Ancient Egypt Notes
Ancient Egypt: Chronological and Geographical Context
- Chronology:
- Antiquity: 3150 a.C. - 476 d.C.
- Ancient Egypt
- Geography:
- Characteristics and Connections with Mesopotamia
Periods of Ancient Egyptian History
- Pre-Dynastic and Early Dynastic Periods (c. 3500–2575 BCE)
- Old Kingdom (c. 2575–2134 BCE): “Age of pyramids”
- Middle Kingdom (c. 2040–1640 BCE)
- New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BCE)
Funerary Beliefs and Tomb Architecture
- Religious beliefs about the afterlife
- Pyramid complex at Giza:
- Great (Khufu) pyramid
- Great sphinx
- Geometry and proportion in architecture
- Tomb artefacts: Taking possessions into the afterlife
Homes, Furniture, and Furnishings
- Luxury furniture: Chairs, beds, boxes, thrones of Tutankhamon
- Architecture and design of ordinary homes: Clay models of houses
- Characteristics of Egyptian furniture
- Cubic and smooth.
- Legs imitating animal legs.
- Made of wood (cedar, cypress, acacia).
- Decorated with gold, silver, bone, ivory, textile, leather, embroidery.
- Relief carving representing divine symbols and scenes of religious and everyday life.
Painting and Sculpture: Style, Function, and Meaning
- Sculpture:
- Sculpted tomb portraits, “reserve heads”
- Idealism versus naturalism
- Painting:
- Khnumhotep tomb wall paintings
- Nebamun's garden wall painting
- Standardized poses and canon of proportions
- Naturalism and the representation of social class
Temple Architecture
- Amun-Re complex at Karnak:
- Obelisks
- Hypostyle hall
- Festival temple
Start of Garden Design
- Nebamun's garden wall painting
- Funerary model of a garden
Practicing Visual Analysis
- Queen Nefertiti making an offering to Isis
- Tutankhamen mask
- Tomb painting
Geometry and Proportions
- Golden Ratio: