If anything, the style of Akhenaton would tend to emphasize positive features, and perhaps even idealize the figure. The change in style may be attributed to Akhenaton's introduction of monotheism into Egypt. Ahten, the one God into which all other Egyptian deities were formed, was usually portrayed as a sun figure. In keeping with Ahten's supremacy and the tendency of Egyptian monarchs to affiliate them with the prevailing deity, Akhenaton called himself the "One Unique of Re," signifying his individualism.
ecause of this, Egyptian artists of the time began the movement to the previously mentioned idealistic portrayal of the human in art.
The representation of Akhenaton and his family members, therefore, was focused primarily on the favorable features and to deemphasize any flaws. The artist ek is known to have developed sculpture of Akhenaton in such a favorable manner that the monarch used his physical appearance to represents the Egyptian god…...
On viewing extensive amounts of Egyptian art, the similarities between the subjects and styles is somewhat astounding to a Western eye, which is more trained to notice the different signs of individual artists. It easily becomes clear that though the Egyptians saw aesthetic value in art and material things, most of the artwork they left behind -- especially in tombs and funerary chapels -- serve a much higher purpose through representation.
Mummification is only the most prominent sign of the Egyptians' beliefs regarding the after life and the preparations necessary for it. Their art was consumed with the same ideals, and in many ways their culture could be said to be a sort of death cult -- this life was primarily used to celebrate and represent the next.
ibliography
Applegate, Melissa Littlefield. The Egyptian ook of Life. Deerfield each, FL: Health Communications Inc., 2000.
David, Ann Rosalie. The Experience of Ancient Egypt. New…...
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Bibliography
Applegate, Melissa Littlefield. The Egyptian Book of Life. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications Inc., 2000.
David, Ann Rosalie. The Experience of Ancient Egypt. New York: Routledge, 2000.
Forman, Werner and Malek, Jaromir. In the Shadow of the Pyramids. London: Little Brown & Co., 1986.
Moreover, this particular work displays some of the key characteristics of Isis. In addition to her magical powers, Isis represented for Egyptian culture the model of perfection for womanhood. This model, of course, includes the role of the woman as a mother, which is why it is vital that she is breast-feeding her newborn in this sculpture.
It is also key to understand the fact that Horus was one of the principle gods in the Egyptian pantheon. He was their son God and as such represents the ultimate manifestation of a king. The sculpture reinforces this fact by depicting Horus' royal and divine lineage, since he is being nursed by another very well-known Egyptian divinity. Lastly, it is essential to realize that as the quintessential matriarch and womanly figure, Isis was the example that many Egyptian queens were based upon. Thus, it is possible to see other queens wearing a…...
The "Stela" was made around 1350 BCE, during the amarna period, and depicts Akhenaten, who initiated monotheism in Egypt, and his consort Nerfiti, in a limestone relief carving. The "Stela" represents the pharaoh and his family in a naturalistic manner that breaks from the traditional Egyptian stylization. The royal couple hold their three babies underneath the sun in a garden setting. The lines of the carving are more fluid, and the human forms are depicted as stylized, but more to a natural scale. Generally the piece indicates movement and intimacy rather than ordered ritual. The connection between the pharaoh and the sun, symbolizing the one god Ahten is made explicit by the rays of the sun shining down on the happy family.
These two pieces show Egypt at the moment of its dynastic inception and at a later moment in its reflective glory. The pieces are both identifiably Egyptian, but the…...
Ancient Egypt featured a wide variety of different pharaohs's. It is often a less well-known fact that these on occasion included a female pharaoh, such as Nefertari or Hatshepsut. The 18th Dynasty is no exception to this rule. It is interesting to see the extent of the importance of religion in lives of the kings and the people of the time. Often this is indicated by the art created to honor the rulers of the time. elow then is a comparison of the statue of Hatshepsut with the Sphinx of Senwosret III.
There are many different possibilities regarding Hatshepsut's reign and the way in which this female pharaoh validated her rulership. Some argue for example that she saw herself as Thutmose I's heir. Another argument is that she could have capitalized on her role as the "wife" of the god Amun, which phrase was commonly used for royalty at the time.…...
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Bibliography
Bryan, Betsy M. "The 18th Dynasty Before the Amarna Period." In The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Rundle Clark, R.T. Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt. London: Thames and Hudson, 1959.
Artists express feelings, thoughts, and images within their art. Sometimes they show more than that and paint their spirit on canvas. Spirituality was an important aspect of identity for many throughout the centuries and millennia. In modern times, artists like Georges Braque and assily Kandinsky wished to showcase the essence of the intangible by illustrating it through unique patterns and shapes. During the Renaissance period, and during the Baroque period, artists demonstrated their beliefs and spirituality through a realistic fashion, depicting images of the Last Supper and the Passion of Christ. Ancient Greece showed gods and goddesses, demonstrating their devotion to their faith.
Religion plays an important part to most people's spirituality. Therefore, art showcasing spirituality often times highlights religious images. These images can offer expressions of the divine and of the fears and hopes of artists in their respective time periods. Religion and art appear to go hand-in-hand in…...
