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The best-known and most studied Egyptian art are the works of Ancient Egypt (3000 B.C. - 30 B.C.) which have lasted to the present day. Mainly funerary monuments and temples where Egyptian sculptures and paintings have been found.

Main characteristics of Egyptian art

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Invariable. Due to its geographical location, Egyptian art remains closed and impervious to the influence of other cultures, barely evolving in 3000 years except the most naturalistic period during the reign of the Pharaoh Akhenaton.

Durable. Belief in life beyond death leads to a desire to preserve the body and possessions of the deceased for eternity and durable materials such as stone are preferred.

Officer. Artists are at the service of the absolute power of pharaohs, priests and other high class members. They have no autonomy.

Standardized. Artists are subject to unalterable rules of representation giving rise to a monotonous, repetitive and unoriginal art.

Idealized canons. In Egyptian painting and sculpture, iconography is subject to the representation of ideas, as in hieroglyphics, where naturalistic forms are exceptional.

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Religious. Besides being determined by religious beliefs, Egyptian art has a magical and symbolic character.

Aulic. The greatness of the Pharaoh and his kingdom is exalted through art.

Gigantism. To demonstrate the power of the pharaoh, monumental works as ambitious as the great pyramids and sphinx of Giza are undertaken.

Egyptian art: architecture

Being a religious art and being so present the belief in life beyond death, it is logical that most of the constructions that are preserved are tombs for the pharaohs and their court (mastabas, pyramids and hypogea) or temples for the worship of the gods.

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It is an architecture of great dimensions, in which stone is preferred for its durability although adobe bricks are also used, with lintels and straight lines.

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Egyptian art: sculpture

In the tombs and temples have been found mainly sculptures of round bulge and bas-reliefs carved in stone, bronze or painted wood. The motifs are varied: pharaohs and other court figures, gods, animals and scenes from everyday life.

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The head of the sculptures is the most realistic part but without expression on the face. The bodies are represented from the front, idealized, rigid, with arms and knees together and without defining the musculature until the time of Memphite. The importance of the figures in the composition is hierarchized by their size from greater to smaller.

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Egyptian art: painting

Painting has a secondary value in Egyptian art. It is used as a finish in sculpture, to decorate adobe walls in less relevant constructions and in papyrus. Linked to hieroglyphic writing, it shares the same conventions of representation as bas-relief:

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Without background. The surface is an imaginary neutral plane.

Without perspective.

Reading in horizontal or vertical rows.

Hierarchical scale of the figures within the composition.

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There is no single point of view. Images are diagrams composed with the most expressive parts of the figures. For example, a human figure is represented with the legs and head in profile, but with an eye, an eyebrow and the frontal torso.

Characteristic of Egyptian painting is the importance of the line above the colour, a palette of flat colours -without degrading or chiaroscuro effects- reduced (black, white, blue, yellow and green) and without mixtures.

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Artists from Ancient Egypt

Sculptors and painters were not considered artists but anonymous craftsmen with a practical function at the service of the client. Only architects were recognized for their work.

These trades used to pass from parents to children and were taught in workshops where the official conventions were learned.

With a concept of art very different from the dominant one today, the aim was not originality but precision in the handcrafted work.

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