Egyptian Art: Old, Middle and New Kingdoms
Art historians, Egyptologists, and archeologists have made fascinating discoveries about the artifacts, pharaohs, and culture of Egypt since the discovery in 1799 of the Rosetta Stone. It led to the decoding of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Pharaonic names, dates, places, and events could then be reliably organized for linear presentation of ancient Egypt’s long 4,000 year history. Egyptian innovations in burial architecture, mummification, picture language, and huge monument building had both amazed and puzzled scholars for nearly 1,500 years. Pyramid building, obelisk lifting and colossal statue carving reveal a sophistication and simplicity which are at once both attractive and intriguing. This paper will review several specific aspects of Egyptian art ranging from 4000 to 30 B.C.E.
First will be, a brief discussion of Egyptian history, kings, geography and art. They will be followed by an examination of invention and innovation. Next, the decoding of hieroglyphics will be reviewed and followed by an overview of ancient Egyptian fascination with the afterlife. Finally, the major discovery in 1922 of King Tutankhamen’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings and its exquisite treasures will be offered.
The Old Kingdom, from about 4000 to 2280 B.C., was the age of the great pyramids such as Cheops (wonder of the ancient world), Chefren, and Mycerinus. Also on the Giza plateau is the largest freestanding statue in Egypt, the Sphinx. The Sphinx was a sculpture of a lion’s body with the face of Chefren. The statue is sixty-five feet high and about 240 feet in length, making it the largest freestanding statue in Egypt. The Nile River was key in the development of these Ancient Egyptian cities the Nile would flood in the summer which fertilized the crops and making the desert lush and fertile. Its most important role was it supplied clay for bricks and pottery for transporting water. The Nile was even an asset to the prehistorics. The Egyptians developed their agricultural economy from prehistoric communities such as Hierakonpolis. Menes, the first recorded king of early Egypt, had an architect named Imhotep. Imhotep built and constructed many types of pyramids such as the mastaba, step, bent, and smooth-sided. The next era of the Egyptian kingdom is known as the Middle Kingdom. This kingdom lasted from about 2065 to 1785 B.C. In this era, the city of Thebes was built. Thebes was known as the most influential city of the ancient world.
The Ancient Egyptian sculpture, “Statue of Nykara and His Family”, was sculpted during the late fifth dynasty. The sculpture is a depiction of Nykara, his wife, Nubkau, and son, Ankhma-Re. The statue is in poor condition with pieces of limestone missing and chips on the three subject’s faces and bodies. The painted limestone shows the conventional colors for the male and female subjects. There is a clear discoloration among Nykara and his son’s bodies. The brownish red color they once were has eroded to a light yellowish color, which resembles the purposeful color of Nykara’s wife. The hieroglyphs on Nykara’s seat insinuate that the sculpture is meant to be viewed from the front view. This is also evident by the way the three subjects are facing forward in frontal view. There are hieroglyphs on both the chair and base of the statue near Nykara’s wife and son’s feet.
Arguably one of the most important discoveries made regarding the historical and cultural study of ancient Egypt is the translation of the writing form known as hieroglyphics. This language, lost for thousands of years, formed a tantalizing challenge to a young Jean François who committed his life to its translation. Scholars such as Sylvestre de Sacy had attempted to translate the Rosetta Stone before Champollion, but after painstaking and unfruitful work, they abandoned it (Giblin 32). Champollion’s breakthrough with hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone opened up new possibilities to study and understand ancient Egypt like never before, and modern Egyptology was born.
The statue of King Khafre Seated , from the fourth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, 2520 - 2492 BCE, was created by an unknown artist in the smooth permanence of graywacke stone. Although the statue is currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as number 56 in the Special Egyptian Exhibition, its true home is at the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo. The man being portrayed, King Khafre, ruled Egypt for approximately thirty years, during which he commissioned the single most recognizable monuments of Egypt, the a fore mentioned Pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx. These monuments of symmetry and solidity characterize the focus of popular architecture and sculpture from the Old Kingdom in Egypt.
André Breton wrote: "There is no art more exclusively feminine, in the sense that, in order to be as seductive as possible, it is only too willing to play alternately at being absolutely pure and absolutely pernicious. The art of Frida Kahlo is a ribbon about a bomb" (Herrera, 1983). Frida Kahlo has the most famous and conspicuous self portraits in the world today. Her paintings were highly controversial and caught the attention of the common people, art lovers and critics from art professionals. However, it was not until the publishing to Hayden Herrera biography Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo in 1983 that drew the eyes of most people to Frida’s art. Frida’s portrait of her own body was the central piece of her art. According to Frida in Mexico out of the 143 completed portraits of Frida, 55 of them were self portraits and the rest were representation of her self identity as a Mexican woman. Most people were captivated by her life stories and how she reflected them in her portraits.
Scott, N. The Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 31, No. 3, The Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians (Spring, 1973), pp. 123-170
It is clear that tombs and burial rituals were a key element in the Egyptian society and their way of life as it ties into almost all things they did on a daily basis. Whatever a person’s status was when they were alive followed them into the afterlife. Food and luxury goods were buried with a person so that they could have it in the afterlife. The tombs became a person’s new house after they died. Therefore, making it as nice as possible was really important. Art work and clay models were added to a person’s tomb as material goods needed for the afterlife. They were also seen as decorations that kept the tombs looking nice. Throughout the years, Egyptian artworks on the inner parts of the tombs and on the coffins show a development in the Egyptian customs. Each new development was created to better preserve the bodies and comfort of the dead.
