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Death is something a person must prepare for. You need to choose what kind of burial you would like, where you would like to be buried, and how to disperse your earthly possessions. In ancient Egypt, not only did you have to prepare the things above, but you also had to provide for the eternal care of your soul. This was the function of much Egyptian artwork. The Egyptians artwork also functioned as propaganda for the ruling class. It explained why they deserved to be in their positions of power, above anyone else.Egyptians were obsessed with death. They believed that when you die your soul has the opportunity to continue to live. If they passed the trials of the gods they believed they were able to enter the underworld, ruled by Osiris. From there they could return to the living world to enjoy all the earthly pleasures they had enjoyed while their body was still alive. To do this however, they had to have a likeness in the form of a statue for their soul to inhabit, since they no longer had a body. They had to provide their souls with nourishment and entertainment. People made agreements to continue to bring food and drink to the deceaseds burial area. Also, in case they ended up not fulfilling their end of the bargain, Egyptians would have many pictures put in their burial area of food and drink, activities they enjoyed while alive, and people they were familiar with.Much ancient Egyptian art we have today are statues from tombs, and paintings and relief's, which decorated Egyptian tombs. The statues provided a place for the soul to reside. From inside the statue the soul could look out and enjoy the provisions provided for it. It also could watch any rituals or offerings the souls descendants carried out. The paintings and reliefs sometimes gave directions on how the deceased could manage to survive the afterlife. Other times they depicted additional food and drink for the soul, and entertainment in the form of the deceased engaged in activities he/she once enjoyed in life. To represent was, in a way, to create, and Egyptian representation in both two and three dimensions was bent on creating images that would function as a meaningful part of the cults of the gods and the dead. (Gay Robins, The Art of Ancient Egypt, pg 1).
Egyptian art can be called unchanging. The changes that did occur throughout the kingdoms were very slow and would first be incurred on art for the lower classes. These changes would eventually move up through art for high-ranking officials, to finally be included in the works for the kings and queens. Egyptians used a standard of proportion. This standard broke the figure down into a grid, each square equaling the width of the figures fist. The height of the male body equaled eighteen times the width of the fist. The knees were placed on the fifth line up, the elbows were on the twelfth, and the area where the neck and shoulders met was on the sixteenth. The specific measure employed and the proportions derived from it varied slightly over time, but the underlying concept and the means by which it was implemented did not. (Marilyn Stokstad, Art History, p. ) Egyptians depicted each part of the body from the most recognizable view. They showed heads in profile, eyes and shoulders from the front, and at the waist they turned the figure 0 degrees so that the hips, legs and feet are in profile. Limbs were lengthened so that all parts of the body are visible. Most commonly, one foot is in front of the other, and both feet are shown from the inside, so that on both feet you can see a big toe. The figure is on a ground line. An excellent example of this is in an Akhtihotep Relief, early Dynasty 4, ca 575-551B.C. from Saqqara, Limestone. In this fragment you can see the ground line the figures are strategically placed on, and the careful display of each body part in its most revealing view. The head is in profile, and the waist is twisted. In sculpture, the position of the figure was more lifelike, but was most often in a frontal position. This was for its placement in architectural niches where the statue would only be seen from the front. Males were usually painted red, and women white. In relief sculpture artists rarely mixed colors, they used black, white, red, yellow, blue and green. If artists wanted to create depth they would over paint the base colors with the contrasting colors. This was a standard until the 18th Dynasty. Throughout Egyptian history, the art pieces for the lower class were much more relaxed than that for the high profile officials. Lower-class portraits are more soft and naturalistic, and show more realistic movements. This demonstrates the skill of the Egyptian artists. They were capable of creating a more natural-looking form, but did not for the sake of the arts function. Even though standards did prevail throughout the different periods in Egyptian art, technical advancements were still made according to the tastes of the time. These advancements can sometimes be linked with religious beliefs. For example in the Old Kingdom in it was believed that the pharaohs were direct descendants of the gods. Thus the pharaohs were described in art as perfect beings in close contact with the gods. These pieces also worked to validify the kings place on the throne by explaining his lineage as being descended from the gods. The statue of King Sahure and a Gnome God (Dynasty Five, reign of Sahure, ca. 458-446 B.C., Metropolitan Museum of Art), depicts the pharaoh as regal, athletic, and powerful. A god is extending an ankh, the symbol of life toward him. The god and the pharaoh are extremely similar in appearance, except the god is smaller. There is no open space in the sculpture, the king and the god are tied together by the stone they both are created from. The serpent crown is on the kings head and the god has one foot striding forward, with his weight on his back foot. Both figures represent the Egyptian ideal of the human figure. The sculpture itself, while beautiful is extremely stiff and staged. The king is looking out with an air of total confidence and power. Old Kingdom statues of the pharaoh were only made of stone. It is not until the Middle Kingdom that some were also made of wood. In the Middle Kingdom the belief that the pharaohs were descendants of the gods faded. The royal lineage was broken. Kings were seen as normal people who achieved the throne. Artists reflected this by moving toward softer, more realistic portrayals of their subjects, and also by beginning to use wood in the pharaohs statuary. A moving example of a more sensitive portrait is in the fragment of the stone portrait of King Senwosret III, (Dynasty 1, Quartzite). When looking at this, I see someone with profound concerns, who is deep in thought, absorbed. It is not as in the