Ancient egypt art

According to the history, Egyptian art is five thousand years old and basically all forms of art followed one law: a great concern was put on the mode of representing man, nature and the environment remained still almost the same for thousands of years. This included homeometric regularity, keen observation and exact representation of actual subjects. The arts have emerged and took shape in the ancient Egypt, the civilization of the Nile Valley. Those who could replicate most admired styles of the past were the most admired artists for Egyptian. Most artists tried their best to preserve everything of the present time as clearly and permanently as possible including some art forms that present an extraordinarily vivid representation of the time and the life, as the ancient Egyptian life was lived thousand of years before.

 Paintings and sculptures form of arts were expressed in Ancient Egypt as they were highly symbolic and fascinating. They played the same role to revolve round the past and were intended to keep history alive. Besides, the canonical 2D and 3D art also were the best form of arts that represent the Ancient Egyptian. They were developed in Egypt from 3000 BC and used until the 3rd century. Most elements of Egyptian art were to be noted remain remarkably stable over the 3000 year period. These elements strongly represent the ancient civilization itself completely based on the true history without strong outside influence. This same basic conventions and quality of observation started at a high level and remained near that level over the period.

Gods, goddesses, and Pharaohs became the main subject for many of the great works of Ancient Egypt. These highlighted subjects were also considered divine. They represented the highly religious nature of Ancient Egyptian civilization. Idea of order became the characterization of Ancient Egyptian art. In other side, in order to create a sense of order and balance in the art of ancient Egypt, clear and simple lines combined with simple shapes and flat areas of color. Vertical and horizontal reference lines were also use by the Ancient Egyptian artists to maintain the correct proportions in their work. The art was not limited for the real subjects only as the political and religious, as well as artistic order was also maintained in Egyptian art. Plus, figures were drawn to sizes based not on their distance from the painter's point of view but on relative importance to clearly define the social hierarchy of a situation; the Pharaoh would be drawn as the largest figure in a painting no matter where he was situated, and a greater God would be drawn larger than a lesser god.

Mummification

In order to live for all eternity and be presented in front of Osiris, the body of the deceased had to be preserved by mummification, so that the soul could reunite with it, and take pleasure in the Afterlife. The main process of mummification was dehydrating the body using natron, a natural material found in Wadi Natrun which is a combination of baking soda and salt, to preserve the body. The body is drained of any liquids and left with skin, hair and muscles preserved.

This process was available for anyone who could afford it. It was believed that even those who could not afford this process could still enjoy the afterlife with the right reciting of spells. The most classic and common way of mummification dates back to the 18th dynasty. The first step was to remove the internal organs and liquid so that the body would not decay. The embalmers took out the brain by inserting a sharp object in the nostril and breaking the brain and liquefying it. The next step was to remove the internal organs, the lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines, and place them in canopic jars with lids shaped like the heads of four protective deities, the sons of Horus. The heart stayed in the body, because in the hall of judgment it would be weighed against the feather of Maat. After the body was washed with wine, it was stuffed with bags of natron. The dehydration process took 40 days.

The second part of the process took 30 days. This was the time where the deceased turned into a semi divine being, and all that was done in the first part is removed with wine and then oils applied. The oils were for ritual purposes, as well as preventing the limbs and bones from breaking while being wrapped. The body was sometimes colored with a golden resin. This protected the body from bacteria and insects. This was also based on the belief that divine beings had flesh of gold. The body was wrapped in bandages with amulets while a priest recited prayers and burned incense. The dressing provided physical protection and the wealthier even had a burial mask of their head. The 70 days are connected to Osiris and the length the star Sothis was absent from the sky.

                                                     The mummy of an Egyptian pharaoh

How to Mummify a Body

Before mummifying a person, imagine someone shouts to the community that a person recently died. People then prepares for the mourning ceremony. Although this sounds like a script in a movie to you, jobs are everywhere for professional mourners in ancient Egypt!


