Ch.

3 Egypt Under the Pharoahs

Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods
Evidence of a sophisticated civilization begins to appear on the banks of the Nile around 3500 BCE. Painting and Sculpture: Among the earliest historical examples of Egyptian art are a wall painting that appears to record funerary practices, and a ceremonial stone palette carved on both sides, with scenes in relief commemorating the unification of Egypt. The oldest Egyptian art: The Predynastic, or prehistoric, beginnings of Egyptian civilization are chronologically vague. But tantalizing remains from around 3500 BCE attest to the existence of a sophisticated civilization on the banks of the Nile. 3-2: People, boats, and animals, watercolor copy of a wall painting from tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis, Egypt, Predynastic, ca. 3500-3200 BCE. Paint on plaster, approx. 16' 3 long. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

3-3: Palette of King Narmer (left, back; right,

front), from Hierakonpolis, Egypt, Predynastic, ca. 3000-2920 BCE. Slate, approx. 2' 1 high. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

Portraying the human figure: The artist's portrayal of Narmer on both sides of his palette combines profile views of his head, legs and arms with front views of his eye and torso. This composite view of the human figure characterized Mesopotamian art and even some Stone Age paintings. On the front of the palette, the elongated necks of two felines form the circular depression that would have held eye makeup in an ordinary palette not made for display. Architecture: The brick or stone mastaba with sloping sides was a standard type of tomb in early Egypt. The first monumental royal tomb, built in stone by the architect Imhotep for King Djoser at Saqqara, comprised a stepped pyramid, temple, and other buildings within a large, rectangular enclosure surrounded by a high wall. Tombs and the afterlife: Narmer's palette is exceptional among surviving Egyptian artworks because it is commemorative rather than funerary in nature.

The unification of Egypt: In Predynastic times, Egypt was divided geographically and politically into Upper Egypt (the southern, upstream part of the Nile Valley), which was dry, rocky, and culturally rustic, and Lower (northern) Egypt, which was opulent, urban, and populous.

3-4: Section (top), plan (middle), and restored view (bottom) of typical Egyptian mastaba tombs.

From plant to stone: Djoser's funerary temple was one of many buildings arranged around several courts. Most were dummy structures with stone walls enclosing fills of rubble, sand, or gravel. The buildings imitated in stone masonry various types of temporary structures made of plant stems and mats erected in Upper and lower Egypt to celebrate the Jubilee Festival. The translation into stone of structural forms previously made out of plants may be seen in the long entrance corridor to Djoser's funerary precinct. 3-7: Facade of the North Palace of the mortuary

The first pyramid: One of the most renowned figures in Egyptian history is Imhotep, the royal builder for King Djoser (r. 263026:11 BCE) of the Third Dynasty. 3-5: IMHOTEP, Stepped Pyramid and mortuary precinct of Djoser, Saqqara, Egypt, Dynasty III, ca. 2630-2611 BCE.

precinct of Djoser, Saqqara, Egypt, Dynasty III, ca. 2630-2611 BCE.

THE OLD KINGDOM

Architecture Pyramids and the Sun God: 3-6: Restored plan (top) and view (bottom) of the mortuary precinct of Djoser, Saqqara, Egypt, Dynasty III, ca. 2630-2611 BCE. At Gizeh, the tree Great Pyramids were built in the course of 75 years. They are symbols of the sun. 3-8: Great Pyramids, Gizeh, Egypt, Dynasty IV. From left: Pyramids of Menkaure, ca. 2490-2472 BCE; Khafre, ca. 2520-2494 BCE; and Khufu, ca. 2551-2528 BCE.

3-11: Great Sphinx (with Pyramid of Khafre in the background at left), Gizeh, Egypt, Dynasty IV, ca. 2520-2494 BCE. Sandstone, approx. 65' high, 240' long. 3-9: Section of the Pyramid of Khufu, Gizeh, Egypt.

