Unit 2.2: Ancient Egypt

Palette of King Narmer

Artist: N/A

Period/Movement: Predynastic Egypt

Medium: Greywacke

Location: Cairo, Egypt

Significance: hierarchical scale, registers, two-sided object showing violence and war, depicting mythical creatures and trampled bodies, memory of a victory, narrative: unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, hieroglyphs

Seated Scribe

Artist: N/A

Period/Movement: Old Kingdom

Medium: Painted limestone

Location: Saqqara, Egpyt

Significance: funerary object, non-realistic/non-idealized body (sagging body), scribe to write things in the afterlife, maintained color because of a burial tomb, papyrus writing scroll

Great Pyramids and Great Sphinx

Artist: N/A

Period/Movement: Old Kingdom

Medium: Cut limestone — lined to imitate the rays of the Sun

Location: Giza, Egypt

Significance: massive monuments for deceased Pharaohs, causeway (path that the Pharaoh was transported), everything faced the East to greet the morning Sun (Amun-Ra), an extraordinary amount of labor, carved in situ

King Menkaura and Queen

Artist: N/A

Period/Movement: Old Kingdom

Medium: Greywacke with traces of red and black paint

Location: Egypt

Significance: founded in the Great Pyramids, canon— one foot in front of the other (Egyptian style), idealized forms, the queen’s gestures are affectionate/modest

Temple of Amun-Re and Hypostyle Hall

Artist: N/A

Period/Movement: New Kingdom

Medium: Cut sandstone and mudbrick

Location: Karnak, Egypt (Near Luxor)

Significance: hypostyle hall: a space with a roof supported by columns, the religious center of the god Amun-Re, clerestory lighting,

Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut

Artist: N/A

Period/Movement: New Kingdom

Medium: Sandstone, partially carved into a rock cliff, and red granite

Location: Near Luxor, Egypt

Significance: mortuary = funerary, many rituals took place, depicts her as a male form (beard, kneeling— offering plants to the Sun God (Amun))

Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and three daughters

Artist: N/A

Period/Movement: New Kingdom (Amarna)

Medium: Limestone

Location: Amarna, Egypt

Significance: sunken relief sculpture, feet elevated off the ground, hieroglyphs, the canon has changed, composite profile, scene of intimacy, sun rays show divinity, symbol of the ankh pointing toward the king and queen— represents holiness

Tutankhamun’s tomb innermost coffin

Artist: N/A

Period/Movement: New Kingdom

Medium: Gold with an inlay of enamel and semiprecious stones

Location: Egypt

Significance: sarcophagus (body is inside), treasury (buried with a lot of items), died at a young age, Crook and flail (showing protection and discipline)

Last Judgement of Hu-Nefer

Artist: N/A

Period/Movement: New Kingdom

Medium: Painted papyrus scroll

Location: Egypt

Significance: found in Hu-Nefer tomb, part of the Book of Dead, Hu-Nefer leading the final judgment, pass the test if you can be brought into the afterlife: heart weighed on scale with a feather (must weigh less than a feather), guide people to the afterlife and make the journey from life to death