Egyption World View

● Monuments and other representational items were first and foremost functional
● Annual inundation of the Nile river flooded the land to either side of the river channel, watering soil
and spreading fertile black silt for planting crops
○ Beyond was the desert forming a clear line btw fertile fields + sterile sand
○ Kemet - “black land”
○ Desheret - “red land”
● Tend to see world in terms of duality
● Egypt was also called the Two Lands referring to the Valley (Upper Egypt) + the Delta (Lower Egypt)
○ Upper and Lower Egypt had its own goddess and heraldic plant
■ Vulture goddess, Nekhbet + lily = Upper Egypt
■ Cobra goddess, Wadjit + papyrus plant = Lower Egypt
○ 2 heraldic plants as a pair stood for the entire country
■ Often depicted on the sides of the king’s throne w/ their stems knotted around a large
version of the hieroglyph meaning “union”
■ In the single person of the king, duality of Egypt was bound into one
● King’s title nesut bity translates to King of Upper and Lower Egypt / “Dual King”
○ White crown = Upper Egypt in the south
○ Red crown = Lower Egypt in the north
● Fertile vs sterile land also represented a cosmic struggle btw the forces of order and chaos
● Before creation of the ordered world, there had been only the primaeval waters called Nun from
which the Creator god appeared from
○ Creator god masturbated + brought forth Shu and Tefnut (first divine couple)
○ Shu and Tefnut gave birth to deities Geb (earth) and Nut (sky)
○ Geb and Nut gave birth to deities Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and Seth
● Osiris represented ordered world
○ Ruled Egypt + brought benefits of civilisation to Egypt
● Seth represented chaos world
○ Caused the death of Osiris to claim Egypt kingship
○ Osiris’ sister-consort Isis brought Osiris back to life and conceived a son, Horus
○ Horus displaced Seth and became King of Egypt + Osiris became ruler of the underworld
→ restorying order in the universe
● Every Egyptian King identified with Horus during his lifetime + Osiris after his death
● King functions: maintain order in the world + act as a mediator btw divine + human worlds
○ Often depicted in art performing rituals for the gods (priests were delegated this task in
practice)
○ Human body was the vessel in which divine kingship manifested itself in the form of the
royal ka or life force passed on from one king to the next
● Foreign lands + inhabitants were regarded as representatives of the forces of chaos (diverged from the
norms)
○ Kings depicted about to smite enemy captives symbolized triumph of order over chaos
 ● Hierarchy:
1. King
2. High national officials (ex: vizier)
3. High-ranking administrators in important provincial regions + their staff
4. Local scribes
5. Artists and other semi-/non-literate professionals who produced goods + provided services
for the elite
6. Independent farmers, tenant farmers, or landless labourers who produced food to supply non-
food producing classes (majority of population)
● Literacy was the basic qualification for government positions
● Know the most about the king and elite scribal class b/c they wrote the texts that form much of the
source material used to study ancient Egypt (little mentioned about lower classes)
○ Works of art were produced for the elite + express their world view

Principles of Egyptian Art

● Majority of 3D representations face straight ahead (no twisting/turning)
○ Statues designed as places where gods, the king, and the dead to manifest themselves in order
to be the recipients of ritual actions
○ Make sense to show statue looking ahead at what is happening in front of them
○ Living performer can interact w/ the dividend or deceased recipient
● Statues made of stone, wood, or metal
● Statues of generic figures from non-elite population (often servants) were made to be put in tombs of
the elite to serve tomb owners in the afterlife
○ Engaged in activities rather than static stances
○ Action rather than figure itself that is important
● Created representations on 2D surface w/out aim to incorporate appearance of depth
○ Objects rendered in profile, full view, plan, or elevation
■ Different view can occur together in same place → no single viewpoint
● Images were ordered by a system of registers
○ Lower border of register acted as the ground line for figures within that register
○ Positional relationship of one image to another could be cued for viewer by overlapping +
placement within the register
■ Overlapping items → what is behind is further from the viewer
■ Stacked items → those higher up are behind those lower down
○ Larger figures = more status (ex: king’s usually the same size as deity figures but larger than
his subjects)
○ Often combined w/ textual hieroglyphs acting as captions, requests for offerings, + hymns
● Types of hieroglyphs:
○ Phonetic - standing for consonantal sounds in the Egyptian language
○ Logographic - standing literally or metaphorically for an object/idea
○ Determinatives - placed at ends of individual words to show categories to which these words
belong (ex: verbs of movement followed by pair of legs)
○ Oriented to viewer’s right but can be reserved w/ intention to carry meaning
○ Can be written horizontally or vertically
Materials, Techniques, and Artists
● Limestone was one of the most readily available materials
● Stone was major building material for free-standing + rock-cut temples + tombs
○ Color of stone often chosen for symbolism
● Soft stone, linen + wood were plastered + painted
● Some statues made of metal but few survived (melted down for their metal)
● Egyptian faience or glazed compositions - material could be modelled + moulded for use in mass-
production of small items
● Scenes on stone surfaces often cut into relief before painting
○ Raised relief - chisels used to cut round outlines + background stone cut away
■ Traditionally used on interior walls
○ Sunk relief - chisels used to cut round outlines + figures were cut back within outlines
■ Traditionally used on outside walls
● Papyrus main use was a writing surface
● Egyptian society encouraged conformity not individualism
● Artists worked as a team