Grade 9 – Art History
EGYPTIAN ART
INTRODUCTION
Egyptian Art alternates between conservative
and innovative
 The history of Egypt is divided into dynasties of
rulers
 What is a dynasty?

A
succession of rulers from the same family or line
is called a Dynasty.
BASIC OVERVIEW OF ANCIENT EGYPT
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Predynasty
Old Kingdom
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Step Pyramids
The Great Pyramids
The Great Sphinx
Menkaure and his Queen
Middle Kingdom
New Kingdom
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Temple of Queen Hatshepsut
King Akhenaten and Nefertiti
Tutankhamun
Ramesses II
PREDYNASTY
PREDYNASTY
Egypt was still learning the use of bronze tools
 It was originally divided into territories
 After some time the territories merged to form
two rival kingdoms: Upper Egypt and Lower
Egypt
 Around 3000 B.C. the Upper Egyptian kings
conquered Lower Egypt and combined the two
realms.
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King Na’rmer
 One
of the kings that unified Egypt
 His accomplishments were sculpted onto the
Palette of King Na’rmer
 It
is composed of relief
sculpture and
hieroglyphics
* Palette of King Na’rmer (both sides), Slate,
c. 3150-3125 B.C.
THE PALETTE OF KING NA’RMER
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The front:
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Na’rmer is wearing a crown of
Upper Egypt
He is about to slay a defeated
opponent and two others are
held captive below him
The symbols near Na’rmer’s
head again represent the
victory over Lower Egypt
Na’rmer is barefoot,
symbolizing holy ground and
more of a ritual act than a
physical act
THE PALETTE OF KING NA’RMER
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The back:
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The king is again depicted
barefoot and is now wearing the
crown of Lower Egypt
In front of him are subjects
walking to inspect beheaded
bodies of prisoners
At the bottom Na’rmer is depicted
as a bull trampling an enemy and
knocking down a citadel
The meaning of the centre is
ambiguous

It is debated that the beasts
represent a union of the two
kingdoms of Egypt
THE OLD KINGDOM
THE START OF THE PYRAMID...
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As early as the Fourth Dynasty, wealthy
individuals and kings would be buried in
mastabas
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A mastaba (from the Arabic word for “bench”) is
a square-shaped mound faced with brick or
stone built above a burial chamber
Above ground, a mudbrick superstructure was
built with an offering chapel attached
 The burial chamber was below ground,
surrounded by storerooms filled with goods for
the use of the deceased in the Afterlife

Royal mastabas became quite large and their
exteriors sometimes resembled that of a royal
palace
 During the Third Dynasty, the mastabas
developed into Step Pyramids
 The best known, and possibly the first, is that
of King Djoser
 King Djoser directed Imhotep to build a great
complex which would contain his royal tomb

