaton.

• Eventually Egypt falls to Persia, Assyria, Greece, and then Rome in 30 BCE.

Historical Background

• Egyptology begins in 1799 with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

• Art, architecture, and mummification was executed by highly trained and talented experts (not slaves).

• Artists were highly ordained priests of Ptah who oversaw major projects.

Egyptian Architecture

• Pyramids were a part of larger complexes called a necropolis, dedicated to the preservation of a person’s ka, or soul.

• Originally Egyptians used mastabas (flat pyramids) which feature engaged columns.

• Subsequent rulers built on top of existing structures.

• Huge monuments like the sphinx are built from one solid mass of rock.

• Hillside tombs include reserve columns that serve no structural purpose.

Egyptian Architecture

• During Middle and New Kingdom temples and mortuary sites continue to be built into the hillsides.

• We also have massive free standing structures during New Kingdom.

Egyptian Painting and Sculpture

• Hieroglyphics accompany relief and sculpture in the round as well as on papyrus (paper), without the dead would have incomplete afterlives—believing that superhuman forces were at work, needing constant worship and tending to.

• Canon of proportions allow for little individuality promote the idea of stability. Shoulders and eyes are frontal, the rest of the body is in profile, legs will often face a different direction than the head; men are taller and darker than women; shading is rare; humans are portrayed as calm and rational beings; episodes of violence are limited to scenes of animal sacrifice or overthrowing forces of evil.

Egyptian Painting and Sculpture• Figures rest on a ground line; figures

placed on a line above in a register are to be seen as receding in space.

• Unfinished figures would have rendered the individual’s existence in the afterlife incomplete.

• Large sculptures are designed to impress and overwhelm the viewer stone of choice is limestone from Memphis; hard stones avoided when possible (metal tools didn’t work well for these materials).

• Wooden sculptures are generally painted; Metal sculptures are made of iron or copper.

• Large sculptures are rarely freestanding; colossal sculptures are created in situ.

• Outdoor relief sculptures are cut so that shadows create a dramatic impact. Indoor relief sculptures are deeply carved for visibility.

• Low relief sculpture depicting King Narmer uniting upper and lower Egypt.

• Hathor (a god as a cow with a woman’s face) depicted 4 times at top register.

• Figures stand on ground lines.

• Shows hierarchy of scale.• Never fully interpreted—

probably representative of events occurring over a period of time; narrative

• Palette’s typical function is to mix makeup—probably not function of this work; commemorative

• Over 2’ in height.• Themes: unification, balance

over chaos, daily journey of sun god

13. Palette of King NarmerPredynastic Egyptc. 3000-2920 B.C.E.Greywacke

• The iconography on the palette provides an example of the standard we see in Egyptian art for the next 3 millennia:

-the style of representation-registers-hierarchical scaling-regalia (crown, kilt, royal beard, and bulls tail)

• The upper register on both sides shows a human-bull hybrid head of the king-associated with Bat (related to heaven and the horizon).

• The kings name is represented in hieroglyphics as a catfish and a chisel in the center.

15. Seated scribeSaqquara, EgyptOld Kingdom, Fourth Dynastyc. 2620-2500 B.C.E.Painted limestone

Video in notes

• Created for tomb at Saqqara as a provision for the ka• Not a pharaoh-obvious in body type; incredibly life-like.• Color!• Attentive expression.• Holds papyrus in lap; his writing instrument (now gone) was in his hand,ready to write.

17. Great Pyramids (Menkaura, Khafre, Khufu) and Great SphinxGiza, EgyptOld Kingdom, Fourth Dynastyc. 2550-2490 B.C.E.Cut limestone

• Pyramids are giant, limestone monuments to dead pharaohs; each contains a mortuary;temple; pile of limestone with minimal interior space for thedeceased.

• Here pharaoh is buried withinthe structure unlike a mastabawhere the deceased is buriedunder the structure.

• Each corner is oriented to cardinal points.

• Most of the facing has been lost.• Each pyramid has a funerary

complex connected adjacently with a formal pathway used forthe pharaohs funeral procession.