Old Kingdom statue of King Sahure, who appears confident, and in control. Senwosret III shows a monarch preoccupied and emotionally drained. (Stokstad, pg 11) The skin of the face is drawn down. The eyes are weighty. The whole face seems to be weighted down in thought. The New Kingdom is an era of dramatic change in art, mostly due to a radical new monarch who went against the grain of Egyptian thought. His name was Amenhotep IV, which he later changed to Akhenaten, (One Who Is Effective on Behalf of Aten), (Stokstad, Art History, p.10), in keeping with the new monotheistic religion he founded based on the sun deity, Aten. This Egyptian period is known as the Amarna period, called so for the modern name for the area where Akhenaten made his capital, which is Tell el Amarna. Akhenaten placed emphasis on the principal of divine truth, or Maat. This emphasis followed in the arts. The figure began to take a more naturalistic shape as well as to be true portraits of the people the artists were depicting. No longer was everyone a perfect example of the ideal Egyptian body type. People now had soft skin and rounded bellies. Age was represented accurately. Akhenaten urged his artists to portray the royal family in informal situations. (Stokstad, Art History, p. 10) In the Two Princesses, (Dynasty 18, Akhenaten, ca. 15-16B.C., middle to late reign, painted limestone) you can see that ...the casual pose and the fully frontal depiction of the older sisters torso are unparalleled among royal figures and are extremely rare in any type of representation during other periods of Egyptian art.(Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wall Text.) Even though this is only a wall fragment you can see a kind of carefree fluidity that has not existed before in Egyptian art. I am also going to bring your attention to another wall fragment at the Metropolitan Museum of Art dating to the Amarna period. In the following wall fragment you see a cluster of women. The cluster does not appear to be based on any specific ground line; the women seem thrown into a crowd. This is extremely different from the more standardized layout of Egyptian art. Akhenaten tried to move Egyptian thought from death to life, instead of thinking about the dark future, he wanted people to think about the present. Akhenaten acclaimed himself as the only one able to communicate with the god, Aten. This was reiterated in propagandistic fashion again and again through the art he commissioned to be made of himself and the royal family. In the relief, Akhenaten and His Family from Akhetaten (modern Tell el Amarna Dynasty 18, c. 15-16 B.C.E., painted limestone relief, 1 1/4 .x 15 1/4, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Agyptisches Museum), Aten is shown as the sun reaching down to Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their three daughters. Some of Atens rays are holding ankhs up to the noses of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Akhenaten replaced images of the gods in peoples lives with images of himself and his family. He then became the god to be worshiped. After Akhenatens death Egypt returned to its more conservative views, but the Amarna period left an indelible mark on the art of Egypt.It is astonishing to see how with the acceptance of new ideas, such as Akhenaten and his divine truth, art is affected. Egyptian artists were always capable of making a more naturalistic form, but decided to relinquish that for a standard that operated more for its functionality in the tombs of the deceased.The goddess Maat represents the ideals of law, order, and truth. The word, Maat translates that which is straight. it implies anything that is true, ordered, or balanced. She was the female counterpart of Thoth. Maat also plays an important part in the Book of the Dead. It is in the Hall of Maat the judgment of the dead was performed. This was done by weighing ones heart (conscience) against the feather of Maat. If a balance was struck the deceased was deemed to be worthy of meeting Osiris in the after life. If the heart of the deceased was found to be heavier then the feather of Maat it would be devoured by Ammut. (http//members.aol.com/egyptart/maat.html)On an educational field trip to the MET I admired the Khnum-nakht wooden coffin in the Egyptian Art wing. Coffin of Khnum-nakht, ca. 1001800 B.C.E.; Dynasty 1; Middle Kingdom Egyptian; Possibly from Asyut. Painted wood; L. 8 in. (08. cm) Rogers Fund, 115 (15..) Coffin, art from the Middle Kingdom". (Ref image 1.1)(http//www.metmuseum.org/collections/view1.asp?dep=10&full=0&item=15%E%E) The most noticeable features on this painted coffin are the goddess at the head (identified by the inscriptions as either Isis or Neith, two of the four goddesses who protected the mummy), her hands raised in a gesture of protection, and the eye panel on the long side to the left. Eyes were powerful symbols of protection, guaranteeing that the deceaseds body would remain undisturbed. Eyes painted on coffins had further significance. Coffins were always placed in the tomb with the eye side facing east. Inside the coffin the mummy, lying on its side, could look through the painted eyes at the rising sun, symbol of rebirth. Below the eyes is an elaborate version of the so-called false door, through which the spirit could come and go, spending the night in the mummy but leaving at dawn to live again in the world. (http//www.metmuseum.org/explore/newegypt/htm/wk_coff.htm)The artwork of ancient Egypt remains a never-ending source of interest for many in today's modern world. As noticed, painting seems to be the most intriguing and insightful medium of expression used by the Egyptian artisans. Robins,Gay., (001). The Art of Ancient Egypt. Harvard University PressStokstad,Marilyn., (001). Art History, Vol. (d ed.). Prentice Hall Professional Technical ReferenceMetropolitan Museum of Art. Dynasty Five, reign of Sahure, ca. 458-446 B.C., King Sahure and a Gnome God. New York, METMetropolitan Museum of Art. Dynasty 18, Akhenaten, ca. 15-16B.C.New York, METMetropolitan Museum of Art. Akhenaten and His Family. Modern Tell el Amarna Dynasty 18, c. 15-16 B.C.E. New York, METEgyptian Symbols and Definitions. Retrieved July 15, 00, from http//members.aol.com/egyptart/symlst.htmlEgyptianGoddess-Maat. Retrieved July 15, 00, from http//members.aol.com/egyptart/maat.htmlEgyptian Art. Retrieved July 15, 00, from http//www.metmuseum.org/collections/view1.asp?dep=10&full=0&item=15%E%E Please note that this sample paper on Egyptioans and Death is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on Egyptioans and Death, we are here to assist you. Your cheap custom college paper on Egyptioans and Death will be written from scratch, so you do not have to worry about its originality.
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