The politics of power reflected

through the Art and Architecture

of Mesopotamian and Egyptian
art
Introduction
The idea of making marks on the surface and the desire of representation has
through a fantastic and impressive journey for mankind which we call art. This
phenomenon of art has brought up the sense of culture and aesthetics for
mankind from the Palaeolithic age till now and thus reflects the modes of social
order, cultural signifiers and moral codes throughout the history of making
through its different modes and politics of representation.
The idealist forms of Palaeolithic cave paintings shows this politics which was
used as an expression of ritualistic and magical belief to answer the survival
crisis of the early cavemen. However the questions of aesthetics were not were
not attended as much as the problems with idealism and naturalism. Art used to
be the carrier of magic until human beings learnt to grow crops in the
Mesopotamian region.
The agrarian civilisation in the Neolithic period constructed on settlements and
the whole idea of society change from a nomadic community to a domesticated
group of people. The leisure time led to the ignition of sense of aesthetic and the
abstract ultimatum forms of arts like pottery and architecture.
The concept of magical rituals also developed with the development formations
of society. The concept of geocentricism and animism reflected through the
totems, arms and amulates, crafts and sculptures. In line with the development
religion, came a concept of a priest class a sort of middle men who could
communicate with God. Existential crisis of the insecure Homo sapiens played a
great part in this development of religion and a theocratic society came into
place expanding the branch for art and architecture as an instrument of religious
subjectivity. With the expansion of society and urbanisation the religious factor
subdued to the administrative and protective quality. The need for muscle power
brought the concept of king and the state that used to control the civilisations
along with the priest- further developments in art happened with the kings
talking over and claiming them as son of god and sometimes se the superpower
personified reflecting the imperialist quality of art.

The theocratic power

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This change in the representation politics can be seen through the architecture of
the Mesopotamian and Egyptian
period. The Mesopotamian
civilisation at Sumer started with a
theocratic society with special
power to the priest. The
dominance of theocracy can be
proved by the examples of
monumental structure of Ziggurat.
The Ziggurats was as the highest
point of the city positions in the
centre it used to be at least to feet
high above the street level. The
ziggurat is measured to be high as
270feet in Babylon. Developed from the mounds worshipped before, the ziggurat
contained a flat top with a central hall or cellar placed above it which was
accessible to the priest and the virgin only who was worshipped. The height and
monumental status of the Stella curved as the vantage point as well as a
demarcation of exclusively for the religious head. The Ziggurat is also said to be
a place where the administrative works were carried on and grains were stored.
The storage facilities can be proved by bitumen and alabaster coathing of the
mud bricks of a lower position to save them from flood. These functionalities
prove that the religion assumed the duties of regulator and protector of the
civilisation.
However it was in the Akkadian dynasty only that the scene changed. The
transfer of power and middlemen shop from the priest class to the king shop
started with the reign of Gudea of Lagash. Gudea made carved statues of himself
in diorite with inscription of his zealous offering to the gods and his piety, wealth
and pride. These religious inscriptions with undercurrents of show of power
placed in the small temples he built and that had the dual fiction of a votive
offering and protectors. The Ishtar gate built by Nebuchadnezzar was another
step towards this change where the monumental arch is guarded by images of
various animals both real and composite parading with nonchalant that
expresses the potential of the brute force that Ishtar and nebuehadhezzar bth

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signified co-operating with each other in flourishing of the civilisations.

The story of a king being the receiver of the power from the good as a caretaker
of the Hammurabi is the primary and the earliest code of law discovered yet.
This code acts as an inspiration for the laws of imperialistic roman civilisation
which was later adopted by the British and subsequently
India and also other states and nations. This stele shows god
transferring the power and the secrets of rule to Hammurabi
thus signifying Hamurabis rule as divine and an application
of gods wish and rule for the mankind.

Another subtle change can be observed in the politics of

representation through the gaze of the sculptural tradition.
God as the supreme ruler and the divine protector has been
always referred with an unflinching gaze. This unflinching
and bright gaze has been represented by using precious
elements as an inlay in the large eye sockets in mesopotemenia as seen in the
head of Inanna of Sumer or the votive statuettes of the temple of Essnunna. In
the Akkad dynasty these character of depiction also who are given status
through the eyes and the stylised stepped beard.

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The use of animism that characterised the divinities from

the Neolithic period has been also used for the kings
palace like the bull headed lyre. This character of divinity
was used to in the guardian figures of Lamassu which
protected the Assyrian citadel, thus the Lamassu figure
also had the stylised beard thus ascertaining the divine
providence showered upon the Assyrian dynasty.

