Buildings, paintings, sculptures and applied arts of ancient Egypt, from prehistory to the Roman conquest in 30 BC. The history of Egypt was the longest of all the ancient civilizations that flourished around the Mediterranean, stretching almost without interruption from approximately 3000 BC. to the 4th century AD
The life-size stone statue of Khafre (2530? B.C.) from Giza was carved from a solid block of diorite, the strongest stone available. obtain during the Ancient Egyptian Empire. It measures 1.65 m and represents the sovereign in an idealized way, with strong geometric lines and dramatic proportions.
The country's nature—developed around the Nile, which bathes and fertilizes it, in almost total isolation from outside cultural influences—has produced an artistic style that has barely changed throughout its more than 3,000-year history. All artistic manifestations were basically at the service of the state, religion and the pharaoh, considered as a god on earth. From the earliest times, the belief in a life after death dictated the norm of burying bodies with their best belongings, to ensure their transit in eternity.
The regularity of natural cycles, the growth and annual flooding of the Nile River, the succession of seasons, and the solar course that brought about day and night were regarded as gifts from the gods to the people of Egypt. Egyptian thought, culture and morals were based on a deep respect for order and balance. Art was intended to be useful:there was no talk of beautiful pieces or works, but of effective or efficient ones.
Egyptian breastplate
This Egyptian jewel was found in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen, who reigned during the 18th dynasty (c.1330 BC). It is a gold piece in the shape of a vulture, applied enamel and precious stones.
Cultural exchange and novelty were never considered important in their own right. Thus, the conventions and representative style of Egyptian art, established from the first moment, remained practically unchanged through the ages. To the contemporary viewer, artistic language can appear rigid and static. His fundamental intention, without a doubt, was not to create a real image of things as they appeared, but to capture for eternity the essence of the object, person or animal represented.
The temple at Luxor (above), on the east bank of the River Nile, was begun in the year 1200 BC. and was completed during the following dynasties. It was joined to the temple of Karnak by a 3.5 km long avenue, adorned with hundreds of sphinxes. Once a year, the image of the god Amun was transported by boat from Karnak to Luxor as part of a huge festival.
The gigantic temple of Abu Simbel (above) in Nubia, Lower Egypt, was built by order of Ramesses II, Pharaoh of Egypt between 1279 and 1212 BC. on the steep side of the mountain and its entrance is marked by four statues of Ramses II, also carved into the rock itself.
Pre-dynastic period
The first prehistoric settlers settled on the lands or plateaus formed by the sediments that the Nile River had deposited in its course. The objects and tools left behind by the first inhabitants of Egypt show their gradual transformation from a society of semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers into sedentary farmers. The predynastic period spans from 4000 BC. to 3100 BC, approximately.
Old empire
During the early dynasties, important funerary complexes were built for the pharaohs at Abydos and Sakkara. Hieroglyphics (figurative writing), a way of writing the Egyptian language, were then at their first level of evolution and already showed their character of something alive, like the rest of the decoration.
In the Third Dynasty, the capital moved to Memphis and the pharaohs began building pyramids, which replaced the mastabas as royal tombs. The architect, scientist and thinker Imhotep built for Pharaoh Zoser (c. 2737-2717 BC) a stone step pyramid and a group of temples, altars and related outbuildings. From this period is the famous monumental ensemble of Giza, where the pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Menkaure are located.
The sculpture was characterized by its hieratic style, rigidity, cubic shapes and frontality. First, a rectangular block of stone was carved; then, the figure or object to be represented was drawn on the front and sides of the stone. Of note, from this period, is the rigid statue of the pharaoh Khafra (c. 2530 BC).
Relief carving served two fundamental purposes:to glorify the pharaoh (made on temple walls) and to prepare the spirit on its way to eternity (made in tombs).
In ceramics, the richly decorated pieces of the pre-dynastic period were replaced by beautiful undecorated pieces, with a polished surface and with a wide variety of shapes and models, destined to serve as objects of everyday use. The jewelry was made of gold and semi-precious stones, incorporating shapes and designs, of animals and plants.
By the end of the Sixth Dynasty, the central power of Egypt had diminished and the local rulers decided to make the tombs in their own provinces, instead of being buried near the necropolises of the pharaohs they served. The oldest known metal statue in Egypt dates from this dynasty:a copper image (c. 2300 BC) of Pepi I (c. 2395-2360 BC).
