The Elements of Egyptian Art.
Although Egyptian artworks can be appreciated purely on a visual level alone, it becomes much more interesting when the viewer can understand the history, religion, social customs, and working traditions that influenced the artists' thoughts and style while creating these works.
Although the style of Egyptian art changed little between Archaic Egypt (4000 B.C.), and the Ptolemaic Dynasty (332 B.C.), there are a few points in the history of Egyptian art where dramatic changes did occur. These changes were a direct reflection of the conditions placed upon the artist in society during that particular period in Egypt's history.
A collapse of the Old Kingdom in 2258 B.C. interrupted a uniform style in art produced throughout. During this social upheaval known as the First Intermediate Period, a breakdown of arts and crafts took place. The kingdom divided into a feudal system with lesser rulers taking possession of the remains of the Old Kingdom. Although the arts flourished again in the Middle Kingdom after the Monarchy had been reestablished in 2052 B.C., regional styles remained different and diversified.
In 1786 B.C., a western Asiatic people, the Hyksos, invaded Egypt and ruled until 1570 B.C. During this time known as the Second Intermediate Period, the arts were not affected to the degree they were in the First Intermediate Period. A continuity of style was maintained well into the New Kingdom that began with liberation from the Hyksos.
Following this liberation, Egypt widened its contacts abroad and expanded its borders to assume a new foreign policy of conquest to include Syria, Palestine, and the Sudan. The effects of new foreign wealth from war brought increased power to the priesthood of the god Amon. With this increased power, the arts thrived to a new level of size a quanity. Statuary became larger to show the power of the king. Tombs and temples grew to become massive structures.
In 1372 B.C., the Pharaoh Akhenaten turned away from the priesthood of Amon and the old gods. He formed his own religion based on the worship of one god, the Aten, as the supreme being. This change to monotheism brought new expression to the styles created in painting and sculpture. Figures did not adhere to the canons of proportion set in the early Middle Kingdom. The figure was now depicted with less stylization and more realism. This brief interlude, known as the Amarna, lasted until 1350 B.C. with the death of Akhenaten.
Restored to power after the death of Akhenaten, the priesthood of Amon and the new Ramesside kings proclaimed to the people that Akhenaten was a heretic and commanded that all memories of him and his religion be destroyed.
Under the rule of Akhenaten, foreign policy had been ignored to such a degree that its effects were felt throughout the rest of Egypt's future. Egyptian city-states began to revolt in Persia and Syria. The Hittites magnified this situation by invading Persia. Egypt tried futile attempts to regain control of the North, but was invaded by the sea people, a migrating mass of people that moved south from the Balkans and the Black Sea across Asia Minor.
Unable to defend its borders, Lower Egypt was invaded by the Kushites in 730 B.C. The Kushites reigned until an Assyrian invasion in 671 B.C. After the Assyrians, the Persians, a century later in 525 B.C., invaded and occupied Egypt until 404 B.C., when independence was restored. In 341 B.C., the Persians invaded Egypt for a second time only to be conquered by Alexander the Great from Macedonia in 332 B.C. This year, 332 B.C. marks the end of Dynastic Egypt.
Although the period after the rule of Akhenaten showed a steady decline of power and frequent occupations by other cultures, Egyptian Art did not bend nor sway to these new cultures entering the land. This resistance to outside influence is a reflection of what Egyptian Art stands for . . . . Permanence.
The Egyptian artists were not influenced by these changes because they created in a unique style that reflected the religious and social views of the world around them. Egyptian religion, based on a perfect balance within nature, originated with the annual flooding cycle of the Nile River and evolved into an obsession that dominated Egyptian culture for three thousand years. The local deities in early Egyptian culture appeared as animals and later assumed human form. These human forms frequently retained the animal's head, or the symbol of the animal was placed upon the head of the figure. The gods were of various backgrounds and each had an area of control. The Pharaoh, since predynastic times, was always considered a god and to be the earthly embodiment of an ancient deity that passed through generation to generation. The king, being a direct living descendent of the sun god Ra, was responsible for the welfare of the land. It was his duty to keep a balance between all things in his realm through offerings to the gods. New shrines were created with the reign of every new Pharaoh to assure his safe passage through the underworld. Because of its funerary purposes, Egyptian art was utilitarian, not aesthetic in function, and was created without beauty in mind.
