Neolithic Art, the art and architecture of the prehistoric period stretching roughly from 7000 to 3000 BC, and later in some regions. The Neolithic period began when humankind first developed agriculture and settled in permanent enclaves; it ended when the discovery of bronze led to the more advanced Bronze Age.
Pottery was the prime medium of Neolithic art; other important artistic expressions were statuary of the universally worshiped Mother Goddess and megalithic stone monuments devoted to religion or cults of the dead. Neolithic pottery has been found throughout the Neolithic regions, from the Middle East through North Africa and the Mediterranean to Europe and the British Isles. It is usually rather plain, with simple decorations—triangles, spirals, wavy lines, and other geometric forms—incised on its rough or polished surfaces. Depending on the particular culture of its origin, such pottery may be cast in forms that mimic baskets, gourds, bells, or leather sacks.
The most important Neolithic stone monuments are the menhirs (large upright stones, also called megaliths) of Brittany in France and the immense stone circles of England, the most important of which is Stonehenge, dating from about 3000 BC to about 1000 BC. These are extremely significant landmarks in the development of art, because they represent the beginnings of architecture in the West.
Yang-Shao Pottery
This painted bowl, created during the Neolithic period in China, is representative of pottery of the Yang-shao culture, which flourished in western China from about 5000 to 3000 bc. The handmade pottery was decorated with geometric designs. The bowl is now in the Tokyo National Museum in Japan.
Tokyo National Museum
Paleolithic Art, art produced from about 32,000 to 11,000 years ago, during the Stone Age. It falls into two main categories: portable pieces, such as small figurines or decorated objects, and cave art. The portable art was carved out of bone, antler, or stone, or modeled in clay. It has been found in much of Europe, in Northern Africa, and in Siberia. Cave art, discovered primarily in northern Spain and southern France, takes the form of paintings, drawings, and engravings on cave walls. A possible third category comprises pictures and symbols engraved on rock surfaces in the open air, but very little of this art has survived.
Cave Painting, Lascaux
This portion of a cave painting in what is now Lascaux, France, was done by Paleolithic artists about 13,000 bc. The leaping cow and group of small horses were painted with red and yellow ochre that was either blown through reeds onto the wall or mixed with animal fat and applied with reeds or thistles. It is believed that prehistoric hunters painted these in order to gain magical powers that would ensure a successful hunt.
Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York
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The Mystery of Ice Age Art
Who were the world's first artists? Why did they create art? In an article for Encarta Yearbook, archaeologist Paul G. Bahn examines the cave art of Europe in search of answers to these questions.
The Mystery of Ice Age Art
By Paul G. Bahn
In late December 1994 three French spelunkers (cave explorers) squeezed themselves into a crevice in a cliff in the Ardéche Valley in southeastern France. Inside, they discovered a huge, well-preserved cave with about 300 ancient wall paintings and engravings (figures cut into the stone). The images included lions, bison, bears, mammoths, rhinoceroses, and horses, as well as renderings of human hands and different types of symbols and designs. The find greatly excited archaeologists and other scholars, as the paintings proved to be the oldest examples of cave art ever discovered.
Archaeologists and anthropologists have been studying this type of art for more than a century. It is known as Paleolithic art, because it dates from the end of the Paleolithic period of the Stone Age, from about 40,000 to 10,000 years ago. It is also sometimes referred to as Ice Age art, because most of it was created before the last Ice Age ended about 10,000 to 13,000 years ago. The recent discovery, dubbed the Chauvet cave after one of the explorers who found it, is one of the biggest in a growing list of Ice Age art finds.
History of Ice Age Art
The existence of Ice Age art was first established and accepted through the discovery of small decorated objects—beads, figurines, small carvings, or engravings on pieces of stone, bone, antler, or ivory—in a number of caves and rock-shelters in southwestern France in the early 1860s. Archaeologists refer to these objects as portable art because they can be transported.