Middle Empire
Mentuhotep II, pharaoh of the 11th dynasty, was the first pharaoh of the new unified Egypt of the Middle Kingdom (2134-1784 BC). He created a new style or a new typology of funerary monument, probably inspired by the funerary ensembles of the Old Kingdom. On the west bank of Thebes, as far as the other side of the Nile, at the place called Deir el Bahari, a temple was built in the valley connected by a long royal road to another temple that was installed on the mountainside. Formed by a mastaba crowned by a pyramid and surrounded by porticos on two levels, the walls were decorated with reliefs of the pharaoh in the company of the gods.
Middle Kingdom sculpture was characterized by a tendency towards realism. The portraits of pharaohs such as Amenemes III and Sesostris III stand out.
The custom among nobles of being buried in tombs built in their own centers of influence, rather than in the capital, remained in force. Although many of them were decorated with reliefs, such as the tombs of Aswan in the south, others, such as those of Beni Hassan and El Bersha, in Middle Egypt, were decorated exclusively with paintings. The painting also decorated the rectangular wooden sarcophagi, typical of this period. The drawings were very linear and showed great detail in detail.
In the Middle Kingdom, magnificent works of decorative art were also produced, particularly jewelry made of precious metals inlaid with colored stones. In this period appears the technique of granules and the glazed clay reached great importance for the elaboration of amulets and small figures.
New empire
The New Kingdom (1570-1070 BC) began with the 18th dynasty and was a time of great power, wealth and influence. Almost all the pharaohs of this period were concerned with expanding the set of temples at Karnak, center of the cult of Amun, which thus became one of the most impressive religious complexes in history. Next to this set, the temple of Luxor also stands out.
Of the New Kingdom, the unusual temple of Queen Hatshepsut, in Deir el Bahari, built by the architect Senemut (died in 1428 BC) and located on the cliffs of the Nile River, next to the temple of Mentuhotep II, also stands out.
During the 19th Dynasty, at the time of Ramesses II, one of the most important pharaohs of the New Kingdom, the gigantic temples of Abu Simbel were built in Nubia, in the south of Egypt.
Sculpture, at that time, reached a new dimension and a courtly style emerged, in which elegance and careful attention to the most delicate details were perfectly combined. Such a style would reach maturity in the time of Amunhotep III.
The art in the time of Akhenaten reflected the religious revolution promoted by the pharaoh, who worshiped Aten, solar god, and projected an artistic line oriented in this new direction, eliminating the traditional immobility of Egyptian art. From this period, the bust of Queen Nefertiti (c. 1365 BC) stands out.
Painting then predominated in the decoration of private tombs. The Theban necropolis is a rich source of information about the slow evolution of the artistic tradition, as well as excellent illustrations of life at that time.
During the New Kingdom, decorative art, painting and sculpture reached the highest stages of perfection and beauty. The everyday objects, used by the royal court and the nobility, were wonderfully designed and made with great technical skill. There is no better example to illustrate this statement than the funeral trousseau from the tomb (discovered in 1922) of Tutankhamen.
Late season
In Madinat Habu, near Thebes, on the west bank of the Nile, Ramesses III, the last of the powerful saga of pharaohs of the 20th dynasty, built a huge funerary temple (1198-1167 BC), the remains of which are the best preserved today.
The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal conquered Egypt, converting it into an Assyrian province until Psamtik I (664-610 BC) freed the country from domination and created a new dynasty, the XXVI, called Saita. From this period, the works of sculpture in bronze stand out, of great softness and softness in the modeling, with a tendency to turned shapes. The Egyptians then had contact with the Greeks, some of whom had served in their army as mercenaries, and also with the Jews, through a colony they had in the south, near Aswan.
The conquest of the country by Alexander the Great in 332 BC and by the Romans in 30 BC introduced Egypt into the sphere of the classical world, although its ancient artistic traditions persisted. Alexander (founder of the city of Alexandria, which became an important focus of Hellenistic culture) and his successors are represented in relief on temple walls as if they were authentic pharaohs—and in a clear Egyptian, not classical, style. Temples built during the Ptolemaic (Hellenic) period echo traditional Egyptian architectural models.
Egyptian Civilization
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