Sculpture Statues for eternity: As already noted, in Egyptian tombs statues fulfilled an important function. Sculptures created images of the Khafre and the Sprinx: The funerary complex at the Pyramid of Khafre at Gizeh included the pyramid itself with the pharaoh's burial chamber, the mortuary temple, the causeway, and the valley temple. According to one theory, the complex served not only as the king's tomb and temple, but also as his palace in the afterlife. 3-10: "Model of the pyramid complex, Gizeh, Egypt. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Semitic Museum. 1. Pyramid of Menkaure, 2. Pyramid of Khafre, 3. Mortuary temple of Khafre, 4. Causeway, 5. Great Sphinx, 6. Valley temple of Khafre, 7. Pyramid of Khufu, 8. Pyramids of the royal deceased to serve as abodes for the ka should the mummies be destroyed. The primary material for funerary objects was stone. 3-12: Khafre, from Gizeh, Egypt, Dynasty IV, ca. 2520-2494 BCE. Diorite, approx. 5' 6 high. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. An emotionless embrace: The seated statue is one of only a small number of basic formulaic types the sculptors of the Old Kingdom employed to represent the human figure. 3-13: Menkaure and Khamerernebty (?), from Gizeh, Egypt, Dynasty IV, ca. 2490-2472 BCE. Graywacke, approx. 4' 6 1/2 high. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Egyptian realism: The timeless quality of the portraits of Khafre, Menkaure, and Khamerernebty is enhanced by the absence of any color but that of the dark natural stone selected for the statues.

THE MIDDLE KINGDOM

The Middle Kingdom emerged in 2040 BCE, following a century of unrest after the collapse of the power of the Old Kingdom pharaohs around 2150 BCE. Sculpture A brooding Pharoah: One of Mentuhotep II's successors was Senusret III. 3-14: Seated scribe (Kay?), from his mastaba at Saqqara, Egypt, Dynasty V, ca. 2450-2350 BCE. Painted limestone, approx. 1' 9 high. Louvre, Paris. While his preserved statues have idealized bodies, the sculptures brought stunning and unprecedented realism to the rendition of Senusret III's features. 3-17: Fragmentary head of Senusret III, Dynasty XII, ca. 1860 BCE. Red quartzite, approx. 6 1/2 high. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

A portrait in wood: A second portrait illustrating this rule of relaxed formality and increased realism is the Fifth Dynasty wooden statue of an official named Ka-Aper. Hunting in the afterlife: In Egyptian tombs, the deceased were not represented exclusively in freestanding statuary. 3-15: Ti watching a hippopotamus hunt, relief in the mastaba of Ti, Saqqara, Egypt, Dynasty V, ca. 24502350 BCE. Painted limestone, hunting scene approx. 4' high. 3-16: Goats treading seed and cattle fording a canal, reliefs in the mastaba of Ti, Saqqara, Egypt, Dynasty V, ca. 24502350 BCE. Painted limestone. Architecture Mountain Tombs:

Senusret III's tomb, at Dashur is a mud-brick pyramid, but the most characteristic burials of the Middle Kingdom are rock-cut tombs. 3-18: Rock-cut tombs BH 3-5, Beni Hasan, Egypt, Dynasty XII, ca. 1950-1900 BCE.

3-19: Interior hall of the rock-cut tomb of Amenemhet (BH 2), Beni Hasan, Egypt, Dynasty XII, ca. 1950-1900 BCE.

A woman portrayed as a man: As many as 200 statues in the round depicting Hatshepsut in various guises complemented the extensive relief program. Hatshepsut was repeatedly portrayed as a sphinx. 3-21: Hatshepsut with offering jars, from the upper court of her mortuary temple, Deir el-Bahri, Egypt, ca. 14731458 BCE. Red granite, approx. 8' 6 high. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Colossi carved in a cliff:

THE NEW KINGDOM

The Middle Kingdom ended with the invasion of Egypt by the Hyksos from the east. Soon after Ahmose came to the throne in 1550 BCE, the Hyksos were expelled and Egypt entered the period known as the New Kingdom. Egypt at its height: Like its predecessor, the Middle Kingdom disintegrated, and power passed to the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, who descended on Egypt from the Syrian and Mesopotamian uplands. Architecture Hatshepsut's temple: New Kingdom architecture is dominated by grandiose temples, often built to honor pharaohs and queens, as well as gods. The most majestic of these royal mortuary temples, at Deir el-Bahri, was constructed for the female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, on of the most remarkable women of the ancient world. 3-20: Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut (with the Middle Kingdom mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II at left), Deir el-Bahri, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1473-1458 BCE.

