ART HISTORY 2 : EGYPTIAN ART

EGYPTIAN ART

The history of ancient Egypt spans the period from the early prehistoric settlements of the northern Nile valley to the Roman conquest, in 30 BC. The Pharaonic Period is dated from the 32nd century BC, when Upper and Lower Egypt were unified, until the country fell under Macedonian rule, in 332 BC. When Egypt age take place in civilization. Everything was changed including ART. So for now on were gonna talk about Egyptian art. Ancient Egyptian art is the painting, sculpture, and architecture produced by the civilization in the Nile Valley from 5000 BCE to 300 CE. During ancient Egyptian, their art are more likely visualizing pharaoh, slaves(human being), gods and all things surround them which is nature. tools for Ancient Egyptian art included paintings, sculpture in wood (now rarely surviving), stone and ceramics, drawings on papyrus, faience, jewelry, ivories, and other art media. It displays an extraordinarily vivid representation of the ancient Egyptian's socioeconomic status and belief systems. As we know the Pyramid of Giza also one of an art that categorize as an architecture part that they made, it is a monument to show how big the slaves back then and it gives a question mark to all the archaeologist until now. Because it is possible to create a really big sculpture and its also need a help with technology. As we know back then they doesn't have any kind of technology to brings a big stone together.For your information The base of the pyramid covers 55,000 m2 (592,000 ft 2) with each side greater than 20,000 m2 (218,000 ft2) in area.

During the civilization of Egyptian there are 4 periods which is :-

-Old Kingdom (2680 BC-2258 BC)

-Middle Kingdom (2134 BC-1786 BC)

-New Kingdom (1570 BC-1085 BC)

-Amarna Period (1350 BC-1320 BC)

So i'm interested in making a research during Amarna Period art

The Amarna Period was an era of Egyptian history during the latter half of the Eighteenth Dynasty  when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhetaten ('Horizon of the Aten') in what is now Amarna. It was marked by the reign of Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten (1353–1336 BC) in order to reflect the dramatic change of Egypt's polytheistic religion into one where the sun disc Aten was worshipped over all other gods. Aten was not solely worshipped (the religion was not monotheistic), but the other gods were worshipped to a significantly lesser degree. The Egyptian pantheon of the equality of all gods and goddesses was restored under Akhenaten's successor, Tutankhamun.

Amarna Period art are more likely have sense of movement and activity with figures having raised heads, many figures overlapping and many scenes busy and crowded. The human body is portrayed differently; figures, always shown in profile on reliefs, are slender, swaying, with exaggerated extremities. In particular, depictions of Akhenaten give him distinctly feminine qualities such as large hips, prominent breasts, and a larger stomach and thighs.

   Akhenaten, his wife Nefertiti, and their daughters

   

According to wiki:-The Stela of Akhenaten and his family is the name for an altar image in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo which depicts the Pharaoh Akhenaten, his queen Nefertiti, and their three children. The limestone stela with the inventory number JE 44865 is 43.5 × 39 cm in size and was discovered by Ludwig Borchardt in Haoue Q 47 at Tell-el Amarna in 1912.^[1]When the archaeological finds from Tell-el Amarna were divided on 20 January 1913, Gustave Lefebvre chose this object on behalf of the Egyptian Superintendency for Antiquities (the modern Supreme Council of Antiquities) instead of    the Bust of Nefertiti.

As we can see with the art. They are sitting on a stools which is back then they already invented a stool. and handling a jewel to his eldest daughter . People Egyptian back then really emphasizing treasures and it describes their rank. Nefertiti sits opposite him, on the right handside, playing with two of their daughter on her lap. These are Meketaten and  Ankhesenpaaten. In  in the middle of the stela is the disk of the Aten, whose rays end in hands holding the symbol of life (Ankh) and are thereby depicted as life-bringing. In the background there are various inscriptions with the names and titles of the people depicted. The stela is bordered on three sides by a band of further hieroglyphs, marked with blue paint, which still partially survives. At the base of the stela are small holes on both sides which indicate that the stela was fitted with wings on each side.