Ancient Egyptian Art

Ancient Egyptian art is an artistic expression of the ancient Egyptian civilization that lasted from approximately 3000 years BC until 30 years AD in the Nile Valley. This art is considered one of the oldest and most important arts in history, as it influenced other civilizations such as Greek, Roman, and Islamic. It also clearly and symbolically reflects the beliefs, culture, and life of the ancient Egyptians.

The Egyptian environment is characterized by its bright sun, clear skies, and the flat green valley, which is bordered on both sides by a series of plateaus that sometimes rise and sometimes fall with their various rocks, which highlights the characteristics of Egyptian nature, defined its features, and allowed Egyptians to know the account of the years and contemplate the cycle of the sun.

This clearly defined the nature that had the first impact on the formation of the ancient Egyptian faith, which served as the first inspiration in ancient Egyptian art, and defined how all the ancient Egyptian artworks were nature-inspired. The Egyptian artist’s production throughout history was deeply influenced by the local nature and the feelings of the people and feelings that he reflected in himself.

The most important characteristic of Egyptian art is its seriousness, as it does not contain any aspect of triviality or entertainment. What is seen in terms of wall paintings, sculptures, or columns are nothing but symbols of the ancient Egyptians’ faith—the doctrine of immortality and resurrection. Ancient Egyptian art was closely linked to religious systems, which had an effective impact on the life of the group and its artistic activity in particular.

Evidence of this is that studying the social systems of primitive peoples informs us of the extent to which religion has penetrated the life of the group, so we find the influence of religion on the arts is clear in various eras, as a large part of the inspiration of the ancient Egyptian artist was from the principles of the ancient Egyptian religion.

What inspired the ancient Egyptian art?

Many factors influenced Egyptian art in ancient Egyptian civilization, including the Nile River, hunting, agriculture, the sky, animals, and the Lower Kingdoms in the north and the Upper Kingdoms in the south. However, religious beliefs had the lion’s share of the factors that influenced ancient Egyptian art, which constituted a major tool for expression. Ancient Egyptian art relied on the use of symbols in general, whether in painting or sculpture, either to hide a specific message or to send a specific message. Hieroglyphic writings and various drawings were used for this.

The religious factor, whose influence continued for nearly three thousand years, was one of the most important factors that influenced the ancient Egyptian arts, as religion represented a major part of the daily life of the ancient Egyptians. It developed throughout successive dynasties until it eventually required books to explain the symbols. Various artistic techniques were used to refer to deities and holy things. Symbols were used to refer to kings as gods, and even after their death, new symbols were used to refer to them as reborn gods.

The gods greatly influenced ancient Egyptian art, and they played a major role in everything that happened to them in their daily lives. Therefore, for them, the walls of the temples were like pages of books on which they embodied the various religious rituals that they used to practice as an expression of their gratitude to the gods so that they would not be cut off from their services.

Symbolism in the ancient Egyptian Art

Ancient Egyptian art carried deep symbolic meanings, reflecting the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians. They used art to communicate with gods, ancestors, and spirits and to express their vision of life, death, and resurrection. They used art to record history, events, and personalities and to display their power, wealth, and honor.

Symbolism also played an important role in establishing a sense of order. The symbolism of ancient Egyptian art, ranging from the branches of the Pharaoh (symbolizing his authority to maintain order) to individual symbols of Egyptian gods and goddesses, was widespread in Egyptian art. Animals were usually highly symbolic figures in Egyptian art, and even color was meaningful – blue and green represented the Nile and life; yellow signified the sun god, and red symbolized power and vitality. The colors in Egyptian artifacts have survived extremely well over the centuries due to Egypt’s dry climate.

Some features of symbolism in ancient Egyptian art are:

Hieroglyphs: It was the writing system used in ancient Egyptian art, which consisted of picture-like drawings. These drawings symbolized certain sounds, concepts, or objects. It was used to write religious, political, and cultural texts on walls, columns, doors, furniture, utensils, coffins, and shrouds. It was also used to write the names of kings and gods in a sacred way.

Gilding: This was the use of gold to decorate some objects or figures in ancient Egyptian art. It symbolized reverence and honor and was used to indicate the quality of divinity, immortality, or glory. It was used to cover the body of some kings or gods or to make antiques, jewelry, or masks.