Hatshepsut's mortuary temple never fails to impress visitors by its sheer size, and this is no less true of the immense rock-cut temple of Ramses II (r. 1290-12:24 B.C.) at Abu Simbel. 3-22: Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel (now relocated), Egypt, Dynasty XIX, ca. 1290-1224 BCE. Sandstone, colossi approx. 65' high.

Pillar statues: The pillars located in the interior of the temple of Ramses II, are 32 feet tall, carved from the cliff and have no loadbearing function. 3-23: Interior of the temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel (now relocated), Egypt, Dynasty XIX, ca. 1290-1224 BCE. Sandstone, pillar statues approx. 32' high.

The family of Ramses: Ramses fathered many sons. The most important members of his family were honored with immense monuments of their own. Immense pylon temples: Distinct from the pharaonic mortuary temples built during the New Kingdom are the edifices built to honor one or more of the gods. 3-24: Restored view of the temple of Amen-Re, Karnak, Egypt, begun fifteenth century BCE (JeanClaude Golvin).

3-26: Model of hypostyle hall, temple of Amen-Re, Karnak, Egypt, Dynasty XIX, ca. 1290-1224 BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Sunken reliefs on columns: In the hypostyle hall at Karnak, the columns are indispensable structurally, unlike the rock-cut columns of the tombs at Beni Hasan and Abu Simbel. But their function as vertical supports is almost hidden by horizontal bands of painted sunken relief sculpture. Architecture after Alexander: Hypostyle halls: The dominating feature of the statuary-lined approach to a New Kingdom temple was the monumental faade of the pylon, with was routinely covered with reliefs glorifying Egypt's rulers. Inside, was an open court with columns on two or more sides, followed by a hall between the court and sanctuary, its long axis placed at right angels to the corridor of the entire building complex. This hypostyle hall (one where columns support the roof) was crowded with massive columns and roofed by stone slabs carried on lintels. The lintels rested on cubical blocks that in turn rested on giant capitals. 3-25: Hypostyle hall, temple of Amen-Re, Karnak, Egypt, Dynasty XIX, ca. 1290-1224 BCE. Once formulated, Egyptian traditions tended to have very long lives, in architecture as in other arts. The pylon temple of Horus at Edfu, built during the third, second, and first centuries BCE, after Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt, still follows the basic scheme architects worked out more than a thousand years before. Sculpture and Painting Senmut and Nefrua: Extremely popular during the Middle and New Kingdoms were block statues. In these works the idea that the ka could find an eternal home in the cubic stone image of the deceased was expressed in an even more radical simplification of form than was common in Old Kingdom statuary. 3-27: Senmut with Princess Nefrua, from Thebes, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1470-1460 BCE. Granite, approx. 3' 1/2 high. gyptisches Museum, Berlin.

Painting at Thebes: The art of adorning tomb walls with paintings, attested already in the Predynastic period, flourished in the New Kingdom. 3-28: Fowling scene, from the tomb of Nebamun, Thebes, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1400-1350 BCE. Fresco on dry plaster, approx. 2' 8 high. British Museum, London.

