Gardner’s Art Through the Ages,
12e
Chapter 3
Pharaohs and the Afterlife:
The Art of Ancient Egypt
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NOTES QUIZ
10-8
In paragraph form, discuss the 3 cultures of the last 3
chapters: Mesopotamian/Egyptian and Aegean in terms of the
way their art functions in their societies. You may sight 3 specific
examples that you think are good representations of the art of
each culture and BE SPECIFIC about how each piece uniquely
functions to serve the concerns of that unique society (hint:
reference social/political or religious practices and themes).
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Vocabulary for Minoans:
Cycladic
Helladic
Labyrinth
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Ancient Egypt
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Ancient Agean
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Figure 3-2 Palette of King Narmer (left, back; right, front), from Hierakonpolis, Egypt, Predynastic, ca. 3000–2920 BCE. Slate,
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approx. 2’ 1” high. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
About 1000 years later…..
“Harpist” Sometime in the late 3rdmilleniumBCE
(the 2000s) Made of marble and only 8.5” high
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Figure 4-1 Figurine of a woman, from Syros (Cyclades),
Greece, ca. 2500–2300 BCE. Marble, approx. 1’ 6” high.
National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
Compare to…
Nude Female buried with the dead…
Flat wedge-shaped body
Column-like neck/Oval face/Long nose
A shift away from the fertility goddess?
Large figures cult offerings to female divinity
Smaller ones displayed in household shrines/votive offerings?
Present for diety beyond the grave/provision in the afterlife?
Portrait statue found in temples and tombs
Horus enfolds the head with wings
Systematic approach to sculpting
Body idealized/face suggest individual
Rigid, peaceful, eternal
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Palace at Knossos 1700 BCE
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Palace at Knossos
Home of King Minos
(believed to be)
Rambling, organized plan
of 1500 rooms linked by
narrow hallways: origin of
the word: labyrinth
Rumors of ritual sacrifice
here…
Extremely well-engineered
for stability…
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Figure 4-14 Snake Goddess, from the palace at
Knossos (Crete), Greece, ca. 1600 BCE. Faience,
approx. 1’ 1 1/2” high. Archaeological Museum,
Herakleion.
Compare to….
Chief Minoan Diety female
Large eyes-Meopotamian influence?
Snakes associated with male fertility-breasts with female
fertility figure (not quite a full tall-used in religious ritual?)
A portrait bust to glorify an individual
Beauty displayed in perfect symmetry
Thutmose was the artist-he had his own
Style and is credited as being the first
Artist known to have one recognized by history
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Figure 4-6 Minoan woman or goddess (La
Parisienne), from the palace at Knossos (Crete),
Greece, ca. 1450–1400 BCE. Fragment of a fresco,
approx. 10” high. Archaeological Museum,
Herakleion.
Inheritance from earlier periods-but wet fresco instead of dry!
Compare to….
And…..
Figure 3-22 Hatshepsut with offering jars, from the
upper court of her mortuary temple, Deir el-Bahri,
Egypt, ca. 1473–1458 BCE. Red granite, approx. 8’
6” high. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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Figure 4-9 Landscape with swallows (Spring Fresco),
from Room Delta 2, Akrotiri, Thera (Cyclades), Greece,
ca. 1650 BCE. Fresco, approx. 7’ 6” high. National
Archaeological Museum, Athens.
Exquisite decorative flat forms
Show Egyptian influenceStylized but lively –not frozenHere nature is depicted for its
Own sake…
Compare to….
These figures are full of
Vitality and movement…
Highly decorative surfaceBut meant to reference a
Ritual by means of written
Word and narrative content.
Also served as provisions
For earthly pleasures in
The afterlife…
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Figure 4-13 Harvester Vase, from Hagia Triada (Crete),
Greece, ca. 1500 BCE. Steatite, greatest diameter approx.
5”. Archaeological Museum, Herakleion. Overall view, with
harvester looking over his shoulder
Compare to….
No thanks to static composition-the Harvester Vase is
nothing but form in motion….
This was a vessel used for pouring liquid during a sacred
ceremony….may have covered in hammered gold!
Here the rhythm trumps descriptive clarity-the work
seems to be about joy and movement as much as it is
about the narrative quality of the event:
How is the human body depicted here? What seems to the
primary purpose and function of the form here?
Male and female bodies descriptive here:
Descriptive of status as well and adheres to
Egyptian canon-not sculpted from life-instead
NO emotion or movement-images show permanent youth/Canon at work: body 4 shoulders long/-Women are one fist
Narrower than men….she does not touch him in an
Emotional gesture-rather to show their connection and her staus
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By comparison….
Figure 4-11 Marine Style octopus jar,
from Palaikastro (Crete), Greece, ca.
1500 BCE. Approx. 11” high.
Archaeological Museum, Herakleion.
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Bull-leaping, from the palace at Knossos (Crete),
Greece, ca. 1450–1400 BCE. Fresco, approx. 2’ 8”
high, including border. Archaeological Museum,
Herakleion.
Compare to….
Fowling Scene 1350BCE
(New Kingdom)
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