Edouard Lartet, a French scholar, and Henry Christy, a London industrialist, were the main early figures in the field of portable Paleolithic art. Working together, their finds included a bear's head engraved on an antler, discovered in Massat in the French Pyrenees, and a mammoth engraved on a fragment of mammoth ivory, from the Dordogne region of France. The objects were clearly ancient, since they were found with early tools of stone and bone, and with the bones of Ice Age animals.
Wall paintings were slower to achieve recognition as Paleolithic art. A major site for cave drawings was found in Spain at the cave of Altamira by a local landowner in 1879, but experts were slow to recognize the art as authentic. After a number of other discoveries, including one at La Mouthe in Dordogne in 1895, experts legitimized the cave drawings as Paleolithic art. With more and more people looking for such sites, discoveries became more common and still continue in Europe—even today, an average of one such cave per year is found in France and Spain.
Cave Art Locales
Important finds are not limited to these two countries, however. Portable art objects are found from North Africa to Siberia, with large concentrations throughout Europe. Tens of thousands of artifacts are known. Some sites yield few or no objects, while others contain hundreds or even thousands of items of portable art.
The distribution of cave art is equally patchy, although it is most abundant in areas which are also rich in decorated objects, such as the Périgord region in southwestern France, the French Pyrenees, and northern Spain. Cave art has been found from Portugal and the very south of Spain to the north of France. A few sites have been found in southwestern Germany, and there are concentrations in Sicily and other areas of Italy. A handful of caves are also known in the former Yugoslavia, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Russia.
The current total for Europe is about 300 cave painting sites. Some contain only one or a few figures on the walls, while others like Lascaux in southwestern France or Les Trois Frères in the French Pyrenees have many hundreds.
In the past few decades rock art of similar age has also been discovered in many other parts of the world. In southern Africa, the Apollo 11 cave was excavated in Namibia in 1969, with animal paintings on small slabs dating to about 27,500 years ago. Beginning in the 1980s, rock shelters were investigated in various parts of Argentina and Brazil that contained paintings dating back at least 11,000 years.
One of the most notable finds came in 1993 in Australia where, at the Carpenter's Gap rock-shelter in the remote Kimberley region, what seemed to be a fallen fragment of painted wall was found. Charcoal found in the same layer as the fragment has been dated to more than 39,000 years ago, which would suggest the painting is at least that old. Dates obtained from a rock varnish covering some other Australian engravings suggest that the drawings may date back more than 40,000 years, making them the oldest known examples of rock art in the world. Further study is needed to confirm these dates.
However, for all the years of study and further discoveries, many questions remain about this most ancient type of art. Who were the artists? How did they produce the art? And perhaps most importantly, why? What purpose did the art serve a people whose lives were short, arduous struggles to survive? Experts hope that discoveries such as the Chauvet cave will help answer these questions in the future.
Treasures of the Chauvet Cave
The 1994 discovery by Jean-Marie Chauvet, a warden with the Regional Archaeological Service in the Ardèche region of France, and two companions was groundbreaking for a number of reasons. First, the cave appeared completely intact, since its original entrance was blocked sometime during the Ice Age. This meant that the cave floor was just as the Paleolithic artists left it, making it possible to study any footprints, tools, bones, and pigments that remained on the floor.
Second, although the cave's images included the animals found most frequently in European cave art (horses, bison, wild ox, deer), they were dominated by tremendous figures of rhinoceroses and big cats (such as lions). Images of these animals are known in other caves, but are extremely rare and tend to occur in hidden or remote areas rather than in central panels. Previously only about 30 images of rhinoceroses were known from other cave art finds. The Chauvet cave suddenly provided at least 60 more such images, many of them with a thick black stripe around their waist never seen before.