• Shape influence by benben(?),a sacred stone found at Heliopolis—center of sun god cult.

• Great Sphinx has generalized features—may be of Khafre (pyramid is behind the Sphinx).

• Carved in situ; originally painted• Symbol of the sun god with a body of a lion (cats royal animals in Ancient Egypt—

possibly because they saved the grain supply from mice) and pharaoh/god head.• Protective symbol for pyramids behind it.• Head of Sphinx badly damaged during the Middle Ages.

• Crews were divided into 200 men, with each group further divided into 20. Experiments indicate that these groups of 20 men could haul the 2.5 ton blocks from the quarry to pyramid in about 20 minutes, their path eased by a lubricated surface of wet silt. An estimated 340 stones could be moved daily from the quarry to construction site.

• Several smaller satellite pyramids belonging to queens are near the site.

• Mastabas (flat roofed tomb) surround the pyramid of Khufu.

• Largest of the three at 481 feet in height. Each base side is 750 feet in length.

• The greatest difference in length among the four sides is only 1 ¾ inches and the base is level within 2.1 cm.

• There is an estimated 2,300,000 blocks. Inner blocks made of mud brick, faced with white limestone, capped with a gilt pyramidionwhich would have been visible from a considerable distance.

Khufu

• King’s Chamber, which is constructed entirely from red granite. The sarcophagus sits at the exact center axis of the pyramid.

• Included seven large boat pits and two massive (afterlife), rectangular stone lined pits that contained completely disassembled boats(procession).

• Built by Khufu’s second son, slightly smaller but constructed 33ft higher than Khufu.

• Simple interior with a single burial chamber, one small subsidiary chamber, and two passageways.

• Mortuary temple was more complex and contained 52 life sized or large images filling the structure.

Khafre and the Great Spinx

• Smallest at 213 feet with most complex inner chambers.

• It was never completed before his death.

Menkaure

• Dyad statue; simple base; figured attached to pillar

• Frontal position with outward stare.

• Serene, smooth, power, ideal form

• Found at the Valley Temple at Giza complex

• Explored in 1830s using dynamite.

• Pyramid was in poor shape but temple was mostly ignored.

18. King Menkaura and queenOld Kingdom, Fourth dynastyc. 2490-2472Greywacke

Menkaure’s head turned to his right ( originally positioned within a niche, emerging from the structure). The head sports the striped nemes (part of royal regalia). He has clenched fists, held straight down at his sides, grasps ritual cloth rolls. His body is straight, strong, and youthful with individualized facial features—symbolized his power and kingship.

• Queen has proportioned body shown with clinging garment. She is the ideal form of feminine beauty. The couple strides forward with their left feet (standard for king but not queen). Both faces show lack of emotion.

• The dyad was incomplete but was still erected at temple and fully painted.• Unusually the king does not have a protective cobra above his head (nemes covered

in gems?)• The prominence of the female here (near equal size) suggest that this statuary was

meant to be about her. However her long garment gives us insight to how women were to be viewed.

• The protective gesture may mean she is actually his mother.

20. Temple of Amun-Re and Hypostyle HallKarnak, near Luxor, EgyptNew Kingdom, 18th and 19th DynastiesTemple: c. 1550 B.C.E.Hall: c. 1250 B.C.E.Cut sandstone and mud brick

• 2nd most visited historical place in the world behind Giza• Complex dedicated to Amun (principle god), Mut (female

counterpart), and Khonsu (moon god of regeneration and healing).• Largest religious building ever made (200 acres). The great temple

at the heart of Karnak is so big that St Peter’s, Milan, and Notre Dame Cathedrals would fit within its walls.

• Took hundreds of years and many rulers to build. • Set on east-west axis facing Nile River (axial plan).

Pylons-a seriesof gateways toenter the temple-only kings and priests were allowed inside whereThe statue waswashed and dresseddaily. Food and wasOffered twice daily.

Peristyle court in first of a series of structures before getting into innertemple.

