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Ancient Egypt, pp. 33-40
The invention of Egyptian visual language:
relief representations from the Palette of
King Narmer (Pre-Dynastic Period)
Giving shape to eternity: architecture
from the mastaba (Pre-Dynastic) to the
pyramid (Old Kingdom)
Abstraction and realism in sculpture
(Old Kingdom)
Notions of abstraction and agoraphobia
The Egyptians brought
the prehistoric period to
an end when they
created hieroglyphic
writing:
the use of pictures,
objects, and other signs
to represent spoken
sounds
Egyptian culture was
characterized by a concern
for personal as well as
collective eternity:
elaborate funerary
practice
Rulers devoted huge sums
to the design, construction,
and decoration of extensive
funerary complexes ,
including the pyramids: a
dialogue with History
Egyptians elaborated
representational
conventions that are among
the most distinctive in art
history, and that were
applied for 3000 years
Palette of Narmer,
Pre-Dynastic
Period, c.3000
BCE, p.34
The invention of Egyptian
visual language
With the Palette of
Narmer we are at its
origins and we can
already recognize its main
qualities
We are at the end of the Pre-
Dynastic period, when the
two kingdoms of Upper and
Lower Egypt were united in a
great and powerful empire
(Upper conquered Lower Eg.)
the palette is the earliest
document of this historical
passage
Palette of Narmer,
Pre-Dynastic
Period, c.3000 BCE
The invention of Egyptian
visual language
Subject matter: unification
of Egypt
Left: king Narmer
slaying Lower Egypt.
Under his feet are two
fallen enemies
Right: the interwound
necks of two felines refer
to Egypt’s unification;
in the uppermost register,
victorious parade
Palette of Narmer,
Pre-Dynastic
Period, c.3000
BCE, p.34
The invention of
Egyptian visual
language
FUNCTION: makeup
holder (eyes make up) used
in religious rituals
-political value:
commemoration of the
military and territorial
victories of Narmer
The palette is decorated with relief images
Relief: Image or motif which sticks out from a
fixed background in carved or molded
sculpture - and is therefore not freestanding.
The image may stick out in high (alto),
medium (mezzo) or low (bas) relief
FORMAL ANALYSIS
Palette of
Narmer, Pre-
Dynastic
Period, c.3000
BCE
Here we have the 4 main characteristics of the
Egyptian figure representation:
1) twisted-perspective (descriptive
approach): profile views of head, legs and
arms; front views of eye and torso
2) hierarchical proportions: the size of
figures corresponds to their importance
within the image’s narrative and to their
social rank
3) the surface is subdivided into registers:
pictorial elements are inserted into their
organized setting in an orderly way
horizontal lines are both separating the
narratives and defining the ground
supporting the figures
Egyptian “abstraction”
4) the Egyptian tendency toward
abstraction:
Abstraction: the process of considering
something independently of its associations,
attributes, or concrete accompaniments.
-the process of removing something.
-in 20th century art: freedom from
representational qualities
-from Latin: from the verb abstrahere: raw
away
Egyptian artists tend to “remove”
images and forms from reality and
to elaborate them into ideal shapes
with new, symbolic meanings
The invention of Egyptian
visual language
the representation of facts is translated into
symbols
The falcon with human arms is Horus, the
king’s protector: he is taking captive a man-
headed hieroglyph with a papyrus plant
growing from it that stands for the land of
Lower Egypt
The invention of Egyptian
visual language
Texture: smooth surfaces.
no surface irregularities (opposite to Paleolithic
exploitation of the natural conformation of the
rocks);
shapes are neat and perfect, the hand of the sculptor
is not visible
- Spatial abstraction: the notion of space is
translated into abstract registers without reference
to the optical perception (flat background, figures
reduced to silhouettes)
Stylistic abstraction:
The invention of Egyptian
visual language
that Egyptians, like moderns, suffered of collective
agoraphobia (fear of open spaces),
which led them to formulate an abstract
representation of space
German art historian and theorist, Worringer,
wrote (Abstraction and Empathy, 1907)
The invention of Egyptian
visual language
Subject-matter abstraction:
Actually, in Narmer’s palette
is not represented the
historical fact,
but rather a religious ritual,
staging the unification of
Egypt
In fact, Narmer’s servant is
holding the king’s shoes: in
Egypt the act of taking off
shoes characterized religious
rituals
The Unification of Egypt was
the historical fact from which
Narmer’s dynasty received its
right to rule
Ti Watching a
Hippopotamus Hunt,
painted relief, Saqqara,
Egypt, c. 2510-2460
BC, p. 39
Symbolic value
of images:
hunting as
metaphor of
triumph over the
forces of evil
Twisted
perspective:
descriptive
approach to the
human figure
Tendency toward
abstraction: the dense
forest of papyrus changes
from being a
representation of nature
to a fine abstract pattern
the surface is subdivided
into registers: fishes and
hippopotami are inserted
into their organized setting
in a neat and orderly way
Palette of Narmer,
Pre-Dynastic
Period, c.3000 BCE
hierarchical
proportions: Ti
(an official of the
pharaoh) is bigger
than his servants
While Ti is represented
according to a traditional
abstraction and stillness,
his servants are much
more realistic
They are portrayed in action,
and with more natural poses
Hierarchy is shown
not only through the
figures’ size:
different levels of
abstraction are used
as differentiation of
social ranks
In the history of art, especially portraiture, it is almost a rule that as a human
subject’s importance decreases, formality is relaxed and realism is increased
Imhotep, Stepped
Pyramid, ca. 2630-
2611 BC
Giving shape to eternity:
architecture from mastaba to the
pyramid
Ancient Egyptians believed that an essential part
of every human personality is its life force, or
spirit, called the ka
Which lived on after the death of the body
It was important to provide a comfortable home
for the ka of a departed king
In Early Dynastic Egypt, the most common
tomb structure was the mastaba:
A flat-topped, one story building erected above an
underground burial chamber
For his tomb complex at Saqqara, king Djoser
commissioned the earliest known monumental
architecture in Egypt.
