Ancient Egyptian Artwork: A Historical Analysis

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For quite some time now I have taken a great interest in Ancient Egyptian artwork and the history behind it. The Ancient Egyptian were once a powerful civilization, they left behind thousands of ancient enriched artifacts. Religion played a significant role in Ancient Egyptian artwork and had a huge influence on their civilization. The vast majority of Ancient Egypt artwork illustrates images of gods, goddesses, and rulers known as pharaohs. The Ancient Egyptians paid close attention to balance, proportions and rich details. If a person were to closely look at Egyptian art it would be clear to see that they used vibrant shapes with simple figures and smooth spaces of color assisting in creating a sense of direction and poise in …show more content…

In fact, Egyptian art was practically invented for a spiritual meaning. Egyptian art is not only jam-packed with secret codes conferring mythology, it also explains the Egyptian understanding of their domain. In examining several images of artwork, one could not help but notice that the feet of the Gods always point left, and the eyes seem as if they are forward-facing. Women nurse or hold children with the left arm, or carry burdens on the left side (Adlred, 1985, 18). Whereas when examining statutes, they portray a firm sculpture like quality to the portraits. The statues and paintings are done with a romanticized person in mind, meaning they portray a prefect …show more content…

This is typically taken as the Pharaoh crushing his opponents. On the inside of the temple there is an attention shift to an emphasis on the gods, each temple focuses on a different pharaoh or god that had a significant meaning for that city. In many Egyptian statues the artist tried to make the pharaohs god like. Artists tended to exaggerate features of the Pharaoh “the long narrow face with hollow eyes, prominent jutting nose, large sensuous lips, high cheekbones, projecting lower jaw and strikingly narrow chin, long neck conspicuous breast, almost swollen stomach, feminine buttocks, heavy thighs and thin, spindly calves”(Malek, 1999, p. 271). The reason for this was to show that the intended being was perfect and there was no other like him or

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