Third, the cave's figures displayed great skill, a mastery of several painting techniques, and a whole range of ways of showing perspective. Specialists therefore assumed, through comparison with art in other caves, that the paintings and engravings here belonged to some of the later stages of the last Ice Age, from more than 20,000 to perhaps 12,000 years ago. However, when charcoal from three figures—two “fighting” rhinos and a bison—underwent radiocarbon analysis, it produced dates of 30,000 to 20,000 years ago, far older than expected and the earliest direct date for any paintings in the world.
Ancient Artists
The people who produced these paintings and other works were Stone Age hunter-gatherers, some of the earliest of modern humans. Living before the spread of modern agriculture, these humans were forced to move around in search of food. Caves were a natural source of shelter from the elements, and it is believed that the early people incorporated certain caves into their seasonal visits to different parts of Europe. However, very little is known about the social structures or culture of these peoples, sometimes referred to as Cro-Magnon. Experts view the cave art as perhaps the only way to learn more about these ancestors of present-day Europeans.
How Ice Age Art Was Made
Paleolithic art was produced in many different ways. The so-called portable art was made out of natural objects—fossils, teeth, shells, or bones—as well as materials such as stone, clay, or ivory. These materials were either used as a surface for paintings or engravings, or worked to make jewelry, figures, and other items. Cave art comprises an astonishing variety and mastery of techniques. The simplest method of marking cave walls was by running fingers over them, leaving traces in the soft layer of clay. This technique, perhaps the most ancient of all, probably spans the whole period and may have been inspired by the abundance of clawmarks of cave-bears and other animals on the walls.
Engraving, as in portable art, is by far the most common technique on cave walls, with incisions ranging from the fine and barely visible to broad deep lines. Scratching and scraping were also used at times, where the wall was too rough for fine incisions, or to create a difference in color between the light scraped area and the darker surroundings. The tools used for engraving varied from crude picks to sharp flakes of a type of rock called chert. Statues carved into clay and limestone walls are limited to a few regional examples.
The simplest way for Ice Age artists to paint walls was with their fingers, and this was certainly done in some caves. But normally paint was applied with some kind of tool, although none of the tools have survived. Experiments suggest that animal-hair brushes or crushed twigs would have been the best tools to use. In some cases, the paint was sprayed, either directly from the mouth or through a tube. This method was used to produce dots and hand stencils—a way of leaving a handprint by placing the palm against the rock and blowing paint onto it and all around it.
The vast majority of cave figures drawn with pigment are simple outlines. A number have some infill—some of the animals in the Chauvet cave, for instance, display a very sophisticated use of shading. The two-color and multicolor figures of the end of the Ice Age, such as the bison on the ceiling at the Altamira cave, are rare in comparison with engravings and outlines.
Three Categories of Cave Subjects
Ice Age drawings are normally grouped into three categories, although there is some overlap and uncertainty in defining them: animals, humans, and nonfigurative or abstract (including “signs”). Fully-developed scenes are hard to identify in Ice Age art, since it is often impossible to prove that figures are associated, rather than simply next to each other. For example, contrary to common belief, there are absolutely no clear hunting scenes. Only very few definite scenes of any kind have been found.
Ice Age art is neither a simple catalogue of the animals in the artists' world, nor a random collection of artistic observations of nature. It has meaning and structure, with different species dominating in different periods and regions. The vast majority of animal figures are adults drawn in profile. Most of them are easily recognizable, although many are incomplete or ambiguous, and a few are quite simply imaginary, such as the two-horned “unicorn” found at Lascaux. Most of these figures seem motionless—in fact, many may well be wounded, dying, or dead. Animated drawings are rare, most of them appearing toward the end of the Ice Age, although the very early Chauvet cave also has some, such as the “fighting” rhinos.
One central fact of animal drawings is the overwhelming dominance of horse and bison among Ice Age depictions, although other species, such as the mammoth or deer, may dominate at particular sites. Carnivores such as cats or bears are rare in most sites, with the exception of Chauvet, where they are very prominent. Fish and birds are far more common in portable art than in wall art. Insects and recognizable plants are limited to a very few examples in portable art.
