Chapter 3: Egyptian Art

Pharaoh

a king of ancient Egypt

Aton

Represented as a sun disk emanating rays.

Rosetta Stone

Modern Egyptology began with the 1799 discovery of the _____, from which hieroglyphics could, for the first time, be translated into modern languages.

King Tutankhamun

The feverish scramble to uncover Egyptian artifacts culminated in 1922 with the discovery of _______’s tomb by Howard Carter.

Necropolis

literally, a “city of the dead,” a large burial area

Mastabas

A simple tomb that has four sloping sides and an entrance for mourners to bring offerings to the deceased.

Engaged column

a column that is not freestanding but attached to a wall

Reserve column

a column that is cut away from rock but has no support function

hypostyle hall

The god was housed in a sacred area just beyond, which was surrounded by a forest of columns, called a \____.

clerestory

Some of the columns were higher than others, allowing limited light and air to enter the complex, an area called a \___.

Papyrus

a tall aquatic plant whose fiber is used as a writing surface in ancient Egypt

Sarcophagi

These are stone coffins.

Hieroglyphics

It describes the deceased and his or her accomplishments in great detail, without which the dead would have incomplete afterlives.

Relief sculpture

sculpture which projects from a flat background.

bas-relief

A very shallow relief sculpture

Ground line

a baseline upon which figures stand

Register

a horizontal band, often on top of another, that tells a narrative story

Ka

the soul, or spiritual essence, of a human being that either ascends to heaven or can live in an Egyptian statue of itself

Axial plan

a building with an elongated ground plan

Pylon

a monumental gateway to an Egyptian temple marked by two flat, sloping walls between which is a smaller entrance

Clerestory

a roof that rises above lower roofs and thus has window space beneath carved into a surface so that the figures seem to project forward

Sunken relief

a carving in which the outlines of figures are deeply

Peristyle

a colonnade surrounding a building or enclosing a courtyard

Ankh

an Egyptian symbol of life

Amarna style

art created during the reign of Akhenaton, which features a more relaxed figure style than in Old and Middle Kingdom art

Ammit

The hippopotamus/lion figure; between the scales, will eat the heart of an evil soul.

Thoth

A god who has the head of a bird; the stenographer writing down these events in the hieroglyphics that he invented.

Osiris

god of the underworld, enthroned on the right; will subject the deceased to a day of judgment.

Hunefer

A scribe who had priestly functions.

Palette of King Narmer

* Represents the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under one ruler
* Schematic lines delineate in the muscle structure
* Hieroglyphics identify him in the cartouche
* used to prepare eye makeup | commemorative

Seated Scribe

* Not a pharaoh
* has high cheekbones, hollow cheeks, and a distinctive jawline.
* Created for a tomb at Saqqara as a provision for the ka.

Menkaura, Khafre and Khufu

Name of the Three Great Pyramids

Great Pyramids

* Giant monuments to dead pharaohs
* Preservation of the body and tomb contents for eternity.
* Served as the king’s palace in the afterlife.
* shape must have been influenced by a ***benben***.

Great Sphinx

* Carved in situ from a huge rock
* Body of a lion, head of a pharaoh/god.
* protecting the pyramids behind it

King Menkaura and queen

* two figures attached to a block of stone
* seem to stride forward; simultaneously are anchored to the stone behind
* receptacle for the ka of the pharaoh and his queen.

Temple of Amun-Re

* Axial Plan
* Pylon Temple | Hypostyle halls
* Massive lintels, columns.
* temple for the worship of a god.
* temple represents the beginnings of the world

Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut

* A sandstone partly carved into a rock cliff


* Three colonnaded terraces and two ramps.
* long horizontals and verticals of the terraces and colonnades repeat the patterns of the cliffs behind
* patterns of dark and light in the colonnade are reflected in the cliffs.

Kneeling statue of Hatshepsut

* Made of red granite
* Male pharaonic attributes
* Wears the white crown of Upper Egypt.
* depicted in male costume of a pharaoh

Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and three daughters

* Amarna Style


* a sunken relief
* state religion was changed by Akhenaton to the worship of Aton
* having a private relationship with their new god

Innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun’s tomb

* A gold with an inlay of enamel and semi-precious stones


* Smooth, idealized features on the mask
* Holds a crook and a flail, symbols of osiris
* buried with 143 objects

Last judgment of Hunefer

* Narrative on a uniform register
* Illustration from the Book of the Dead
* top register - white at left before a row of judges
* main register - Anubis leads the deceased into a hall