mastaba
Imhotep, Stepped
Pyramid, ca. 2630-
2611 BC, p.35
Giving shape to eternity:
architecture from mastaba to the
pyramid
Imothep first planned the tomb as
a matsaba, then later decided to
enlarge upon the concept
In the end, what he produced
was a stepped pyramid formed
by six mastaba-like elements
This monument fulfilled a dual
function:
1)to protect the mummified king
2)and to symbolize his absolute
divine power
The architect of the complex was Imothep, king
Djoser’s prime minister and priest of the sun: the
first artist in history known by his name (after his
death he would be venerated as a god)
-Djoser’s Stepped Pyramid may
also have been conceived as a
giant stairway (link between the
ka and the sun)
Giving shape to eternity:
architecture from mastaba to the
pyramid
the true pyramid, with a square
base and four sloping triangular
faces
The growing wealth of ruling families of the Old Kingdom
(c.2575-2150 BC) is reflected in the size and complexity of
the tomb structures they commissioned for themselves
is the development of the
Stepped Pyramid into an
abstract, purely geometric
solid
Great Pyramids, Giza, c. 2550-
2450 BC, p.35
The angled sides of the
pyramids may have been meant
to represent the slanting rays of
the sun,
inscriptions on the walls of
pyramids tell of the deceased
kings climbing up the rays to
join the sun god Ra
Giving shape to eternity:
architecture from mastaba to the
pyramid
Moreover, pyramids were
surfaced with white limestone
When this facing was intact, the
reflected sunlight would further
underscore the pyramid’s role as
a solar symbol
Symbolism: kings were reborn in the afterlife as the sun is
reborn each day at dawn
the four sides of each of the
Great Pyramids are oriented to
the cardinal points of the
compass
Great Pyramids, Giza, c. 2550-
2450 BC, p.35
The funerary temples
associated with them are placed
on the east side, facing the
rising sun and underscoring
again their connection with Ra
this is probably the origin of the east orientation existing in most of the
temples in Mediterranean cultures
Giving shape to eternity:
architecture from mastaba to the
pyramid
Great Pyramids, Giza, c. 2550-
2450 BC
They placed the king’s tomb chamber in the very heart of
the mountain of masonry,
at the end of a long, narrow, steeply rising passageway,
sealed off after the burial with a 50-ton stone block.
Three false passageways further
obscured the location of the tomb
The designers of the pyramids tried to ensure that the king
and his tomb would never be disturbed
abstraction and realism in
sculpture
Egyptian statues’ blocklike forms
express a feeling of strength and
permanence
Function: images of the deceased
served as houses for the ka
should the mummies be
destroyed
Khafre wears a simple kilt
and sits rigidly, he has the
royal false beard fastened to
his chin
Khafre, from Gizeh,
ca. 2520-2494 BC,
diorite, p.38
perfect body and face,
regardless of his actual age
and appearance
strict proportional
scheme
A squared grid drawn
on three sides of a
block of stone
was used to demarcate
the height and width of
each figure’s body
parts following a
STANDARD
FORMULA
abstraction and realism in
sculpture
abstraction and realism in
sculpture
The purpose was not to
record individual features,
but rather to proclaim the
godlike nature of Egyptian
kingship
Khafre, from Gizeh, ca.
2520-2494 BC, diorite,
p. 38
Egyptians considered ideal
proportions and symmetry
appropriate for representing
imposing majesty,
abstraction and realism in
sculpture
Not only in the seated figure of
Khafre, but also in the
canonical “walking”
Menkaure, the sculptor
suppressed all movement and
with it the notion of time,
creating an eternal stillness
Khafre, from Gizeh, ca.
2520-2494 BC, diorite
Menkaure and His
Wife, slate statue,
Egypt, c. 2515-
2472 BC, p.39
abstraction and realism in
sculpture
Such works are often more lively and
less formal than royal portraits (we
noticed the same phenomenon)
Old Kingdom sculptors produced figures not only of kings
but also of less prominent people
Scholars have written of an Egyptian
Realism in order to contrast these works
to the abstract character of royal portraits
Because the pupils are slightly off-
center, the face acquires a lively
intelligence
Seated Scribe,
from Saqqara,
ca. 2400 BC
The scribe’s sedentary vocation has
made his body a little flabby, a
condition that advertised a life freed
from hard physical labor
Such signs of physical imperfection
and liveliness (which means
humanness) would have been
disrespectful in a depiction of a divine
king