Depictions of people can be divided into definite humans, “humanoids,” and “composites.” Definite humans are scarce in wall art—portable art accounts for over 75 percent of Ice Age human depictions. Genitalia are rarely depicted, so that one usually has to rely on breasts or beards to differentiate the sexes, and most drawings of humans are left neutral. Clothing is rarely clear, and details such as eyebrows, nostrils, navels, and nipples are extremely uncommon. Few figures have hands or fingers drawn in any detail.
“Humanoids” comprise all those figures interpreted, but not positively identified, as being human, such as grotesque heads, “masks,” and “phantoms” that could be either animal or human. “Composites” are figures that have clear and detailed elements of both. In the past all such figures were automatically and unjustifiably called “sorcerers” and were assumed to be “shamans” or medicine men in masks or animal costumes. But they could just as easily be imaginary creatures, such as humans with animal heads. In any case, such composites, the most famous being the “sorcerer” of Les Trois Frères, are fairly rare, occurring in only about 15 sites.
The nonfigurative markings of Ice Age art have often seemed uninteresting or impossible to explain or define. Today, researchers believe that these marks may have been of equal, if not greater, importance to Paleolithic people than the recognizable figures. Nonfigurative marks are two or three times more common than figurative, and in some areas far more common. The category covers a tremendously wide range of motifs, from a single dot or line to complex shapes.
In the past, some shapes were assumed to be pictographic (representing objects) on the basis of what they looked like, such as huts, clubs, or birds. However, it is impossible to know whether these are real objects or abstract designs or both.
The simpler markings are more abundant and widespread, since they could be invented in many places and periods. The more complex forms, however, show great variability and are more restricted in space and time. Some researchers believe they can be seen as “ethnic markers,” perhaps delineating social groups of some kind. The marks were not set down at random, but follow some set of rules, like the animal figures. What those rules might be is the thorniest problem in Ice Age art.
The Search for Meaning
The first and simplest theory put forward to explain the existence of Paleolithic art was that it had no meaning: It was just casual doodling, graffito, play activity—mindless decoration by hunters with time on their hands. This “art for art's sake” view arose from the first discoveries of portable art, but once cave art began to be found it rapidly became clear that something more was involved.
There are patterns in the paintings that require explanation, patterns that are repeated at different sites and in different periods, suggesting that certain common beliefs or systems of thought influenced individual artists. The art's inaccessibility in caves, the limited range of species depicted, crowded and empty panels, mysterious signs, and many figures that are purposely incomplete or ambiguous all combine to suggest that there is complex meaning behind both the subject matter and the location of Ice Age figures.
At the beginning of this century, a new kind of theory took over. Experts began to argue that the art was utilitarian, that it had a definite function. These theories were based largely on newly published accounts of Australian Aborigines, which inspired researchers to compare these “primitive” users of stone tools with those of Europe at the end of the Ice Age. The Aborigines were said to perform ceremonies in order to multiply the numbers of animals, and for this purpose they painted likenesses of these species on rocks. The researchers postulated that the same purpose lay behind the art of both cultures.
Art as Magic
“Sympathetic magic,” including hunting magic, operates on the same basis as pins in a wax doll: The depictions of animals are produced in order to control or influence the real animals in some way. Ritual and magic were seen in almost every aspect of Ice Age art—breakage of objects, images “killed” ritually with images of spears, or images even physically attacked.
This type of thinking led to many errors on the part of some archaeologists, as the theory was stretched and adapted to fit the evidence, or facts were carefully selected to fit the theory. Overall, there are very few Ice Age animals with spears drawn on or near them, and many caves have no images of this type at all. The “spear” images (or whatever they are) also occur on some human and humanoid figures. Moreover, the animal bones found in many decorated caves usually are not the same as those species depicted on the walls. It is clear that the artists were not, by and large, drawing what they had killed or wanted to kill.
