This is a brief review of the key works for Egyptian art
in ART 101. We're going to start off looking at a Predynasic work, then go on
and look at a few Old Kingdom works and then move on to the
New Kingdom. So all these will be key works
that are possibly on quizzes or can be brought in
midterms [essays]. OK so starting off with the "Palette of Narmer" -- one of the
most famous works Egyptian art. We see
both the front -- right here -- and the back sides of the Palette.
This is a single piece of stone -- a single slab of stone and
typically these palettes could be used to mix eye makeup, so this divot or depression right here
could be a place for mixing kohl or eye makeup to line the
eyes. So this was a way to protect the eyes from the intense sunshine in
Egypt. Most likely, it was also thought to be beautiful
This palette, however, was probably primarily ceremonial
because it is so decorated probably on display
and meant to promote the king that is represented there and that's king
Narmer whose name we know because of
the hieroglyph here and here so on
both the front and the back sides.
Starting off on the backside you can see Narmer right in the center here
He's clearly an individual high status. He's wearing a
crown. This is the crown Upper Egypt. He's holding on to a baton or some kind of
weapon. He's about to smite
or hit the captive that he's holding below him,
so clearly he is the man in charge. He has
and individual serving him -- holding onto sandals behind him
Horus (the god Horus) is next to him. Horus
the falcon here, who had special associations with the kings or pharaohs of
Egypt and is represented here and demonstrating
Narmer's control of Lower Egypt by
this hieroglyph or symbol below Horus
We also know that Narmer not only has the support
of the god Horus, but also the goddess Hathor
So this is probably Hathor represented four times --
here, here, here, and here.
She often was represented as a cow or with
cow horns or as a composite figure,
so she was seen as the Divine Mother of the pharaohs, so
she's represented up above in that upper register.
Reaffirming the fact that Namer's in charge
these additional captives in the lower register also the fact that Narmer's
wearing
a kilt or a kind of garment that indicates his
higher status, also the bull's tail here, which is a sign of status
as well, so in addition to the Hathor
heads on the front and also the Narmer hieroglyph.
there's also Narmer wearing the crown Lower Egypt
-- it scoops down low -- with his sandal bearer
again and he's been presented a number bodies that are stacked up
one on top of the other. There's not really a sense of
creating a naturalistic way of stacking bodies one top the other
You have bodies stacked with heads
in between each of their legs. You can see the heads here, and you can see that
each figure has been decapitated.
Down below you can see feline figures with their necks intertwined
possibly a symbol of harmony between Upper and Lower Egypt. Narmer was a
figure that was bringing together
disparate parts of Egypt. Bringing together Upper and Lower
Egypt. This is why we often call it "Predynastic" or some people
call it "Early Dynastic" because this is when the Empire is really getting going [in Egypt].
And then down below you have a symbol for Narmer as the bull and
he's crashing through an aerial view of a city. You can see the walls
there
and then you can see an additional captive being crashed. And all these
figures have similar
hairstyles, similar features, and they've all been stripped as a sign
of their lower status -- their status that is below
the status of Narmer, of course, and those
in his retinue. Alright so moving along...
just a few key terms here
Hieratic scale: representing the size of things according to their
importance, so Narmer clearly is the largest figure. He really is dominating the scene
on this side he's really filling up the entire register
also on the side, so hieratic scale
representing the size of the things according to their importance, and then a "register"
one of a number of bands or sections into which a design
is divided, so you can see there are three registers here, so
1,2, 3, and then you have a
half one over here and then 1,2,3,4
so those lines provide a convenient way of dividing up space
and creating a logical sense of space. So Hathor as I said, she's the daughter
of Re (Ra). She's the Divine Mother of the pharaohs, and then another important --
-- a couple of important gods and goddesses, so Osiris
is the lord of the underworld. He was murdered by his brother Seth
and Osiris' wife was Isis and then
their son is Horus, so we just saw Horus as the falcon in the
previous image, so Horus is the son of Osiris
He avenged his father's death killing Seth and became king of Egypt
which is how he became so important for the pharaohs later on
Osiris, however, is dominating the underworld, so
in life when they are rulers they very much like Horus.
In the underworld, when they are going to their tombs they are definitely
making a lot of offerings or representations of Osiris
Alright -- how do we know how to read these hieroglyphs? That's an
important question to bring up.
