Egyptian Art
What kind of art did the Egyptians create?
When did the Egyptian
Civilization take place?
 The Old Kingdom
 2650-2134BC
 The Middle
Kingdom
 2040-1640
 The New Kingdom
 1550-1070
So this artwork
is anywhere
from 4650-3070
years old!
Why did Egyptians create art?
 Geographic location
created a surplus of food
which allowed Egyptians
to create art instead of
hunting and gathering.
 Strong religious beliefs
also contributed to a
influx of creating artifacts
 Art and artifacts were
also made to honor the
Pharaoh (king)
What kind of art did they
create?
 Architecture-Pyramids were built
as tombs for pharoahs
 Sarcophagi- Stone coffins
 Sculptures- Carvings of pharaohs’
portraits
 Paintings-These were
Actually painted, low relief
Sculptures on the walls of
tombs
Pyramids
 The pyramids were used as entombment for the dead
kings to provide protection and appropriate
transformation into the afterlife for them and their
belongings
 Originally, Egyptians built low, flat tombs
called mastabas
 These slowly transitioned into
stepped pyramids
 Lastly, turned into
the true pyramid
The Great Pyramids at
Giza
 2530-2470 BCE
 4th Dynasty
 Giza
 Some stones
weighed over 40 tons!
 The stones were
floated on rafts down
the Nile
 The largest, central
pyramid, covers 13 acres and is 55 stories high
 It originally contained over 2 million blocks of
limestone
 The limestone and capstone were later stolen off
the surface along with
the pyramids contents
 The pyramids are
astonishing in size and
mathematical precision
 The four sides are
perfectly oriented with the
four cardinal
directions
 Each side is 230 meters long
with only centimeters of difference
 The pyramids were built by slaves and paid
laborers who were faithful to their kings.
Summary
Use key vocab words
from the lesson today
(pharaoh, mastaba,
pyramid, tomb) and
others we may have
used today that were
in your Alphabox to
write a 3-5 sentence
summary in the
JOURNAL section of
your notebook.
Tutankhamen Mummy Case
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1352 BCE
Gold inlaid with enamel and semiprecious
stones
The tomb of Tutankhamun contained four
gilded shrines nested one inside the other
in order of decreasing size. Inside the
innermost shrine was a red quartzite
sarcophagus which protected three
anthropoid coffins (man-shaped). The first
two coffins were made of gilded wood but
the final coffin was made of solid gold. The
solid gold coffin housed the mummy of
King Tut and his fabulous golden death
mask.
73” high
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
His modern fame and popularity stems
from the fact that his tomb in the Valley of
the Kings was discovered almost
completely intact, and is still the most
complete ancient Egyptian tomb ever yet
found.
Ruled from age 9-19
Sculptures
 Sculptors were commanded to
carve pharaoh's portrait
incase their mummified bodies
were destroyed
 The sculpture would serve as
a place for their “ka”, or soul to
live
 Egyptian sculpture is
characterized by (1)
compactness (2) symmetry of
form and (3) its block-like
shape
Queen Nefertiti
The Seated
Khafre
 Khafre (Chefren or Chephren)
Dynasty 3, c2570-2544 BCE
 Solid-Blocklike form
 Head is simplified (stylized)
 Seated on a throne
 Example of In-the-Round sculpture
 In- the –Round sculpture
Free-standing sculpture, sculpture that
is surrounded on all sides, except the
base, by space. It is also known as
sculpture "in the round", and is
meant to be viewed from any angle
Relief Sculpture and Painting
 low relief is the quality of a projecting image where the overall
depth is shallow. The background is very compressed or
completely flat, as on most coins, on which all images are in lowrelief.
 Covered the walls of tombs
 The figures are placed in
registers- a series of horizontal
bands
 Descriptive perspectivemost important figures are
shown larger than less
important ones
(to show social status)
 These paintings followed very specific rules
 Every part of the body must be depicted in the
most familiar point of view.
 Twisted perspective-Many
legs, arms, ad faces are in
profile but with the shoulders
and eyes seen from the front
turned toward the viewer
 Therefore the body looked
distorted
 They did this so that the “Ka”
could recognize their bodies
Hieroglyphics
 Hieroglyphics (a form of picture writing) were used
in the paintings to help tell the story
 Hieroglyphics was also used for cartouches
 A cartouche was an oval circle with a name written in
it like a nameplate
 In the early days of ancient Egypt, a cartouche was
attached to the coffins of kings and queens. As time
went on, many people hired an artist to create a
cartouche for their own coffins.
Reign of Akhenaten, 1353–1336 B.C.
 The ancient Egyptians believed that you had to have
your name written down somewhere, so that you would
not disappear when you died.
 Today many people have golden cartouche
Necklaces mad to wear