Another aspect of some hunting societies that might be reflected in the cave art is shamanism. A shaman is an individual who acts as a link between this world and the spirit world, a task usually performed by means of dances and symbolic trances. Ice Age images might therefore be “spirit animals,” rather than copies of the real thing. This explanation is currently popular with some experts, but in fact it rests on the basic assumption that Ice Age people had shamanic religions. Even if true, how shamanism might tie in with the production or content of the art remains pure speculation.
An additional popular and durable explanation of much Ice Age art is that it involves “fertility magic.” The artists depicted animals in the hope that they would reproduce and flourish to provide food—a different kind of sympathetic magic. Once again, examples were selected which seemed to fit the idea, and researchers often saw what they wanted to find, such as animals mating and an emphasis on human sexuality as well.
Overall, however, few animals are sexually identified, and genitalia are almost always shown discreetly. As for mating scenes, in the whole of Ice Age art there are only a couple of possible examples, and they are extremely doubtful. Similarly, where humans are concerned, few figures have their genitalia marked, and the one or two claimed depictions of copulation are very sketchy. It is clear that the greater part of Ice Age art is not about either hunting or sex, at least in an explicit sense.
The next major theoretical advance, however, introduced the notion of a symbolic sexual element. In the 1950s two French scholars, Annette Laming-Emperaire and André Leroi-Gourhan, concluded that the caves had been decorated systematically rather than at random. They based their interpretation on all the figures in a cave rather than on a selected few. Wall art was treated as a carefully laid-out composition within each cave, and the animals were not portraits but symbols.
It was a major advance, but unfortunately there are many exceptions to these theories. The very central and prominent cats and rhinos in the Chauvet cave, discovered after Leroi-Gourhan died, have further shown just how wrong he and Laming-Emperaire were. Moreover, their scheme worked on a presence/absence basis, not on abundance, so a single horse figure was seen as the equivalent of a mass of bison, or vice versa. Other variations such as color, size, orientation, technique, and completeness were also ignored. Recent detailed studies, both of individual caves and of regional groups, stress that each site is unique and has its own “symbolic construction” adapted to its own shape and size.
Leroi-Gourhan's other key approach was his discovery of repeated “associations” in the art, and his claim that there was a basic “dualism.” Laming-Emperaire believed the horse to be equivalent to the female and the bison to the male; for Leroi-Gourhan, it was the other way around. The numerically dominant horses and bison, concentrated in the central panels, were thought to represent a basic duality that was assumed to be sexual. This idea was then extended to the signs, which were considered male (phallic) and female (vulvar). More recent studies have confirmed the fundamental role and opposition of horses and bison.
The work of these two scholars completely changed the way in which Ice Age art is studied. The images could no longer be seen as simple representations with an obvious and direct meaning, but as being full of conceptual ideas.
The most recent attempts to puzzle out the meaning of Ice Age art have gone off in many directions. One researcher is investigating the shape of the wall surface beneath each figure, trying to understand why in some caves a high proportion of horses, deer, and hand stencils are on concave surfaces while an equally high percentage of bison and cattle are on convex areas. Another expert is seeking detailed and firm methods by which to recognize the work of individual artists, artists who just as easily could have been women as men. Other researchers are investigating the acoustics in different parts of the cave. Some caves show a clear correspondence between the richest panels and the best acoustics, suggesting that sound played an important part—perhaps for ceremonies that accompanied the production of the art.
A Vast Artistic Output
No single explanation can account for the whole of Ice Age art. In time span, it comprises at least two-thirds of known art history, covering at least 25,000 years and probably far more. It has been found all over the world and ranges from beads to statuettes, from simple figures on rocks to complex signs hidden in the inaccessible corners of deep caves. Almost every basic artistic technique is represented, with everything from realism to abstraction. Not all of it is necessarily mysterious or religious, although some cave art is almost certainly linked to ritual and ceremony.