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Works Cited
Metmuseum.org,. 'Landscape With Perseus And Andromeda: From The "Mythological Room" Of The Imperial Villa At Boscotrecase [Roman] (20.192.16) -- Heilbrunn Timeline Of Art History -- The Metropolitan Museum Of Art'. N.p., 2015. Web. 5 Dec. 2015.
Odysseus.culture.gr,. 'Ministry Of Culture And Sports -- National Archaeological Museum'. N.p., 2015. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.
Sandrashaw.com,. 'Lectures By Sandra J. Shaw'. N.p., 2015. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.
These pyramids were the resting places of these kings and pharaohs' sacred bodies, which the Egyptians believed should be preserved if the soul should live beyond. This explains why they prevented the decay of the corpses through a mysteriously elaborate method of embalming as mummies. They lay these mummies in stone coffins and wrote incantations to assist them in their journey in the next world. The Egyptians meant that their leaders would live forever. Egyptian art and architecture reflect nature and the regularity of the whole, especially in the reliefs and paintings that adorned the walls of the tombs. The art appears to be intended to be for the dead man interred and to keep him or her alive. Egyptian painters looked at life in a very different way from others. They did not value beauty or wholeness as others do in their works. Egyptian painters wanted to preserve…...
So valuable that it has never been permitted to leave Egypt, the Palette of King Narmer establishes both visual and iconographic conventions that will guide Egyptian art for centuries (Calvert, n.d.). The iconography on the Palette of King Narmer can be found in Egyptian art for the next several millennia, including the way the entire scene is depicted, and the specific elements and subjects like the headdresses and royal regalia. A double-sided palette, it also tells the story of the King, which is itself a common feature in Egyptian art and design. The front of the palette includes the King’s name rendered in hieroglyphs, flanked by two bull or cow heads that possibly symbolize the goddess Hathor. Below this line of “text” are three additional layers, the first of which demonstrates clearly the extent of the king’s power and dominion over the land and people. The king’s headdress is one…...
Ancient Near Eastern art is easily distinguishable and recognizable because of its consistent use of various techniques including the hieratic scale, composite view, static visuals, frontality, and overall stylized effects. These elements serve practical and symbolic functions, allowing the artists to tell stories about the subjects they depict. Moreover, these characteristics enabled the anonymous artists to consistently reproduce the work of their predecessors to convey a consistent visual style that persisted throughout time.
Hieratic Scale
A hieratic scale allows the artist to assign symbolic, hierarchical value to certain elements of objects in a composition. In ancient Egyptian art, the hieratic scale is used mainly to differentiate between the status of the elite (such as pharaohs) and the common person. For example, on the Narmer Palette, the pharaoh appears many times larger than his vanquished enemies, not because he is a giant but because his status and power is far greater than that…...
Ethics of epatriation-Egyptian Artifacts
Egyptians making efforts to get their artifacts back
The artifacts that get stolen from a country are hard to get back as, the country from which they are stolen would have to ask the authorities of the other country to help them find those artifacts or fight a legal battle in the courts of the other country which can not only be very time consuming but also expensive. Although now there are laws that require the countries to return the stolen items to the ones that they originally belonged to but a lot of the disputed items were returned long before these laws were implemented (Durham, 2007).
It was last year that the chief of Egyptian antiquities; Hawass got together with 25 other countries in the search of all the artifacts that were stolen or were even gifted. He said that the museums and the authorities who refused…...
Art Museum Visit
This particular piece of art is a limestone statue, which in all likelihood, originally was a painted piece. Limestone was a precious mineral, and would have most likely been honed and by prepared by a servant or slave for the artisan to work with. This statue is considered to be sculpture in the round as there are no additional supports required (Barnet 113). A great deal of detail is carved into the headdress, and because of the realism qualities, the statue is of a woman. A number of these statues were designed in small decorative forms; however, many were crafted in life size and even larger forms. The proportions seem to be to scale. The Egyptian use of proportions is a method that depicts the human figure in a consistent way, using measurements derived from the observation of real bodies and related to Egyptian metrology (Baines 9). Every…...
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References
Barnet, Sylvan. A Short Guide to Writing About Art, 9th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008), 113-114.
Baines, C. Egyptian Figures, Personification, and the Iconology of a Genre. Warminster. 1985.
Baines, J. "Theories and Universals of Representation: Heinrick Schafer and Egyptian Art, Art History 8, 1 (1985): 1-25.
vii).
The image is a symbol for the mental concept that it represents. The more realistic representations found at the end of the Amarna period present the royal family as humans with emotions and feelings just like everyone else. This change in representation may have been representative of changes in the relationship between the monarchy and the people. ritings of the time tell us that the king and the royal family attempted to make themselves more accessible to the people (Blatt and Blatt, p. 62).
This renewed realism in the relationship between the royal family and the general population may have been the reason for the development of more realistic representations of the royal family. They may have wanted to show the human side of the royal family in order to make them more accessible to the population at large. Changing art forms during the Amarna period may have been representative…...
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Works Cited
Blatt, E. And Blatt, S. Continuity and Change in Art: The Development of Modes of Representation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1984.