The reality represented in Egyptian art is not a visual one for the living, but a spiritual one for the dead. The Egyptian artist recreated experiences of life to accompany the dead into the After-life. Therefore, he had to create a different reality from the norm in Western Art. This difference in reality is especially evident in the human form.
In Western Art, the use of foreshortening creates depth within the figure. In contrast to this, the Egyptian artist flattened and simplified the figure by using a hybrid system of views. The head, legs, and feet of the figure are turned to a profile position. And the eye, shoulders and torso remain in a frontal position. Both of these views together show the entire figure. By painting the head in profile, the artist solved the problem of rendering difficult facial features. This is also true for the shoulders painted in a frontal position. If you turn the figure in full profile, the shoulders become hard to render, but if you keep the shoulders frontal, they are easier to paint and read visually as shoulders. There is not a hint of foreshortening throughout the figure. Overlapping arms and legs suggest a shallow depth. There is also no shading or shadows to show form. All figures are painted in flat, saturated hues. Major parts of the figure would become lost or hidden behind other parts of the body by foreshortening, which does not follow the Egyptian rule of showing the entire figure. If any parts of the figure were to be missing, those parts would not be present during the dead's journey beyond life. However, the use of one frontal eye and one profiled ear, rather than both eyes and ears, raise an argument against the theory of representing the entire figure.
Finally, in addition to the historical, religious, and social influences, the environment the artists worked in was also a major contribution to their style and methods of creating. Egyptian society placed heavy demands upon the artist. Most of the artwork was produced in organized workshops connected to a temple. Metal smiths, jewelers, carpenters, stone masons, painters, and sculptors, all worked side by side producing artwork in an assembly line environment. One craft did not take precedence over another, and all were looked upon equally as contributing to the name of the king. Many of these craftsmen were under the supervision of an educated director or Overseer of Craftsmen. He was usually qualified for this position through a thorough knowledge of all the artforms in addition to being a priest of the temple. His job was to supervise and maintain the craftsmans' well being, to recognize any flaws in their workmanship and give advice in correcting their errors. In addition to this, he was responsible for the final design of all major works. The assembled artists were middle-class citizens that were accepted as gifts from the gods to aid in the king's passage to immortality. These craftsmen worked for the state to promote the glory of the king. They were grouped by trade: Painters (sesh), Outline Draftsmen (sesh kedut), Relief and Round Sculptors (kesty). Members of the workshops were not selected based on their talent as in the Renaissance workshops. Their positions were passed down from generation to generation so that sons, whether they had any talent for the trade at all, would learn the skill of painting or drawing from their fathers. The director usually took all the credit for completed work, leaving the actual artists anonymous. Although many royal favors and rewards were granted to senior officials, courtiers, and high priests, the Pharaoh never singled out an outstanding artist from his masses of skilled craftsmen to receive acclaim. A scribe of Ramesses II's court observed in writing:
I have never seen a sculptor sent on an embassy, nor a bronze founder leading a mission; but I have seen the smith working in the furnace's mouth. His fingers are like crocidile's claws; he stinks worse than fish roe (eggs).
There are exceptions to this for example: During his eighth year as Pharaoh, Ramesses II had a stele erected in the Temple of On declaring his special interest in those who executed the great works that filled his kingdom. The following inscription is engraved on the stele and reads:
Hear my words. Here are the riches you possess. What I commanded has come to pass. It is I, Ramesses, that create and give life to the generations. Food and drink, all that your hearts could desire, are before you. I improve your lot that I may say you that you work for love of me, who am strengthened by your greetings. I have caused plentiful supplies of food to be dispatched to you for your labors, in hopes that you will live to bring them to completion. There are barns full of corn so that none of you may go hungry for even one day. Each man of you has been paid for a month. For your benefit I have filled warehouses with stores of every kind, pastries, meat, and cakes for you to eat, divers perfumes for you to anoint your heads every tenth day, sandals that you may be well shod each day and garments that you may be clad all the year round: all these things that none among you may pass the night in fear of want. I have appointed many men of divers rank to feed you even in years of famine: men from the marshes to bring you game and fish, and other men as gardeners to reckon up [what is due you]. I have built a workshop where pottery vessels can be shaped to keep your water cool in the season of shemou. For your benefit boats sail ceaselessly from the south to the north, from the north to the south with barley, starch grain, corn, salt and bread. All this I have done saying "As long as you live you are of one mind to work for me".