THE STEP PYRAMID
The mudbrick
mastaba
developed into a
stone-built tower
 It is a solid
structure with
underground
burial chambers
 It is considered
the beginning of
pyramid structures
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* Imhotep, Pyramid of King Djoser, Saqqara, c. 2681-2662 B.C.
It declares the
pharaoh’s supreme
power and divine
status
 It served to bridge the
gap with the heavens
by serving as a
“stairway” (steps) for
Djoser
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THE GREAT PYRAMIDS
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Djoser’s successors adapted the Step Pyramids to a smooth-sided
shape
The Great Pyramids at Giza were built during the Fourth Dynasty
They originally had an outer casing of carefully dressed stone, which
has disappeared except near the top of the pyramid of Khafre (the
middle pyramid)
* The Great Pyramids, Giza:
(left) Menkaure, c. 2533-2515 B.C
(centre) Khafre, c. 2570-2544 B.C.
(right) Khufu, c. 2601-2528 B.C.
The three differ slightly
from one another in scale
 The burial chamber is
located near the centre
instead of underground
 The Pyramids are
surrounded by other
pyramids and mastabas
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Who actually built the pyramids and how did
they move the stones?
 Slaves
or farmers in the off season?
 Logs to roll? Pulleys? Ramps?
IMPORTANT FEATURES OF THE PYRAMIDS
Cap Stone
Air Shaft
Kings Chamber
Queen’s
Chamber
(Unused)
Grand Gallery
Ascending Mortuary
Corridor Temple
Entrance Corridor
Descending Corridor
Subterrian
Chamber
THE GREAT SPHINX
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Next to the valley temple of the Pyramid of
Khafre stands the Great Sphinx
Carved from rock, it is an
even more impressive
symbol of divine kingship
than the pyramids
The royal head rising from
the body of a lion reaches
a height of 65 feet and its
length is 150 feet
* The Great Sphinx, Giza, c. 2570-2544 B.C.
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The head is wearing a nemes
(the striped head covering
worn by kings)
Over time, damage has
occurred to the face and
body
The Sphinx has been
undergoing restoration,
however
KING MENKAURE AND HIS QUEEN
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An example of cubic portraiture
The artist would have marked the
surface of the block with a grid and
would have drawn the front, top,
and side views of the statue on it,
then would have worked inward
until the views met
These portraits were thought to be
inhabited by the ka
Is a good example of the
comparison between male and
female beauty as interpreted by
the artist
* King Menkaure and His Queen, Slate,
c. 2515 B.C.
THE INTERMEDIATE PERIODS AND THE MIDDLE
KINGDOM
TROUBLING TIMES...
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Centralized pharaonic power collapsed at the end of the
Sixth Dynasty, around 2150 B.C.
Egypt then entered a period of political disturbances
and ill fortune that was to last almost 700 years
Egypt was divided into dozens of independent states
where power was in the hands of local or regional
overlords
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This revived the old rivalry between Upper and Lower Egypt
Although Egypt was reunited around 2040 B.C., the
authority and power of the pharaoh had changed
The most important
change in this period was
the shift from pyramids to
funerary temples
 They were designed to
hold the mummies of the
rulers and were
constructed so that part
of the temple was cut into
the cliff and part was
outside
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*Plan of Mentuhotep's Mortuary Temple, Deir-el-Bahari,
c. 2061-2010 B.C.
THE NEW KINGDOM
EXPANSION...
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Although the land was now united, there were still standing
armies in some areas, and some aristocrats did not hesitate
to use force
Soon after the Twelfth Dynasty, Egypt was taken over by the
Hyksos (a group of Asiatic peoples)
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They introduced the horse and chariot to Egypt
King Ahmose of Thebes defeated the Hyksos and forced
them to withdraw from Egypt
Because Egypt was once again united under strong kings,
the country extended its frontiers to the east (hence, the
New Kingdom)
This expansion allowed for a wide variety and flavour of
styles and quality in its art
THE TEMPLE OF QUEEN HATSHEPSUT
A revival of Middle
Kingdom
architectural forms
to signify royal
power, unity, and
stability
 Made of terraced
walls, colonnades,
sculptured reliefs,
passageways, and
large open terraces
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*The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Deir-el-Bahari,
c. 1478-1458 B.C.
KING AKHENATEN
During the reign of the Eighteenth Dynasty the
emphasis of religion changed radically
 Amenhotep IV attempted to elevate a single deity,
the Aten, to the status of sole god and changed his
name to Akhenaten (“Effective for the Aten”)
 He closed the Amun Temples (which gained vast
power and posed a threat to royal authority), and
moved the capital the central Egypt
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Intimate domestic scene
possibly meant for a
shrine in a private
household
Life-giving rays of sunlight
connected to Aten (the
sun-disk)
An example of the Amarna
style
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A greater sense of realism
A new sense of form that
seeks to unfreeze the
traditional immobility of
Egyptian Art (think back to
the figures depicted in the
Palette of Na’rmer)
*Akhenaten and His Family, Limestone, c. 1355 B.C.
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The bust of Nefertiti
also holds true to
the new style of the
time
 Greater
realism and
elegance
 Symmetrical face
*Queen Nefertiti, Limestone, c. 1348-1336/5 B.C.
TUTANKHAMUN
Ascended to the throne
at the age of nine
 Helped restore the old
religion
 Died at the age of
eighteen
 Is the only pharaoh
whose tomb has been
discovered almost
completely intact
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RAMESSES II
After the restoration of the old religion, the rulers
of the New Kingdom devoted their architectural
energies to building huge temples of Amun
 The centre of the Amun cult was located in the
region of Thebes (specifically at Karnak and Luxor)
 Vast temple complexes that were started in these
areas in the Middle Kingdom were enlarged during
the Nineteenth Dynasty
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The temple complexes,
completed under the rule
of Ramesses II, were
enclosed by high walls and
consisted of a facade with
a massive entranceway
called a pylon
The pylon led to a series of
courts and pillared halls,
with the temple (a series of
symmetrically arranged
halls and chapels) just
beyond it
Within the temple there
would be a cult statue of
the god the temple was
dedicated to
*Temple of Ra, Luxor, c. 13th Century B.C.
BEYOND THE NEW KINGDOM
From about 1069 B.C. to 332 B.C., Egypt saw a
sweeping change of rulers and invasions which
left the country divided and confused
 From about 332 B.C. to 31 B.C., Egypt again
was taken over and saw another change in
rulers ranging from Alexander the Great to
Ptolemy and, finally, to becoming a part of the
Roman Empire
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