The document provides an overview of ancient Egyptian art from the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods through the New Kingdom. It describes the major historical periods of ancient Egypt and highlights several key works that exemplify artistic conventions like composite view, hieratic scale, and registers. The document discusses the relationship between art, architecture, and expressions of power and authority. It also examines ideals of idealization versus naturalism and how the human form was depicted over time in ancient Egyptian art.

1. Ancient Egyptian Art

2. Ancient Egypt

3. Egypt under the Pharoahs
Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods (ca. 3500-2575 BCE)
Old Kingdom (ca. 2575-2134 BCE)
the “age of pyramids”
Middle Kingdom (ca. 2040-1640 BCE)
New Kingdom (ca. 1550-1070)

4. Egyptian, Palette of Narmer (back), c. 3000-2920 BCE, Slate, 2’1’’.
Source

5. Akkadian, Victory Stele of Naram Sin,
2254-2218 BCE, pink sandstone, 6’7” high.
Source
Source
Egyptian, Palette of Narmer (back), c. 3000-
2920 BCE, Slate, 2’1’’.

6. Egyptian, Predynastic Period
Palette of Narmer (back), c. 3000-2920 BCE, Slate, 2’1’’.
Key Terms:
composite view- a convention of
representation in which part of a
figure is shown in profile and
another part of the same figure is
shown frontally
hieratic scale- where size indicates
relative importance
General concepts:
-Art as used to express power and
authority / relationship between art
and politics / idealization versus
naturalism / art and social
hierarchies
Source
Serekh (area where
the royal name is
inscribed)

7. Palette of Narmer (front), c. 3000-2920 BCE, Slate, 2’1’’.
Key term:
registers- horizontal
bands conventionally
used to nearly order
pictorial elements (the
preferred mode for
narrative art in
Mesopotamia)
Source

8. Palette of Narmer (front), c. 3000-2920 BCE, Slate, 2’1’’
Detail, depression for grinding cosmetics.
Source

9. Palette of Narmer (front), detail, c. 3000-2920 BCE, Slate, 2’1’’.
Source

10. Palette of Narmer (front), detail of bottom register, c. 3000-2920 BCE, Slate, 2’1’’.
Source

11. Some of the regalia
used to identify royalty.
General Concept:
conventions in art.
Source, p. 33

12. Commonly used poses and gestures in ancient Egyptian art.
Source, p. 37

13. Source
Key terms:
idealization-the
depiction of a human
or a figure in a way
considered to be most
ideal according to the
values or conventions of a
certain culture
canon of proportions-system
of proportions
using a grid to create a
standard, ideal system for
depicting the human
figure (used in ancient
Egyptian Art through the
Middle Kingdom)
General Concepts:
conventions in art

14. Egyptian Sculptural Relief
Source: Stokstad, Art History, 4th ed., p 65

15. Art and the Afterlife
Relevant Key Terms:
-canon of proportions
(idealization)
-composite view
-hieratic scale
Ti watching a hippopotamus hunt,
from the mastaba of Ti, Saqqara Egypt
c.2450-2359 BCE, painted limestone
4ft high

16. Mastaba tomb, Saqqara.
Key Term:
mastaba: the
standard tomb type in
early Egypt-characterized
by a
rectangular stone or
brick structure with
sloping sides and a flat
top over an
underground burial
chamber.
Source

17. Imhotep, stepped pyramid of Djoser, Saqqara, Egypt
c. 2630-2611 BCE.

18. Mastaba to Pyramid

19. General Concepts: art
as a reflection of a
culture’s central belief
systems and social
hierarchies
Great Pyramids, Gizeh Egypt, Fourth Dynasty.

20. Layout of the Gizeh plateau.
Source

21. Pyramid of Khafre, Gizeh, Egypt, c. 2520-2494 BCE.

22. Queen Nefertiti Making and Offering to Isis, wall painting in the tomb of Nefertiti
Nineteenth Dynasty, c. 1290-1224 BCE .

23. Innermost coffin of Tutankhamen, from his tomb at Thebes, Egypt
Post-Amarna Period, c. 1323 BCE.
6’1” long, gold with inlay [Egyptian Museum, Cairo].

24. Innermost coffin of Tutankhamen, from his tomb at Thebes, Egypt
New Kingdom, c. 1323 BCE.
6’1” long, gold with inlay [Egyptian Museum, Cairo].

25. Video: How to Make a Mummy.
http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-egypt/videos#how-to-make-a-mummy

26. General concepts: idealization
versus naturalism / art and social
hierarchies / conventions in art
Menkaure and his wife, from Gizeh, Egypt, Fourth Dynasty, 2490-2472 BCE.
4’6” high [MFA, Boston].

27. General Concept: idealism versus naturalism
Seated Scribe, from Saqqara, Egypt
Fourth Dynasty, c. 2500 BCE,
1’9” high, painted limestone.
Khafre Enthroned, from Gizeh, Egypt
Fourth Dynasty, c. 2520-2494 BCE
5’6” high.

28. Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri,
Egypt, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1473-1458 BCE.
General Concepts: representations of power and authority /
relationship between art and architecture / representations of women in art

29. General Concepts: representations of
power and authority / relationship
between architecture and artworks /
representations of women in art /
conventions in art
Hatshepsut with offering jars, from the upper court
of her mortuary temple, Deir el-Bahri, Egypt,
18th Dynasty, ca. 1473-1458
Red granite, 8’ 6” high.
[MET Museum, NY; reconstructed].

30. Façade of the temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel, Egypt, New Kingdom, c. 1290-1224 BCE,
Colossi= 65’ high, sandstone.
General Concepts: representations of power and authority / relationship
between art and architecture

31. Interior of the temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel, Egypt, New Kingdom, c. 1290-1224 BCE
Pillar statues= 32 ft high, sandstone

32. General Concepts: Change
in conventions / the human
body in art
Akhenaton from the temple of Aton, Karnak, Egypt, Sandstone, 13’ high
Amarna Period, ca. 1353-1335.

33. General Concepts:
-conventions in art
-the human body in art
-Idealization versus naturalism
-art and architecture as a display of power and authority
-the relationship between art and politics
-systems of art and the status of the artist
-art and architecture as a reflection of a culture’s central belief systems and
social hierarchies
-the relationship between art and architecture