The process of wall painting or sculpture was a systematic one, with many different craftsmen contributing a part in the final product. In wall painting, the process began with a plasterer filling in any holes or covering the entire wall with a coat of plaster if it appeared in too poor a condition to work on uncovered. Once the coat of plaster dried and was inspected by the Chief of Craftsmen, a line draftsman (sesh kedut) would draw the outlines of the figures and inscriptions onto the plaster by following a design established by the Chief Craftsman and approved by the Pharaoh. The draftsman would begin the composition by using a grid to aid in drawing the figures and creating registers used to write in. The increments of the grid's lines were measured with a device similar to a ruler according to what size figure was needed for the composition.
There were two versions of measurement for the figure used by the artist. These were called The First and Second Canons of Proportion. The first canon measured the human figure at eighteen squares high and was based on the 'short cubit' (the measurement from the elbow to the tip of the thumb). The second canon measured the figure at twenty-one squares high and was based on the 'royal cubit' (the measurement from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger). In both canons, one square was equal to the width of one fist. The end of the Third Intermediate Period marked the transition from one Canon of Proportion to the other.
The strings of the grid were dipped into Red Ochre paint so the artist could pluck them like a bow. This method is identical to using a carpenter's blue chalk line. Once the grid was in place, the strings were plucked one by one to leave red ochre guidelines for drawing the figure.
After removing the string grid from the wall, the line draughtsman would again use red ochre paint to redraw the figure while refering to a sketch drawn on an 'ostraca', or practice stone. The ostraca was often a shard of pottery or fragment of limestone that the artist would make preliminary sketches on. The artist would also use another type of 'ostraca' made from a wooden board covered with gesso and marked with a grid. This board would be washed down with water or covered with another layer of gesso when a new figure needed to be drawn. Matching the wall figure square by square with the ostraca figure, proportions were drawn accurately. In some instances, work done by a highly skilled draftsman or an artist pressed for time would draw freehand without the use of a grid. Once the drawing was complete, the Chief of Craftsmen would inspect the work and redraw correction lines in black paint.
Once the outline paint dried, the relief sculptor (kesty) would then begin carving on the pastered wall. Using a hammer and chisel to carve around the lines of the figure laid in by the draftsman, the sculptor would cut away the background leaving only the figure raised in 'relief' from the wall. Mistakes were replastered and attempted again when the plaster dried. There was also another method of cutting relief sculpture. By cutting into the figure, rather than into the background, the sculptor would create a reverse relief or 'sunken relief'. Sunken reliefs were used mainly in outdoor wall sculpture to utilize the bright sunlight for emphasizing form.
Once the sculptor had completed his job, the painter (sesh) would then begin painting the figures and objects. Following the relief outline of the sculptor, the painter usually started with the skin. After allowing this color to dry, he would then paint the clothing with a transparent white or yellow to allow the skin tone to show through. Skin colors were representative of sex. Red ochre was used to paint male flesh tones, while yellow ochre was used to paint female flesh. Over this flat layer of paint, red or black outlines would be painted to reinforce the figure and other objects. Once the painter's job was complete, the tomb wall was ready for inspection by the Chief of Craftsmen. Corrections were made, if they were needed. This inspection would be followed by another inspection by the priests of the temple. If approved by the temple, the chamber would receive its proper rites and rituals of cleansing before it was ready to receive the body of the king.
In special situations where there was a shortage of time, the relief sculptor would literally be out of a job. Direct paint would be applied to the newly plastered wall without the relief sculptor's aid. This is where many expressive, uncharacteristic works evolve from in Egyptian art. The outline draughtsman and the painter may be one and the same. There is no evidence to support that they were different craftmen, other than a descriptive name.
After studying these elements which influence not only Egyptian art, but all of the arts to a certain degree, the viewer will get a better understanding to its place in history, the importance of it to society at the time it was produced, the religious and social symbolism contained in it, and the working environment in which the artist worked. Art cannot exist in a vacuum. It will always reflect the society in which it is created, and will also become more meaningful to the viewer when this important aspect is recognized.