Kent R. Weeks, "Valley of the Kings,"
National Geographic, September 1998, Vol. 194, No. 3, p. 28.
Noblecourt, C. And Kenett, F. Ancient Egypt: The New Kingdom and the Amarna Period. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society. 1960.
As Amun, he also wears a flat-topped crown, which was his signature. The figure is carrying and ankh in one hand and a scimitar in the other which is laid across his chest.
The gold represents the sun in ancient Egyptian culture, and so it is the only fitting
Hellenistic period
The Hellenistic period began in 323 BC, after the death of one of ancient Greece's great heroes, Alexander the Great. Alexander had conquered vast expanses of the ancient world, which opened up great cultural influences on the people of Greece (National Museum of Athens 2010). During this era, the people speak a multitude of different languages, and there are cultural influences from around the ancient world parading through the streets, which might I add, have all been recently paved. The city itself looks strikingly similar to more modern day cities. The culture is ripe with artistic expression and acceptance. This is…...
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References
American Institute of Pyramidology. "Part One: The Ancient Mystery Unraveled." The Great Pyramid. 2010. Retrieved 19 Feb 2010 from http://greatpyramid.org/aip/gr-pyr1.htm
French omantic painter, Eugene Delacroix, is well-known from this period. Delacroix often took his subjects from literature but added much more by using color to create an effect of pure energy and emotion that he compared to music. He also showed that paintings can be done about present-day historical events, not just those in the past (Wood, 217). He was at home with styles such as pen, watercolor, pastel, and oil. He was also skillful in lithography, a new graphic process popular with the omantics. His illustrations of a French edition of Goethe's "Faust" and Shakespeare's "Hamlet" still stand as the finest examples in that medium.
Delacroix' painting "Massacre at Chios" is precisely detailed, but the action is so violent and the composition so dynamic that the effect is very disturbing (Janson, 678). With great vividness of color and strong emotion he pictured an incident in which 20,000 Greeks were killed…...
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References
Art: A World History. New York: DK Publishing, 1997.
Eysteinsson, Astradur. The Concept of Modernism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1992
Gardner, Helen. Art through the Ages. New York: Harcourt, Brace: 1959.
The artworks prevalent during the early Middle Ages in many ways stand between these two extremes. The art of this period was one that was both religiously inclined but also celebrated the human form and human nature that was to become so prominent in the enaissance. In many ways much of early Medieval art was similar to the abstract and decorative art that we find in Islamic examples. An example that has been chosen to represent this early period of European art is the Gerona Bible Master from Bologna, Italy,
This decorative example displays intricate artwork that emphasizes and enhances the Biblical context. The text or lyrics on the page refers to hymnal and religious phrases of praise, such as "Let us rejoice" (Art: Middle Ages). Note the way that the decorative images add depth to the aesthetics of the script and the manuscript as a whole.
The ancient Egyptians were a diverse group, with a mix of different ethnicities and origins, but the predominant evidence suggests that they were primarily indigenous North Africans with darker skin tones, indicating that they were likely black.
One key piece of evidence supporting the thesis that ancient Egyptians were black is their own artistic representations of themselves. Ancient Egyptian art consistently depicted people with dark brown or black skin, which aligns with the physical characteristics of people from sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, analysis of mummies and skeletal remains of ancient Egyptians has revealed genetic markers and physical features that are common among....
Evidence Supporting the Thesis of Ancient Egyptian Blackness The historical and archaeological evidence supporting the thesis that ancient Egyptians were black is compelling, spanning various fields of inquiry and offering a comprehensive portrayal of their racial identity. 1. Archaeological Depictions: Ancient Egyptian art and artifacts frequently depict their citizens with dark skin, broad noses, and full lips. These depictions are consistent with the physical characteristics of indigenous African populations, providing visual evidence of their blackness. For example, the famous statue of Queen Tiye, mother of Akhenaten, showcases her dark complexion and African features. 2. Anthropological Studies: Anthropological research on ancient Egyptian skeletons reveals the presence....
The Significance of Skin Color in Ancient Egyptian Historical Identity Skin color played a significant role in the historical identity of ancient Egyptians, shaping their cultural perceptions, social hierarchy, and interactions with other civilizations. Despite the common misconception of ancient Egyptians as solely a dark-skinned people, archaeological evidence and historical accounts reveal a more nuanced understanding of their diverse skin tones. Historical Representations Ancient Egyptian art depicts individuals with a wide range of skin colors, from light to dark. Statues, paintings, and reliefs show individuals with fair, olive, and reddish-brown skin, reflecting the ethnic diversity of the population. While dark skin tones were....
The artistic personifications in Ludovisi Gaul and Akhenaten reveal different cultural contexts based on the time periods and civilizations they originate from. The Ludovisi Gaul, a marble statue depicting a defeated Gaul and his wife, is a Roman sculpture from the 2nd century AD. The piece represents the Roman conquest of Gaul and the defeat of the Gauls by the Romans. The Gaul is depicted in a realistic and emotional manner, showcasing the Roman artistic focus on naturalism and the representation of human emotions. This reflects the Roman value of military triumph and dominance, as well as their interest in....
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