Annotated Mona Lisa, The - Strickland, Carol [8]
“The Dying Lioness,” Nineveh, c. 650 B.C., British Museum, London.
EGYPT: THE ART OF IMMORTALITY
Considering Egyptian society’s obsesssion with immortality, it’s not surprising that Egyptian art remained unchanged for 3,000 years. Their overriding concern was assuring a comfortable after-life for their rulers, who were considered gods. Colossal architecture and Egyptian art existed to surround the pharaoh’s spirit with eternal glory.
In the pursuit of permanence, the Egyptians established the essentials of a major civilization: literature, medical science, and higher mathematics. Not only did they develop an impressive — albeit static — culture, but, while elsewhere lesser civilizations rose and fell with the regularity of the Nile’s annual floods, Egypt sustained the world’s first large-scale, unified state for three millennia.
“Fowling Scene” from the tomb of Nebamun, Thebes, c.1450 B.C., British Museum, London. Egyptian art, built on rigid formulas, was static.
WHAT IS EGYPTOLOGY?
A special branch of the science of archeology, Egyptology reconstructs Egyptian civilization from the huge storehouse of surviving antiquities.
Egyptology began in 1799 when Napoleon invaded Egypt. In addition to 38,000 troops, he took along 175 scholars, linguists, antiquarians, and artists. These early archeologists brought back to France a huge trove of relics, including the Rosetta Stone, a slab of black basalt with the same inscription in three languages, including Greek and hieroglyphics.
For fifteen centuries, scholars had studied hieroglyphics uncomprehendingly; but in twenty-two years, the brilliant French linguist Jean-Francois Champollion cracked the code. His discovery spurred intense interest in ancient Egypt. Early Egyptologists often plundered tombs and temples and carried off artifacts for European collections, and perishable papyrus, fabric, and wooden articles that had survived thousands of years unscathed were destroyed overnight. Fortunately, painstaking excavation and scientific examination eventually replaced such heavy-handed tactics.
These tombs, each a time capsule of information on the daily life of its occupant, have yielded detailed knowledge of this vanished civilization.
Much of what we know about ancient Egypt comes from the surviving tombs. Since Egyptians believed the pharaoh’s ka, or spirit, was immortal, they stocked the tomb with every earthly delight for it to enjoy in perpetuity. Wall paintings and hieroglyphics were a form of instant replay, inventorying the deceased’s life and daily activities in minute detail. Portrait statues provided an alternative dwelling place for the ka, in case the mummified corpse deteriorated and could no longer house it.
Sculpture and paintings followed a rigid formula for representing the human figure. In acres of stone carvings and drawings, the human form is depicted with a front view of the eye and shoulders and profile view of head, arms, and legs. In wall paintings, the surface is divided into horizontal bands separated by lines. The spare, broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped figure wears a headdress and kilt, and stands rigidly, with arms at his side, one leg advanced. The size of a figure indicated rank, with pharaohs presented as giants towering over pygmy-size servants.
Since statues were intended to last eternally, they were made of hard substances like granite and diorite. Whether standing or seated, they included few projecting, breakable parts. The pose was always frontal and bisymmetrical, with arms close to the torso. Human anatomy was usually, at best, an approximation.
“Prince Rahotep and Wife Nofret,” 2610 B.C., Egyptian Museum, Cairo. These limestone sculptures are typical of the motionless, impassive poses of Egyptian portrait statues.
Queen Nefertiti, c. 1360 B.C., Egyptian Museum, Berlin.
LOOKING LESS LIKE AN EGYPTIAN
Neferfiti’s husband, Pharaoh Akhenaton, was a radical reformer and an artist, who encouraged a temporary loosening of artistic conventions, seen in this more naturalistic