Aldred, Cyril. Egyptian Art in the Days of the Pharaohs 3100 - 320 B.C.. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1980.
Egyptian Art in the Days of the Pharaohs 3100 - 320 B.C. presents a detailed survey of Egyptian art and architecture. Aldred begins the chapter with a detailed insight into the reasoning and perception of the Egyptian artist. He also shows how theirs was different from their artist contemporaries in other ancient civilizations. He says that,
In seeking to represent three-dimensional objects on a plane surface, whether a drawing board or an area of wall, the Egyptian avoided the perspectival solution of the problem which alone of the nations of antiquity, the Greeks ultimately reached by the fifth century BC. Their vision of the natural world, seen from a certain standpoint at a certain moment of time, would have seemed to the ancient Egyptian as presumptuous, and concerned only with illusion, a mere distortion of reality. The Egyptian was concerned not with presenting an evanescent personal impression, caught in an instant, but with what he regarded as eternal verities. He represented not what could be seen transiently, but what he expected to exist for perpetuity.
He continues the chapter by noting the importance of symbolism in Egyptian art and gives examples to illustrate this. One example given is of children represented as adults in miniature. Most Egyptian children were depicted nude with a single lock of hair on the right side of their heads. They were also depicted having their forefinger held in their mouths to symbolize immaturity. Another example is a wealthy figure depicted with a large potbelly. This symbolizes the figure as having plenty to eat and drink. He also describes the vital link between Egyptian art and writing. They are one in the same and one cannot exist without the other. This is very different from western thought entirely, although it does occur frequently in advertising and in everyday life. An example of this 'modern symbolism' could be the common stop sign.
The second chapter deals with the tools, methods, and environment the Egyptian artist worked in. This chapter was packed with facts that were both interesting and new to me. The author gave a detailed, in sequence procedure for both wall painting and sculpture. He also gave descriptions of the tools used and how they were used. One example is the artist's use of a string grid dipped into red paint to mark off proportions for figure drawing. This was also true for sculpture as well. The stone block would be marked the same way with string and the figure drawn in views from the top and sides. The back of the statue was normally a solid block to hold the piece together.
The remainder of the book is a chronological survey of Egyptian art, starting with the First Dynasty (The Archaic Period) and ending with the Thirtieth Dynasty (The Late Period). This portion of the book talks more about the art itself rather than the artists who produced it. There is also a focus on the society surrounding the artists and what their situation was during that particular time in Egyptian history.
Cyril Aldred graduated from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, in 1936. While attending there he studied Egyptology as an art historian. From 1961 to 1974, he was Keeper of the Department of Art and Archaeology at the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, and also served as the Associate Curator of the Department of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He has written several works on Egypt to include, Egypt to the End of the Old Kingdom(1965), Akhenaten and Nefertiti(1973), Jewels of the Pharaohs(2nd edn, 1978), Tutankhamun, Craftsmanship in Gold in the Reign of the King(1979), The Egyptians(rev.edn, 1987), and Akhenaten: King of Egypt(1988).