The embalmers wash and shave the deceased body at the Nile River. Gas masks don't exist yesterday so they must do everything for the body to smell clean. At their workshop, the embalmers gather their equipment before working on the brain.
To remove the brain, the embalmer inserts a hook through the roof of the nose. Pushing it back and forth, the brain breaks into several pieces. The brain takes a beating until the pulp drains through the nose. To dissolve the remaining pieces of the brain, the embalmer injects a fluid that consists of juniper oil and turpentine into the nasal cavity. With the sticky remains of the brain removed, it leaves a trail of a squeaky-clean, hollow skull.
The embalmer opens a slit in the abdomen to remove the internal organs of the body. The internal organs are discarded except the lungs, liver, intestines and the stomach. Believed to be the container of soul, the heart remains inside the body. To prevent a smelly cavity, they use palm wine with spices to clean and disinfect it. A follow through of sawdust, linen, resin, and other aromatic substances fills the cavity before sewing the incision.
For 40 days, the sun bakes the body with natron, a natural salt found in Egypt. Remember the internal organs? The embalmer washes and also dries it on the sun with natron. The canopic jars that represent the 4 sons of Horus will house the dried organs and to be kept in the tomb.
The body burns and dehydrates under the sun until tanned like a smoked barbecue. The embalmer needs to apply gums and resins to the body to repel insects from destroying the body. With bugs flying around the workshop, you don't want them to lay their eggs on the body and make it their nest!
Time to wrap the Egyptian mummy but first, we need two things, a priest wearing an Anubis mask to do the job, and a very, very, very, very, very long linen wrap! Meticulous embalmers wrap the mummy up to 40 layers of linen! With that amount of linen, a poor family asks mummy wraps from charity. While wrapping the dead, different kinds of amulets are placed and the priest recites incantations to conclude the ancient Egyptian mummification process.
The embalmer delivers the wrapped body to its family for burial. Whew! The painstaking process seemed like an open heart surgery. But remember, the mummies are in the mercy of the embalmers. One mistake and game over!








The Budget Mummy

Only the rich and famous Egyptians are capable of expensive mummification. For the less fortunate ones, an alternative mummification process is to inject the body with a liquid similar to what can dissolve the brain. The innards of the body is then drained from the anus before drying it in the sun with natron.

                         Burial goods

From the earliest periods of Egyptian history, all Egyptians were buried with at least some burial goods that they thought were necessary after death. At a minimum, these usually consisted of everyday objects such as bowls, combs, and other trinkets, along with food. Wealthier Egyptians could afford to be buried with jewelry, furniture, and other valuables, which made them targets of tomb robbers. In the early Dynastic Period, tombs were filled with daily life objects, such as furniture, jewelry and other valuables. They also contained many pottery and stone vessels.

As burial customs developed in the Old Kingdom, wealthy citizens were buried in wooden or stone coffins. However, the number of burial goods declined. They were often just a set of copper model copper tools and some vessels. Starting in the First Intermediate period, wooden models became very popular burial goods. These wooden models often depict everyday activities that the deceased expected to continue doing in the afterlife.

                                 Professional mourners in an eloquent gesture of mourning
 Also, a type of rectangular coffin became the standard, being brightly painted and often including an offering formula. Objects of daily use were not often included in the tombs during this period. At the end of the Middle Kingdom, new object types were introduced into burials, such as the first shabtis and the first heart scarabs. Now objects of daily use appear in tombs again, often magical items already employed for protecting the living.

In the New Kingdom, some of the old burial customs changed. For example, an anthropoid coffin shape became standardized, and the deceased were provided with a small shabti statue, which the Egyptians believed would perform work for them in the afterlife. Elite burials were often filled with objects of daily use. Under Ramses II and later all daily life objects disappear from tombs. They most often only contained a selection of items especially made for the burial. Also, in later burials, the numbers of shabti statues increased; in some burials, numbering more than four hundred statues. In addition to these shabti statues, the deceased could be buried with many different types of magical figurines to protect them from harm. Although the types of burial goods changed throughout ancient Egyptian history, their functions to protect the deceased and provide sustenance the afterlife remained a common purpose.

Funerary boats are a part of some ancient Egyptian burials. Boats played a major role in religion because they were conceived as the main means by which the gods traveled across the sky and through the netherworld. One type of boat used at funerals was for making pilgrimages to holy sites such as Abydos. A large funerary boat, for example, was found near the pyramid of the Old Kingdom Pharaoh Kheops.