The astounding cave paintings that Ice Age artists left behind provide a window into early human history, but experts are also rethinking their overall importance. Since 1981 it has become apparent that Ice Age people also produced rock art outside in the open air. This art has naturally been almost totally lost to time, surviving only in exceptional circumstances. Six sites with Ice Age animal engravings have been found so far in Spain, Portugal, and the French Pyrenees. These open-air engravings probably represent “normal” Ice Age art, while the art in caves was probably produced sporadically and rarely, and should no longer be seen as characteristic of the period. Nevertheless, there is a great deal still to be learned from these remarkable works about how primitive humans thought and lived.
The next few years should prove to be exciting times for the study of Ice Age art. High-tech advances in radiocarbon dating, such as the use of accelerator mass spectrometry technology, means that it is now possible to obtain precise dates from very tiny pigment samples, the size of a pinhead. New and different discoveries will continue to be made, such as the Chauvet site and the location in the early 1990s of the Cosquer cave in France, which can only be reached through an underwater tunnel. Unfortunately, few of these incredible caves can be visited by the public, either because of the physical difficulty of access or the risk of damage or pollution. Accurate facsimiles of the caves have been created both physically (Lascaux) and on media such as the World Wide Web, so that eventually everyone will be able to enjoy this remarkable but infinitely fragile heritage.
About the author: Paul G. Bahn is an archaeologist specializing in prehistoric art and the author of Journey Through the Ice Age (1997) and The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art (1997).
Source: Encarta Yearbook, July 1997.
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Megalithic Monuments, structures of large, roughly dressed stones erected as sepulchral monuments or as memorials of notable events. Found in all parts of the world, megalithic monuments in western Europe date from prehistoric times, beginning in the 5th millennium BC. Those of India date from the first centuries of the Christian era, and those on Easter Island probably are contemporary with the medieval period in Europe. Megalithic monuments are still being built in parts of Indonesia and in Assam, India. The areas of greatest abundance of megalithic monuments include the following groups: the British Isles, western France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and the islands of the western Mediterranean; Scandinavia; North Africa; Crimea, the Caucasus, and the Middle East; the Iranian uplands; Japan and Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), and Assam and the Deccan Plateau in India; and also the islands of the South Pacific Ocean, particularly Easter Island.
European megalithic monuments usually are divided into four classes: the menhir, or monolith, a single standing stone often of great size; the stone circle, consisting of many monoliths, as at Stonehenge in England; the row of monoliths, as at Carnac in France; and the burial chamber, or chamber tomb, usually walled with monoliths and roofed by capstones or false vaults. Chamber tombs are sometimes called dolmens (see Dolmen). They are the most widespread type of megalithic monument in western Europe; more than 50,000 examples are extant. The majority of the burial chambers were originally within earth mounds or barrows, many of which have since been denuded. Three types of burial chamber may be distinguished: the dolmen, or single chamber tomb; the passage grave, in which the chamber is approached by a passage; and the gallery grave, or allée couverte, a long, rectangular chamber. The interiors of the walls and roofs of some tombs are decorated with geometrical or naturalistic designs.
Megaliths found in the Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian islands frequently have walls and platforms built of unworked rock, and in general consist of cyclopean masonry erected without the use of cement. In only three instances do these megaliths vary from unworked stone: the trilithon at the town of Mua on Tongatapu Island, which is built of two uprights supporting a crosspiece; the gigantic statues surmounting the ahu, or burial platforms, on Easter Island, carved in compressed volcanic ash; and the alignments at Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, consisting of groups of cone-shaped coral pillars known as Lat'te, constructed of layers of coral cemented together.
Callanish Stone Circle, Scotland
Callanish is the largest of three stone circles on the Island of Lewis with Harris, in Scotland's Outer Hebrides. The megalith dates from the late Neolithic Era. Although its original purpose remains a mystery, local communities continued to use the site for rituals and ceremonies throughout the 19th century.
Val Corbett/Tony Stone Images
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Easter Island, Chile
Gigantic statues and other archaeological remains of ancient Polynesian peoples are found on Easter Island, which lies west of the Chilean coast and is considered part of Chile.