The Assyrian dynasty period was a barbarian reign. This war loving rulers
exhibited cruelty to ascertain their propaganda of brutality over its enemies.
However, the tradition of exhibiting ones power over their enemies started much
earlier as exhibited by the victory stele of Naram-sin. This
relief claimed the sovereignty of the kings of Akkad where
the hierarchies perspective puts the image of the king which
seems like him scaling the ladder to the weaves destroying
his enemy with the twin images of Ishtar and samsesh
represented as their presence and hand in the victory of
Naram- Sin.
Such a show of vigour and pride influenced the low, dynamic
reliefs in the palace of Ashurbanipal and Ashurbanipal II
where the violence and tension are chosen as a main theme
to display the imperial conquests and also the prowess in hunting. The straining
muscles, swelling veins, the naturalistic despair and catastrophe of the powerful

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defiant enemies of the king, whose heroism is glorified.

This glorification of heroism is also seen in the processional frieze in on the

terrace of Padena in Persepolis which takes the format of present actions of
offering to the Goddess Inanna in the works vase and transferred it to show the
power of the king where delegates from every country offered their tribute to the
Persian king.

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Through these changes the arts expressed the king with a near god divinity thus
completed erasing the theocratic supremacy and showing the seed for the
concept of king to god.
The concept of king worship and king as a god appointed guardian of his found
another form of delineation the art and architecture of the Egyptian civilisation.
The development of Pyramids for the pharohs should serve excellent point if
reference in this case.

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Monumentality, idealism and commemoration

The predynastic
period in Egypt saw
the development of
Mastabas as a finery
and commemorative
structure combined
together. The
mastabas were
created from the
burying tradition of
earthen mounds that
was present before.
However the
monumental
structure of Djoser built by Imoteph saw the Mastaba tradition rose to a
monumental structure emphasising the kings power. The step pyramid was built
by pilling Mastabas one over another in decreasing
sizes. The structure of the Mastabas lead to the
building of the pyramids
The Pyramids refuted the influence of Heliopolis,
the seat of the powerful cult of Re, whose emblem
was a pyramid stone, the ben-benwhich every
pharaoh carried. The monumentality of the
pyramids of crizch and its religious influence
showed the amalgamation of religion in the power
of the pharaoh. The pyramids are also a
combination of commemorative and funerary
structure and thus it was every pharaoh exhibition of prowess and urges to attain
divinity and immortality during the old kingdom. This exhibition can be more
contextualised if the sculpture of the great sphinx is taken into consideration.
This colossal statue combines the brute strength of the lion and a Pharaohs
head to express his power.

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The colossal monumentality of the pyramid of early replaced by mortuary

temples in the new kingdom but the concept of overwhelming monumentality
was never erased from royal Egyptian architecture [this temples also asserts the
relationship between god and the pharaoh. The temple of Hatshepsut should be
taken into consideration in this use which provides a strategically use of
monumentality. The temples through created with a considerable height to make
any person inside them feel minuscule, is portioned in front of a cliff and apes
the form of the cliff through its structure to create the overwhelming effect of
enormity. Such a eternity is also cured for in the temple of Ramesses II which is
made from a live rocks in Abu Simbel. The temple reaches to the sheer size of
700 feet with the seated figures of Ramesses of 65 feet high overwhelming the
visitors. Inside the temple the visitors are faced with the towering pillars of 32
feet depicting Ramesses as Osiris. Such a profusion of the pharaoh figures his

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posing as a god and

the overwhelming
sense of guardian
of mankind.

The pharaoh attaining godlike statues in Egypt also reflects the sculptural and
relief tradition. The idealistic and stiff forms of Pharaohs and the unchanging
style all through the civilisation proves the fact of existence of cannons about
forms and style for the depiction of pharaoh. The idealism aimed for reducing the
blemishes and creating purity in the depiction of the pharaohs. Although
naturalism could be found other sculptures like the seated scribe the pharaoh
sculpture maintained their idealism and formality. This difference can be seen in
the painted reliefs like the watching Hippopotamus hunt and formulating scene
from the tomb of Nebamun.
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Another
delineation of
the
emphasising
the status of
king can be
found in the
sculpture of
Akhenation in
Amurna
period.
Akhenaton
brought the
concept of
monotheism in
Egypt by
removing
every other
God except Aton. The sculpture of Akhenaton from the temple of Aton at karnak,
poses an androgynous quality which is assumed to be an attempt to portray the
sexless quality of Sun God through Aton thus highlighting the pharaohs divinity.

Conclusion
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These qualities of monumentality and overwhelming idealisation pervaded

through the imperial periods of later ages. Even the classicist Roman imperial
sculptures or the neo classical sculptures and paintings like the works of Ton
nova or Ingres aimed to idealise to remove the images and imbibe classical
youthfulness to define the immortality of the imperialist.

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Bibliography
Kleiner, Fred. Gardners art through the ages: The western perspective. Vol. 1. Cengage Learning,
2013.
Hauser, Arnold. The Social History of Art: Naturalism, impressionism, the film age. Vol. 4. Psychology
Press, 1999.
Janson, Horst Woldemar, and Anthony F. Janson. History of art: the Western tradition. Prentice Hall
Professional, 2003.

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