Akhenaton and the Amarna Period: The shift in religious focus imposed by the pharaoh Akhenaton introduced profound but short-lived changes into Egyptian art. In sculpture and painting, the traditional rules of proportion were abandoned and a more expressive intimacy replaced the earlier stiffness and formality. Religious upheaval: Not long after Nebamun was laid to rest in his tomb at Thebes, a short but violent upheaval occurred in Egyptian society and in Egyptian art-the only major break in the continuity of their long tradition. In the mid-14:th century BCE, the pharaoh Amenhotep IV, later known as Akhenaton, abandoned the worship of most of the Egyptian gods in favor of Aton, whom he declared to be the universal and only god, identified with the sun disk. Artistic revolution: During the brief heretical episode of Akhenaton , however, profound changes occurred in Egyptian art. This

A feast for the dead: New Kingdom artists did not always adhere to old standards for figural representation. In the following fresco, the overlapping of the dancers; figures, their facing in opposite directions, and their rather complicated gyrations were carefully and accurately observed and executed. 3-29: Musicians and dancers, detail of a fresco from the tomb of Nebamun, Thebes, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1400-1350 BCE. Fragment approx. 1' x 2' 3. British Museum, London.

can be seen in a statue of Akhenaton form the temple of Aton. In this staute, Akhenaton is given an effeminate body, with curving contours, a long face with full lips and heavy-lidded eyes. This is vastly different from the heroically proportioned figures of the pharaoh's predecessors. 3-30: Akhenaton, from the temple of Aton, Karnak, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1353-1335 BCE. Sandstone, approx. 13' high. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Nefertiti and Tiye: The famous painted limestone bust of Akhenaton's queen, Nefertiti, exhibits a similar expression of entranced musing and almost mannered sensitivity and delicacy of curving contour. The sculptor seems

to have adjusted the actual likeness of his subject to meet the era's standard of spiritual beauty. Queen Tiye, mother of Akhenaton and Nefertiti, figured prominently in the art of the Amarna age. 3-31: THUTMOSE, Nefertiti, from Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1353-1335 BCE. Painted limestone, approx. 1' 8 high. gyptisches Museum, Berlin.

all traces of the worship of Aton were eradicated. Eventually, Egyptian art returned to its traditional form, but the changes introduced during the reign of Akhenaton lingered for a while and can be detected in the fluid, curvilinear forms seen in the art and artifacts found in the tomb of Tutankhamen. Treasures of a boy king: The legacy of the Amarna style may be seen, however, in the fabulously rich art and artifacts found in the largely unplundered tomb of Tutankhamen (r. 1333-13:23 BCE), who was probably Akhenaton's son

3-32: Tiye, from Gurob, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1353-1335 BCE. Wood, with gold, silver, alabaster, and lapis lazuli, approx. 3 3/4 high. gyptisches Museum, Berlin. Royal intimacy: Such an intimate portrayal of the pharaoh and his family is unprecedented in Egyptian art, however, the style is familiar. We see the undulating curves and prominent bellies that characterize figures of the Amarna school. 3-33: Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and three daughters, from Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 13531335 BCE. Limestone, approx. 12 1/4 high. gyptisches Museum, Berlin. The Tomb of Tutankhamen and the Post-Amarna Period: Following the death of Akhenaton, the traditional cult and priesthood of Amen was re-established and

by a minor wife. 3-34: Innermost coffin of Tutankhamen, from his tomb at Thebes, Egypt, Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1323 BCE. Gold with inlay of enamel and semiprecious stones, approx. 6' 1 long. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Tutankhamen the conqueror: Although Tutankhamen probably was considered too young to fight, his position as king required that he be represented as a conqueror. 3-35: Painted chest, from the Tomb of Tutankhamen, Thebes, Egypt, ca. 1333-1323 BCE. Wood, approx. 1' 8 long. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

The book of the dead: Tutankhamen's mummy case shows the boy king in the guise of Osiris, god of the dead and king of the underworld, as well as giver of eternal life. 3-36: Last judgment of Hu-Nefer, from his tomb at Thebes, Egypt, Dynasty XIX, ca. 1290-1280 BCE. Painted papyrus scroll, approx. 1' 6 high. British Museum, London.

First Millennium BCE

THE LATE PERIOD Egypt in decline: During the last millennium BCE, Egypt lost the commanding role it once had played in the ancient Near East. 3-37: Taharqo as a sphinx, from Temple T, Kawa, Sudan, Dynasty XXV, ca. 680 BCE. Granite, 1 4 X 2 4 3/4. British Museum, London. 3-38: Temple of Horus, Edfu, Egypt, ca. 237-47 BCE.