Art of Ancient Egypt

Beginning with the New Kindgom

Book of the Dead, 1550-50BC

• Used in the New Kingdom• Takes the place of Pyramid texts and Coffin texts which

were painted hieroglyphics on the objects-Book of the Dead is painted glyphs on papyrus, thus the ‘book’

• Some people seem to have commissioned their own copies of the Book of the Dead, perhaps choosing the spells they thought most vital in their own progression to the afterlife.

• The Book of the Dead was most commonly written in hieroglyphic or hieratic script on a papyrus scroll, and often illustrated with vignettes depicting the deceased and their journey into the afterlife.

Anubis Weighing A Heart Against A Feather

Hathshepsut, Woman Pharaoh

Overview of Temple Mortuary

Statue and Osiritic Statue of Hathshepsut

Note that this was first of its kind

Hathshepsut on Right, Her husband on Left

Ramses II

figures of king inside the temple

(atlantids) and sunken reliefs

Temple of Nefertari, Ramses II QueenAbu Simbel

Luxor Temple

• A large temple complex• The 2 obelisks at the entrance are of differing

sizes, although the placement made them seem the same height

• One obelisk is in a Parisian museum and called the “Luxor Obelisk”

Temple Entrance to Luxor

The Rosetta Stone, 196 BCE,

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The Rosetta Stone

• Important because it contains 3 languages that allowed us to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs

• Greek, Demotic and Hieroglyphs

Anubis

Cartouche

• A vertical or horizontalglyph encircled

Cartouche Explained from Wikipedia

• At times amulets were given the form of a cartouche displaying the name of a king and placed in tombs.

• Such items are often important to archaeologists for dating the tomb and its contents.

• Cartouches were formerly only worn by Pharaohs. The oval surrounding their name was meant to protect them from evil spirits in life and after death.

Importance of Akhenaton and Nefertiti

• Religion and Social Change• Change in stylistic treatment of figures

King Tutankhamen

• Son of Akhenaton and his sister wife• Ruler in 18th dynasty 1332 BC – 1323 BC