The Ancient Arts of Egypt

Egyptian art is distinctive and recognised the world over. Most of the art that has survived as had to do with the dead and religious beliefs.

Painting and carving followed set rules for composition everything was measured and put into place for a purpose.

Gods had special features and men had darker skin than women.

Paintings look flat and strange, important people were larger and the closest to the viewer were on the bottom, but these were the rules.

Artists needed to be proficient in hieroglyphics as these were included in most of their art.

Papyrus was the main writing and painting surface used. Papyrus was invented very early on in the country's history.

Examples have survived from the 1st Dynasty (3100-2890 B.C.E.) and it was used continuously until the 11th century C.E.

Reliefs both raised and sunken were popular for depicting everyday activities and featured feasting, craftsmen and dancing.

A small scale was done on papyrus then transferred to the object by grids for scaling. Wall paintings were done in a similar way.

Sculpture was taken to grand levels in this country with the largest single block carvings ever recorded.

Bronze, wood, ivory and clay were used to make smaller pieces as well as their utensils.

Sculpture such as the Sphinx were made up of blocks first carved at the quarry then transported to site where they were polished and painted.

Belly Dancing is the most recognisable of the performing arts from this country and is still popular today. Gold was by far the most popular metal for jewellery, masks, coffins and decorations.

Scarabs are associated with the god, Khepri. It was Khepri who pushed the sun across the sky.

An interesting theory here: Dung beetles lay eggs in a pellet which they roll along and the people regarded this action as an image of the sun and its course through the heavens, rolled by a gigantic beetle.

Egyptian artists were called upon to bring back to life, death was to be overcome. Necessary conditions and objects and conditions were created to allow the dead to continue living their life in a new setting.

Not all art was funereal and ordered, there existed the art of the living where artists were allowed freedom. These included school drawings, sketches, albums and paintings known as ostraka.

Ritual music used a 5 note scale, accompanied by such instruments as lutes, pipes and flutes, drums, zills, tambourine, and sistra.

The sistra orsistrum was the most magical instrument used, based on three horizontal metal bars with round metal clappers sliding on them.

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