Art for everyday living

Art for Day to Day Living

Sample picture of an Ancient Egyptian Mirror

If one wonders how important art and the usefulness of an artist is in day-to-day living, all one has to do is look around. If one is inside a house or an office, everything the eye can see has been designed by an artist, from the stapler on the designer desk to the rug beneath one's Nike sneakers to the very walls around one, as architects had to design them, as well. This has been the case since humans moved indoors to keep out of the rain. They had to design and build shelters; they shaped clothes, tools, cooking ware, and implements of daily living from materials they had at hand. Base metals, such as copper, were refined and then combined to create bronze. Products made from metal have survived through millenniums so we see what daily implements looked like during ages past. In Egypt, Garments were made from the fiber of the flax plant, woven into linen, while knives and needles used to cut and sew the resulting cloth were shaped or carved from bone or stone, copper, or bronze. The King Tut Shop web site contains examples, as well as the complete history, of many Ancient Egyptian objects. (King Tut 1)

Robes were fashioned from almost sheer linen, and shawls were thrown over the heads and shoulders. The long, linen robes that Egyptian women wore were rectangles, crossed over and tied behind the neck, or at the back or on both sides to form a dress. Sheer outer garments were then worn over the dresses or kilts (for men) and the resulting semi-transparent fashions were attractive, as well as cool in the hot weather typical of Egypt. Comfort, beauty and cleanliness were important to Egyptian noble people and it is reflected in their everyday clothes.

Makeup was a popular product in Ancient Egypt. Egyptian women applied kohl, a black dye kept in a jar or pot, to line their eyes and eyebrows, using a brush made from a reed of papyrus while they held mirrors made of polished brass. Men also used kohl, which was supposed to protect their eyes against eye infections. The women used a dye called henna to color their nails and lips red. Both men and women wore wigs of curled human hair or wool. All this attention paid to their appearance demanded that a high-quality mirror be used. (Virtual, 3)

Hand-held mirrors were made of a sheet of metal hammered down to less than a millimeter (1/32") thick. They were sometimes decorated with solid gold and inlaid with precious stones. The handles were sometimes a sculpture of a maiden holding a cat, or other object, or with her hands raised to hold the mirror; abstract and symbolic designs were also utilized. The Egyptians felt that makeup and mirrors would be needed in the afterlife, so they were placed in the tombs of the deceased. The bronze on a mirror could not be touched, or it would ruin the shiny surface with the oils from fingers. If the mirror was simply cleaned occasionally with a damp cloth, the valuable and decorative object would last a long time. Some of these mirrors have survived until today, although the brass surface has been ruined from exposure to the elements. (Ancient Empires, pars. 1-2)

Egyptian glassware was developed from the time of Thutmose IV (1397-1387 BCE). Drinking cups and kohl containers were made of glass, as were containers for scented oils used after bathing, ointments and other cosmetics, but glass mirrors were not invented until the 12th century, AD (Stern and Schlick-Nolte 1994:130 #5).