Art of ancient Egypt

The Ancient Egyptian art reached a high level in painting and sculpture, and was both highly
stylized and symbolic. It displays an extraordinarily vivid representation of the Ancient
Egyptian's socioeconomic status and belief systems. Egyptian styles changed remarkably little
over more than three thousand years.

Symbolism
Symbolism also played an important role in establishing a sense of order. Symbolism, ranging
from the pharaoh's regalia (symbolizing his power to maintain order) to the individual symbols
of Egyptian gods and goddesses, is omnipresent in Egyptian art. Animals were usually also
highly symbolic figures in Egyptian art. Colours were more expressive rather than natural: red
skin implied hard working tanned youth, whereas yellow skin was used for women or middleaged men who worked indoors; blue or gold indicated divinity because of its unnatural
appearance and association with precious materials; the use of black for royal figures expressed
the fertility of the Nile from which Egypt was born. Stereotypes were employed to indicate the
geographical origins of foreigners.
Egyptian art uses hierarchical proportion, where the size of figures indicates their relative
importance. The gods or the divine pharaoh are usually larger than other figures and the figures
of high officials or the tomb owner are usually smaller, and at the smallest scale any servants and
entertainers, animals, trees, and architectural details. Also, all the pictures are two-dimensional,
without any depth.

Paintings
Many ancient Egyptian paintings have survived due to Egypt's extremely dry climate. The
paintings were often made with the intent of making a pleasant afterlife for the deceased. The
themes included journey through the afterworld or protective deities introducing the deceased to
the gods of the underworld (such as Osiris). Some tomb paintings show activities that the
deceased were involved in when they were alive and wished to carry on doing for eternity.
In the New Kingdom (XVI-XI BC) and later, the Book of the Dead was buried with the
entombed person. It was considered important for an introduction to the afterlife.
Egyptian paintings are painted in such a way to show a profile view and a side view of the
animal or person at the same time. For example, the painting to the right shows the head from a
profile view and the body from a frontal view. Their main colors were red, blue, green, gold,
black and yellow.

Book of The Dead

Sculpture
The Egyptians used the distinctive technique of sunk relief, which is well suited to very bright
sunlight. The statues of males used to be made, by convention, darker than those of females. In
large statues it was common to have a pharaoh (regarded as a god) as the object rather than the
other deities.
Very strict conventions were followed while crafting statues and specific rules governed
appearance of every Egyptian god. For example, the sky god (Horus) was essentially to be
represented with a falcons head, the god of funeral rites (Anubis) was to be always shown with a
jackals head. Artistic works were ranked according to their compliance with these conventions,
and the conventions were followed so strictly that, over three thousand years, the appearance of
statues changed very little. These conventions were intended to convey the timeless and nonaging quality of the figure's ka (ka=spirit; ka statues are statues intended to provide resting places
for the spirit and are often put in tombes).

Sunk relief

Works of Ancient Egyptian Art

Ka statue

Nefertiti bust
Tutankhamuns Golden Death Mask

Throne of
Tutankhamun