Petrification: This was the use of different stones in making some statues or artifacts in ancient Egyptian art. It symbolized stabilization and preservation and was used to indicate the quality of stability, preservation, or renewal. It was used to make statues of some kings or gods or to make some coffins or tombs.

Types of the Ancient Egyptian Art:

1- Sculpture

The first to carve on stones with precision and creativity were the ancient Egyptians, as they were the first to carve stone coffins to bury the deceased inside and the first to carve huge columns and obelisks such as those of Ramesses, Hatshepsut and others. They excelled in carving stone statues such as the Sphinx and King Ramesses II and the statue of King Khafre, made of green diorite stone, “the second hardest stone on earth.” They are the creators of the creativity that we see in the head of the statue of Queen Nefertiti, which we cannot differentiate between whether it is a stone or real.

2- Architecture

it is the most important branch of art in ancient Egypt because it expresses the conditions of the environment where it arose and the worldly and religious thinking of that nation. It also expresses the economic potential, administrative capacity, and human experience. It took many forms, such as dwellings, tombs, and temples. The ancient Egyptians used to build their earthly dwellings from mud bricks, while they built their religious houses from solid stones. It developed clearly in the tombs, starting from the oval pit to the mastaba, then it was carved inside the mountain rocks and the unique architecture of Deir el-Bahri. It is part of the genius of the Egyptian engineer that this architecture has remained for thousands of years until the present day, maintaining its solidity, patterns and colours.

3- Drawing

The ancient Egyptians were able to create a special colour, blue. They also created some other colours, the most important of which were red, white, black, green, and yellow. A bag of yellow was discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun. They also invented a substance to fix the colour of egg yolks where the stone surface is prepared using limestone and then painted white using this stabilizer. The wall or painting is divided into squares according to the drawing, and they then begin drawing the fine lines and details with high precision, then colouring using watercolours and brushes. All these steps were done precisely by the ancient Egyptians. Which now appear in tombs, temples, etc.

4- The art of ornament

The ancient Egyptians knew ornament before the dynastic eras, approximately more than 4000 years BC. The Ancient Egyptian artists were influenced by the environment surrounding them and various natural plants. They represented plants in the decorations of their architecture, clothes, jewellery, furniture, and other tools, which indicates their interest in the element of beauty and decoration, as they used Juncus, papyrus, and lotus plants to decorate buildings and the crowns of the kings and queens. Then, the matter developed, and the decoration of the cornice and bamboo appeared, and then the decoration of the double flower and the plant woods appeared.

5- The art of photography

The ancient Egyptian picture is not subject to the law of the three dimensions; that is, the front of the picture is its length and width, and the background of the picture is its depth. The ancient Egyptian artist was limited to only two dimensions, and the ancient Egyptians used to draw their pictures on one plane, which is photographing in two sizes (height and width) without depth and shading. Without using perspective, the features of ancient Egyptian life were depicted on the walls of tombs, where tombs were homes for the dead so that the soul could live the life of the afterlife, which the deceased imagined would resemble his life while he was alive.

6- The art of music and singing

The ancient Egyptians invented music and singing approximately more than 2000 years BC. They used it in the famous songs of “Aton or Aten” by King Akhenaten, as well as “Calvary or Golgotha,” the melody of death that is performed in funerary temples for the deceased, and other songs and writings mentioned on the walls of temples or papyri. Singing also varied and differed; there was religious singing, folk singing, and national singing. The ancient Egyptians developed and created the musical scale, which consisted of 5 degrees, and developed it in the era of the New Kingdom to consist of 7 degrees, which is used until now. The ancient Egyptians also invented Musical instruments, including those that we currently use, such as the harp, the flute, bell instruments, the tambourine, and the drum, which means that the ancient Egyptians established the rules of music.

7- The art of dancing

Dancing was important to the ancient Egyptians. They did not practice it only as entertainment, but rather, they practised it to worship the Creator, to get closer to him, to thank him for His blessings upon them, to expel evil spirits and harm from the deceased, and also to express their joy. Dancing was considered a refined and sacred art practiced by the king and everyone at celebrations and holidays. We see this now on the walls of their tombs, through which we know some of the different types, movements, and manifestations of dance.