Hypostyle hall, at 54,000 square feet and 134 columns (between 10-21 meters tall and 3 meters wide. Capitals on some columns represent papyrus leaves, others have buds. At the top was a clerestory level, providing light and air flow. Carved in sunken relief.

The Egyptians believed that towards the end of annual agricultural cycle the gods and the earth became exhausted and required a fresh input of energy from the chaotic energy of the cosmos. Opet (another representation foAmun) festival lasted for twenty-seven days and was also a celebration of the link between pharaoh and the god Amun. The procession began at Karnak and ended at Luxor Temple, one and a half miles to the south. The function of the temple is a sanctuary for the god’s statue.

21. Mortuary Temple of HatshepsutNear Luxor, EgyptNew Kingdom, 18th Dynastyc. 1473-1458 B.C.E.Sandstone, partially carved into a rock cliff, and red granite

Video in notes

• 3 colonnaded terraces and 2 ramps.• Visually coordinated with the

natural setting; long horizontals andverticals mimic patterns of shape

as well as shadows of the hills.• Terraces would have originally

boasted lush gardens and trees.• The first time the achievements

of a woman are celebrated in Art History.

22. Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and three daughtersNew Kingdom (Amarna), 18th Dynastyc. 1353-1335 B.C.E.Limestone

Video in notes

• Akhenaton holds eldest daughter.• Nefertiti holds another daughter

with another on her lap.• State religion changed under

Akhenaton from Amun to Aton, represented by the sun disk with a cobra.

• Here we see the ankh (Egyptian symbol of life) at the end of the sun rays, pointing towards the pharaoh and his queen.

• Amarna Period is not only marked by religious change, but stylistically lines are more curved, surfaces are smoother, figures are represented with low bellies, long jaws, thin arms,heavy-lidded eyes, and epicene bodies.

• Sarcophagus famously discovered in 1922.

• Found with 143 obejcts on body.• Gold mask placed over head with

smoothy idealized features.• Gold coffin 6’7”.• Holds a crook and flail (symbols of

Osiris).• Son of Akenaton; his mother and

father were brother and sister; his wife his half-sister; physically handicapped due to incest?

• Became king at 9, died at 19-murder?

• Tomb found mostly intact at Valley of the Kings.

• Shifted focus back to Amun after Amarna period.

• Did not produce an heir.

23. Tutankhamun’s tomb, innermost coffinNew Kingdom, 18th Dynastyc. 1323 B.C.E.Gold with inlay of enamel and semiprecious stones

At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the lights, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold –everywhere the glint of gold.

It took a decade to catalogue the findings.

• The gods were thought to have skin of gold, bones of silver, and hair of lapis lazuli—so the king is shown here in his divine form in the afterlife. The goddesses Nekhbet (vulture) and Wadjet (cobra), inlaid with semiprecious stones, stretch their wings across his torso. Beneath these goddesses are two more—Isis and Nephthys—etched into the gold lid.

• Originally rested directly on the shoulders of the mummy inside the innermost gold coffin. It is constructed of two sheets of gold that were hammered together and weighs 22.5 pounds.

• The back of the mask is covered with Spell 151b from the Book of the Dead, which the Egyptians used as a road map for the afterlife.

• Hunefer was a “Royal Scribe” and a “Scribe of Divine Offerings” and an "Overseer of Royal Cattle“.• The location of his tomb is unknown.• His book of the dead was specifically produced for him and was found inside a sculpture. • Illustration from the Book of the Dead—book of spells and charms.• Annubis (god of embalming) with jackal head leads Hu-Nefer into a hall to weigh his soul against a

feather—if sins weigh more he will be condemned. The lion/hippo figure will eat the heart of an evil soul.

• Thoth (head of a bird) is writing down the events (invented hieroglyphics).• Osiris (god of underworld/afterlife) enthroned on right, judges the deceased.

24. Last judgement of the Hu-Nefer, from his tomb (page from the “Book of the Dead”)New Kingdom, 19th Dynastyc. 1275 B.C.E.Painted papyrus scroll

Video in notes