The Egyptian Time Period in Art
3000 BC to 100 AD.
Main Ideas Seen in Art During This Period
The figures were drawn in profile with the shoulders facing forward. Imagery was symbolic and it was usually done for religious purposes. The colors present were bright. Wall murals, architecture, sculpture, paper paintings, and jewelry were included in Egyptian art.
Examples of Egyptian Art
Nefertiti Bust
This is the sculpture of the Sun Queen, Nefertiti Bust. The limestone core was given its final form by several layers of stucco on the crown and shoulders, and there are also small areas of stucco patching on the face - made visible under the paint by the use of computer tomography. The individuality of the artist and the personality of the queen unite to bring immediacy to the expression 'beyond time and space'.- 1340 B.C.
Nebamun Hunting Birds
Ancient Egyptian art is one of the oldest art forms in the world and one of the most distinctive. The art is drawn on a two-dimensional scale, and the people and objects tend to be drawn in profile. There’s very little shading or any acknowledgement of depth. They also utilized what’s called tiered space: where objects that are supposedly in the distance are placed higher than objects in the forefront. Sometimes people are drawn with the heads of animals that symbolize gods.
Sphinx of Hatshepsut
This colossal sphinx portrays the female pharaoh Hatshepsut with the body of a lion and a human head wearing a nemes headcloth and royal beard. The use of the sphinx to represent the king dates back to the Old Kingdom and the Great Sphinx of Giza. The sculptor has carefully observed the powerful muscles of the lion as contrasted to the handsome and attractive idealized face of the queen.
3 Facts About The Egyptian Time Period
- Egyptian art was expressed in paintings and sculptures, it was highly symbolic and was also fascinating - this art form revolves around the past and was intended to keep history alive.
- Ancient Egyptian art forms are characterized by regularity and detailed depiction of human beings and nature, and, were intended to provide company to the deceased in the 'other world'.
- Egyptian art in all forms obeyed one law. This law was that the mode of representing man, nature and the environment remained almost the same for thousands of years and the most admired artists were those who replicated most admired styles of the past.