This is the Rosetta Stone, so it's not just a
software for learning different languages. The Rosetta Stone is actually a
stone that has three different scripts: Hieroglyphs, Demotic,
and then Greek. And scholars knew how to read these two scripts, and so they were able
to
finally crack the code of hieroglyphs
through the discovery of this stone, so this was a very important
discovery, so that we can read a lot of the hieroglyphs in the Egyptian period,
so it's important to note that this period has
writing that we can read. which differentiates it from the Neolithic and
Paleolithic periods. Here just some representations of the crowns,
so the crown of Lower Egypt, the crowd Upper Egypt, and then you often see the
combined croat later on
so we move into, for example, the New Kingdom in Egypt.
so just keep this in mind as we move along
Alright, so probably the most famous monuments
in Egypt are the Great Pyramids at Giza
created in the fourth dynasty and
these were created for a single dynasty -- a single famil,y
Khufu's pyramid is the farthest away here. You can barely see it
Next is Khafre's with the little bit limestone casing still at the top
and finally Menkaure's here is the smallest.
There are probably pyramids dedicated to Menkaure's
wives or consorts. They face east towards the rising sun, so you have this
continual sense of renewal and rebirth
everyday. They are symbols of the sun resembling
the ben-ben stone, which was an emblem
of Heliopolis, which was the location of the cult and temple
Ra (or Re) the god of the sun
So the sun is very key to Egypt. A lot of ancient cultures have gods
-- principal gods -- that are symbolic of the sun
or meant to control the sun,
so that's very significant. Also important to note
is that these were not the first pyramids created.
There were a number of attempts -- trial and error -- in order to
finally get to this point, so for example we see
King Snefru before this group of rulers -- this group of pharaohs --
who makes a number attempts at pyramids that go awry
but finally once we get to the fourth dynasty, and we see these pyramids really coming
together
as complete works. And these are just parts a very elaborate burial complexes,
so there are temples that were attached to these. These were not the only parts of
the complexes. These were really cities unto themseles
on the side of the [Nile] river that tended to be dedicated to death and burial
so very elaborate at a point when the pharaoh's
power is quite substantial and they can direct these kinds of projects with
very elaborate resources -- with a lot of resources at their disposal.
So Ra (Re) is this god who later merges Amen (Amun)
We see him as Amen-Ra, sometimes spelled with a "u" here, sometimes with an
"e" here. This is the supreme god, god of the sun,
god that brought light to the world. Here we see the portrait
of Khafre, so Khafre being the
pharaoh who had pyramid in the middle
If I just go back here, you can see it's this pyramid here,
so this was part at that burial complex. You can see
this was actually one of many, so this one is
the most well-preserved, so that's why we often study it in
Art History. You can see his body is very perfectly rendered;
he's in great shape; he's definitely an ideal god [pharaoh's were god-kings]
His headdress covers his hair. Typically pharaohs would not allow their hair to be shown
He's wearing the false beard, but he also shows that Horus
-- that he has a connection to the divine -- pharaohs were considered god-kings,
so he has Horus just behind him here and also plants along the side that show
control over various parts of Egypt. He looks very firm and strong.
There are representations of lions on either side of his throne. This one is damaged on this
side, but these were signs powers as well, so
very significant in that sense. We also have a representation
Menkaure and one of his wives, and you can see that Menkaure is clearly
the main figure here. He looks very stoic; he looks very
sturdy; same idealized body type -- very strong --
that we saw previously with Khafre, and we also see that his wife is very important.
Typically these pharaohs would marry members of their family, who also were
considered to have
this kind of god-king, divine blood
so his wife would also be very significant. She's clearly
a figure of support. She's slightly behind him,
but she's almost as tall as he is, so it seems that she has a significant role as
well
His masculinity is very much emphasized, while her femininity
seems to be emphasized through the tight garment that she's wearing.
Another work from the Old Kingdom is from a
mastaba -- a tomb of an individual named Ti. He was a member of
the elite class -- the noble classes -- Ti is shown watching a
hippopotamus hunt here. So we can see him watching
the hippopotamus hunt and you can see the large
hippopotami here, but also the fish are quite large. The scale seems be
slightly off, and Ti here is represented as very calm
just enjoying this moment. He seems to be
possibly already in the moment of the afterlife or he is
the director this operation. His figure is represented just like
Narmer's that we saw on the Palette [of Narmer], which is what we call a composite view
his shoulders are facing forward, his legs are in profile,
his face is in profile. So we are getting the optimal
amount of visual information. We're getting a lot of information from
seeing this -- by seeing all of these views together
They seem to be in a densely packed
area on the water. You can the
jagged waves of the water -- if you look at this close-up over here you can see
how they move
back and forth. So maybe this was an activity that Ti enjoyed during
life, that he would continue to enjoy in death by it being represented here,
but he's also shown as the director of the moment
and also in a really peaceful state. His body is represented as the largest in
hieratic scale, and it's also represented in that composite
view, while don't see that composite view when we look at these
servants or individuals who seems to be carrying out the main
physical labor of the hunt, so it's interesting that the artist chose to represent the
bodies in different ways.
Seemingly, this composite view is associated with
an elite status, while this [style] is associated with
a lower status so just keep that in mind
as we move along, and next video will go into the
New Kingdom in Egypt.