As stated in previous assignments Kahlo was always considered unique or could even be seen as rebellious for a women of her time period she cut her hair short, wore men’s clothes was one of the first girls in a prep school in Mexico as well as hung out with boys argued and expressed her political views, she smoked had affairs with both men and women and Kahlo paintings were considered extremely raw considered comparing to other female artist at the time as well as the way she chose to express herself through art. “Kahlo (1097-1954), the iconic Mexican artist of the post-revolutionary period, has become in recent times an overlooked sign for feminism, mexicanidad, bisexuality, lesbianism, victimhood, glamour and disfigurement, among all possibilities.” (Volk, pg. 168) This article also discusses Kahlo’s Political involvement like being a part of Mexico’s Communist party and her involvement with Trotsky both also mention in previous assignments. Kahlo was known for her interest in Marxism and Communist leaders from her debates in school to her painting like Self Portrait wit
The ancient Egyptians are known for many of the incredible aspects of their culture and everything they have produced. Some of the well known ancient Egyptian relics are the ones like the ancient pyramids, the Great Sphinx of Giza, mummies, and their many forms of art. Ancient Egyptian art is one of the most recognized styles of art. The most commonly known types of ancient Egyptian art are types like paintings, ceramics, and sculptures. Not only is Egyptian art beautiful, but it carries a huge deal of value and significance with it. A great portion of the time, the art has some kind of religious meaning to it. Consequently it is very difficult to discuss the art itself without delving into the various gods and goddesses presented in it. Something that particularly struck me about ancient Egyptian art was their proneness to use animals in their art. Not only do they use the animal’s full figure, but they also put individual parts on human bodies. This intrigued me because not many cultures have art that embrace animals to this extent. I will be exploring why the ancient Egyptians depict animals in their art repeatedly, and considering what they meant to them.
Aggression. Killing. Revenge. Sound like the latest Scream movie or Keanu Reeves thriller? You may be surprised to hear that this describes the average Saturday morning cartoon. One of the most surprising facts is that the level of violence during Saturday morning cartoons is higher than the level of violence during prime time. There are 3 to 5 violent acts per hour in prime time, versus 20 to 25 acts per hour on Saturday morning (Gerbner,1). Violence on television in general is damaging to society. But the specific targeting of the younger population through the use of cartoons to show violence is destructive and in no way helping to profit the upcoming generation. Violence in cartoons is harmful to children in many ways. Desensitizing children, increasing aggressiveness, and increasing their fear of becoming victims in real life, are all accredited to violence on television.
As television has become increasingly popular over the past few decades, it has allotted researchers a large amount of time to collect data and explore many aspects of this wonderful, yet harmful invention. It is safe to say that almost every household in America has a television, and it is on and used for multiple hours a day. The vast variety of different shows to watch is outstanding; shows about food, homes, the news, imagination, reality, horror, action-thrillers, the list could go on and on, there is always something to watch for everyone. However, is everything on television appropriate for all of its viewers? The answer to that question is up to the reader, but may they be informed of the effect violence on television has had on children, and will effect those children for the rest of their lives.
The feminist icon, Frida Kahlo , was known as a Mexican self-portrait artist. One of Kahlo’s famous quotes is, “ I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.” This quote demonstrates the meaning and drive behind her work. Frida Kahlo was an important figure in history because of her art and how each piece told it’s own story.
Television programs that are targeted towards children, such as cartoons, can affect children in both positive and negative ways. I examined a variety of cartoons on both commercial and public television to observe the content of children's programming and determine the effects, both positive and negative, that programs have on children. The cartoons contain a wide variety of subject matters that can influence children in many different ways. I found that the majority of cartoons choose to use violence and inappropriate subject matter to entertain children. These images and stories can have a tremendous negative impact on children because the violence is rewarded without consequences, is glorified, and idealized. Children look up to the characters that have a negative impact by distorting their views on conflict resolution. There are, however, cartoons that contain little or no violence and often try to incorporate educational lessons that concern values and morals that are important for children to learn, thus having a positive impact.
Animation is well-liked at all ages because cartoons entertain people and even educate them. However, some cartoons include negative occurrences which can influence kids poorly, that is why people need to be careful in watching animation. There was a report which is made by National Institute of Mental Health to understand the effects of violence in cartoons on children, the research resulted as children who watch animation regularly; they will not be responsive to environment, they will be frightened before they see the real world and they will be conducted more hostility (“Violence on Television: What do Children Learn? What Can Parents Do?”). These articles and the research show that this problem is effected on kids’ daily life and the problem of violence in animation can be alleviated if media and parents have restrictions on kids who watch
Light independent reactions do not require light in order to occur however, products of the light dependent reaction such as ATP and NADPH, are required in order for the to function. Within photosystem I, low energy electrons are reenergized and are passed through an electron transport chain where they are used to reduce the electron carrier NADP+ to NADPH. When the chloroplast is receiving a steady supply of photons, NADPH and ATP molecules are rapidly being provided to the metabolic pathways in the stroma. Therefore ATP and NADPH formed during the light dependent reactions are used in stroma to fuel the Calvin cycle reactions. The light independent reactions use specific molecules to temporarily house the energy. These are also called energy carriers and move the energy from the light dependent to the light independent reactions. Once the energy is released, the energy carriers transmit back to the light dependent reaction in order to obtain more
Television violence causes destructive behavior in children, however; television can be a powerful influence to young viewers in our society. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming are very violent. Many researchers like scientists, pediatricians, and child researchers in many countries have studied to find out what it is about television violence that makes it such a big affect on the way kids act and behave. Sometimes, children think that is a normal thing in our real life, by watching only a single violent program, which can increase aggressiveness on children and become violent, aggressive, and vicious.