Egyptian (3,000-1,275 BCE) Flashcards
Palette of King Narmer
Twisted perspective
Organized in registers (figures are bound to ground)
Idealized
Depicts the king who was responsible for the unification of Egypt
Iconography (white crown of Upper Egypt, bull tail attached to belt, fake beard, kilt, eternal youth, shoes)
Servant holding his shoes and oil to make him shine
Papyrus flower (symbol of Lower Egypt)
Falcon (Horus) stealing the papyrus (Lower Egypt)
Hiearchy of scale
Killing someone
Seated scribe
Limestone (more abundant, less valuable, easier to carve)
Idealized (Ma’at)
Ka statue (in tomb of pharoah to do their job in the afterlife)
Iconography (scroll/stylus, sitting down, white kilt, alert, haircut, squishy)
Follows typical proportions of those in his job
Great Pyramids and Sphinx
Shaped like solidified sun rays
Royal tombs
Steps on outside represent the steps to the heavens
Place of regeneration for dead pharaoh
Temple at base
Mastabas (underground burial chambers with ka statues for queens and other royals)
Pyramid of Khufu
Locally quarried, angled stones
Honor
Unfinished underground chamber
Air shafts
Sarcophagus at central axis
Giant boats to transport the king to the afterlife
Pyramid of Menkaure
Sarcophagus was lost at sea on its way to England
Statues of the king
Pyramid of Khafre
Megalithic blocks with granite
Calcite floors
Statues of him
Great Sphinx
First truly colassal artifact
Bedrock from Giza plateau
Has its own temple
King Menkaura and queen
Part of the block they’re carved from
Weight is on back foot (no potential for forward movement)
Ureus (little cobra)
Nemes (stripped linen headcloth)
Upright position and weight signals power
The Code of Hammurabi
Foreshortening
First written law that was displayed in public
Shamash (god) giving the laws to Hammurabi (he’s a conduit of the divine)
Temple of Amun-Re and the hypostyle hall
Floor level raises and ceiling gets lower as you go further as a manifestation of the creation myth (Creator god emerged from a marsh)
Deities always point in the flow direction (like IKEA arrows)
East/west axis
District of Mut (wife of Amun-Re)
Cosmographic
Sacred lake (for ritual purification)
Pylon temples (huge gates on the central axis doorways, decorated to show the smiting of enemies)
Outside the temple = chaos, inside = order
Barque sanctuary = where god is
Hall is symbolic of the marsh (columns = reeds/papyrus plants) (capitals are lotuses and papyruses)
Open roofline (clerestory) to let the light in
King makes offerings, deity acts on behalf
Frieze (repetitive groupings of deities)
Balance
Normal peeps couldn’t get past the hall
Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut IDs
Axial
Built into a cliffside
Symmetrical
Religious temple (not tomb)
Real big to make you insignificant
Processions down the ramp to the other temple
3 terraces that get smaller as you move through them
Controlled access
Central causeway on horizontal axis (bilateral symmetry)
Sphinxes
Imported myrh trees
Hypostyle halls
Shrines
Chapel of Hathor (cow goddess)
Scultpures as Osiris (death god)
1st female pharaoh
Masculine depictions
Supported by the gods
Ahkenaten, Nefertitit, and three daughters
Depicts the two adults as equal
Women were divine
Sun rays have hands because the sun gives you everything you need (the key of life)
Family portrait
Femenine proportions
Atan (sun disc) encircles men and women, so humans should do the same
Guy who moved the Egyptian capital to Amarna
Tutankhamun’s tomb, innermost coffin
Death mask made of gold with lapis, turquoise and carnelian
Portraits of dead to preserve likeness so Ka can find you
Series of sarcophagi
Gold protects the body
Third layer doesn’t match Tut’s face
Once in the coffin, it’s put in a giant stone box
Open mouth
Forked object into the mouth or the Ka statue
Vessels with milk and water to revive spirit
Guardian figures
Statues and depictions of himself
Incantations of what to do after death
Last Judgment of Hunefer
Trial of the deceased
Part of a handbook
Anubis weighing souls
Ammit (lion, crocodile, hippo, dog) eating the heavy souls
Thoth (scribe) taking notes
Horus (falcon)
Osiris
Palette of King Narmer
Predynastic Egypt
3,000-2,920 BCE
Graywacke