Religion In Ancient Egyptian Art

Life for Ancient Egyptians was very repetitive; drought and flood, abundance of food and starvation, riches and poverty. The Egyptians credited this static rhythm to their Gods and how well they worshipped them and their pharaoh. This unchanging lifestyle is reflected in their art. The main purpose of Ancient Egyptian artwork was religion; therefore the artists were very conservative when creating their paintings and sculptures. This is the reason that the style of the Ancient Egyptian’s artwork remained largely unchanged from 2500 BCE to 1300 BCE. As stated in The Development of Ancient Egyptian Art “…the word ‘development’ with its modern overtones suggesting an evolutionary progress, may be considered inappropriate when employed in an Egyptian

The pharaoh was the political and religious leader of Egypt, he or she was regarded as a god on earth and communicated to the gods on behalf of the people. Obviously this gives the pharaoh great power over the people of Egypt, they truly believed the pharaoh could communicate with the gods, so the people were very obedient. The Ancient Egyptians religion did not have a book or bible so full trust was placed in their pharaoh to lead them the right way. When times were good the people loved their king and when times were bad it was thus blamed on the king, even when it was things that were out of the kings control like weather or plagues or starvation. The pharaohs are responsible for the building of the great pyramids and monuments found throughout Egypt. It was the pharaoh’s job to choose the site for the temples and monuments although the design was left up to the architects and artists. There are two symbols that are used to represent the pharaoh they are the flail and the crook. The crook stands for the high authority of the pharaoh and the flail for the fertility of the land and royal ruling. These symbols also represent the god Osiris who the Egyptians believe the pharaoh became after death to rule the

To make sure this happened they Egyptians developed their mummification process into a fine art. The entire process took at least two and a half months during which the internal organs were removed and placed in jars that were buried along with the body. The heart and was left in the chest because they believed it was necessary for the afterlife and the most intelligent piece of the body. After this the body was dehydrated, sewn up and covered in lotions and wrapped tightly with linen bandages. In between the wrappings different items were placed to help aid the person in the afterlife, these objects often were scarabs, spells, the Book of the Dead, and other amulets. Finally a mask was placed on the face of the mummy; interestingly this mask was painted on wood with a strong likeness to the face of the person before they died. This portrait painting was very different from what most people think of when they think of Egyptian art, it was a very realistic looking portrait and not done in the typical profile fashion of Egyptian art. Any possible item a person would need during their life on earth was also placed in the tomb with the mummy for them to have in the afterlife, this included food, books, figurines, furniture, clothing and many other items. Any piece of Ancient Egyptian art is very easily