Ancient Egyptian Art
New Kingdom
Key Ideas
• Re-unification after the second intermediate period
and more civil unrest (in addition to exterior forces)
• Great temple complexes
• A female Queen! ( Hatshepsut)
• Amarna Style (very briefly) – more natural
• King Tut
• Ramses II
• First kingdom to use the term pharaoh(great house) to
mean king
• Change to worship of one god (briefly)
Queen Hatshepsut, 1450
BCE, granite
• Filled role of male
pharaoh by wearing
male clothing, false
beard, cobra on
headdress
• Slight hint of breasts
• First Egyptian queen
Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, 1470 BCE, Deir el-Bahri
2 ramps; 3 colonnaded terraces; not buried there; visually coordinated with
the cliffs behind it; first woman celebrated in art history;
Akhenaten, 1350 BCE,
sandstone
• Formerly known as
Amenhotep IV
• Started Amarna style – first
significant artistic change
in two thousand years
• Body has same style as old
kingdom, but smoother
and more relaxed
• Thin arms, heavy eyelids,
big hips, paunchy stomach
hangs over waistband of
skirt
• Still gets the beautiful girl,
though! (see next slide)
Nefertiti, 1350 BCE, limestone
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Amarna style
Long, elegant neck
Delicate features
Wife of Akhenaton
Pattern in headdress mirrors
pattern on collar
Unusual because it include
shoulders – may have been
made for a full-body statue –
found in sculptor’s studio
Mask of King Tutankhamen,
1323 BCE, gold, enamel, semiprecious stones
• Tomb discovered by
Howard Carter in 1922
• Mummified body buried
with 143 objects
• Gold coffin
• Smooth idealized features
• Minor king – famous
because his burial
chamber was unmolested
until 1922
Temple of Amen-Re,
Thebes
• HUGE, tightly packed
columns
• Hypostyle halls
• Axial plan (split by vertical
path)
• Elaborately painted
Ruins of Great Temple of Amun
Karnak
Temple of Ramses II, 1250 BCE, Abu Simbel Egypt
Rock-cut tomb resembles pylon; Ramses repeated four times as large seated figures carved insitu; sun god over the entrance; royal family are smaller statues at his legs; interior statues of
Ramses carved in reserve; sunlight enters center on October 21 and lights up a statue inside
Interior of Temple of
Ramses II
• Statues in reserve
• Statue deep inside gets a
suntan October 21st
Temples of Ramses II (left) and Nefertari (right)
Judgment before Osiris, 1285 BCE, papyrus
Illustration from Book of the Dead (spells and charms); Osiris (god of the dead)
enthroned on right; jackal-headed hybrid, Anubis (god of embalming), is leading
deceased to have his heart weighed against feather; hippo will eat the heart of an evil
soul; bird-headed hybrid, the god Thoth, records event