Egypt
- Egyptians believed they were once two lands upper and lower Egypt
- Upper and lower Egypt were unified as a single nation
- Cairo became their new capital
- Rulers claiming to be gods, not intermediaries but rather actual gods, believed in gods above the pharaoh
- Hieroglyphs are a form of pictograms
- The writing is a group of images, interesting relationship between the art and the written language
- The division between art and written language is blurred here
- Concept of afterlife, after we die, we go somewhere
- Fundamental to the Egyptians
- Tombs- would dig a pit, throw the body in it, bacteria cannot grow, example of Ginger
- If there was something you treasured in your life, people would imagine that they would want to take it with them to the afterlife
- As a result ancient Egyptians started to build more complex tombs, (however now since the bodies are not the in hot sand the bodies will begin to decompose)
The Pyramids-At Giza (the three pyramids)-Egypt was rich in resources (artists have lots of materials)-the pyramids (of GIZA) were built out of stone, because they wanted them to last forever-the tombs were built while they were alive-Pyramid of Khufu (480 feet tall), solid stone quarried right at the site, were originally encased in white limestone, blocks are 17 ft thick,:
- we are not sure how the pyramid was built
- maybe a series of ramps, (that were spiraling around the pyramid)
- slaves used in the quarries, labour took place on the pyramids during the flood season because farmers could not work in the fields
- three burial chambers,
- the bottom was a decoy chamber
- there were air shafts (for the kings spirit to come and go)
- the kings are all supposed to be sons of Ra (the sun god)
- Each pyramid had a pair of temples that was associated with it
- The kings also had back up bodies
- Khafre (meaning to look like Ra) statues were portrayed as godly and kingly, sitting on a throne, there were hieroglyphs with symbols of upper and lower egypt, implying that he rules both and will continue to do so in the afterlife
- Headdress, fake beard (status of the king)
- There is a hawk, cradling and protecting the statue of the king, the hawk was a representation of the god Horus (son of Ra)
Pyramid of Menkaure:-was smaller than the others-husband and wife tomb (they presumable loved each other while they were alive)
-statue of the king and the queen, they are both taking steps, the king is taking a farther step forward, the queen is taking more a dainty step-the king and the queen are divine they are gods-the kings hands are clasped in fists around something- the queen is wearing some kind of garment-the queen is wearing a wig, (Egyptians had headlice, so they kept their hair short and wore wigs when they wanted to dress up)Artists used a grid to create proportions[pic 1]-Tomb of Te, not a god, member of the elite,-Reliefs depict life on the nile, hes hunting hippos, hierarchic structure much larger than everyone else in the relief (his servants), hippo hunting was a royal sport-Sprit was supposed to go into the relief-Te was in composite view while his servants were not indicating his status-reliefs showing servants working on te’s estate-through art show the production of food and drink, art is magic and therefore will allow these things be available to you (this is why the reliefs were placed in the tomb), if Te enjoyed hunting he puts a piece of art depicting that so that he can enjoy it in the after life