Wojtek Buss/age fotostock
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Egyptian Art and Architecture
I INTRODUCTION
Egyptian Art and Architecture, the buildings, sculpture, painting, and decorative arts of ancient Egypt from about 5000 BC to the conquest of Egypt by Rome in 30 BC.
Today, we look at Egyptian art primarily in museums or in books. For the Egyptians, however, the objects now regarded as art were made to serve a particular purpose, usually a religious one. For example, temples were decorated with paintings and filled with statues of gods and kings in the belief that doing this served the gods, showed devotion to the king, and maintained the order of the universe. The Egyptians wore jewelry and amulets (charms) not only as decoration, but because they believed these items protected them against harm. They buried their dead with jewelry and amulets for the same reason: to protect against the perils of the afterlife.
Most Egyptians never saw the art that is now displayed in museums, because only kings and members of the ruling elite were allowed to enter temples, tombs, and palaces. But the Egyptians had in mind another audience for their art: the gods and, for the art in tombs, the spirits of people who had died.
Artists in ancient Egypt joined workshops and worked in teams to produce what their patrons—the king and the elite—needed. For this reason, few works can be attributed to individuals. Religious beliefs largely dictated what artists created, especially the paintings and statues that filled Egyptian temples and tombs. Artists endlessly repeated the same themes and subjects, changing them only when beliefs changed. (A rare change came around 1350 BC, for example, when the sun god Aton gained more prominence than ever before.) The style of depicting these themes and subjects, by contrast, changed from one generation of artists and patrons to the next. For example, during the 18th dynasty (1550-1307 BC) there was a shift from painting the human figure in a rather stiff and rigid posture to using curved lines and varied poses. But most of the changes were more subtle.
II PREDYNASTIC EGYPT (5000-3000 BC)
Scholars divide Egyptian history into dynasties. The Dynastic period began around 3000 BC when lands along the Nile River were united under one ruler. From about 5000 BC until 3000 BC, a time known as the Predynastic period, Egypt was not a unified nation. Different groups ruled over different parts of the land. As time passed, however, these groups were incorporated into larger political units, until a single state was formed around 3000 BC. At the same time, the culture of the south expanded northward, gradually replacing northern cultures to produce cultural unity.
The Egyptians began creating art early in the Predynastic period, using materials such as bones, clay, stone, and the ivory teeth of hippopotamuses. They made figurines of animals, birds, and human beings, and decorated the tops of hair combs and pins with carved birds and animals. Stone palettes used for grinding minerals for eye paint took the shape of birds, turtles, and fish.
Pottery also was decorated in the early Predynastic period, typically with geometric or animal designs painted in white on a red background. Later in the period, designs appeared in red on a yellowish background. The designs included flamingos, horned animals, human figures, plants, wavy lines, and boats with oars. Most of this pottery has been found in cemeteries, and it may have been made specifically for use in funerals.
Cups, bowls, and other containers were made from a variety of stones and took advantage of natural patterns in the stone. Working stone was difficult and took some time, so stone containers became prized items. Lapis lazuli, carnelian, garnet, and other stones were made into beads for necklaces and bracelets, as were gold, copper, and silver.
III DYNASTIC EGYPT (3000-30 BC)
The Dynastic period of Egyptian history began about 3000 BC with the formation of an Egyptian state that extended roughly 800 km (500 mi) from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to what is called the First Cataract—the first major section of rapids on the Nile River at Aswān in the south. This state was ruled by a king whose main duties were to act as an intermediary between the gods and humanity and to uphold the correct order of the universe by overcoming the forces of chaos. The king governed the country through a small group of educated male officials. Together with their families, they formed an elite group making up about 5 percent of the population. Almost everyone else provided services for the elite or worked the land. All surviving ancient Egyptian art and architecture relates to the king and the elite, and scholars know virtually nothing about art produced for the rest of society.
Egyptologists (people who study ancient Egypt) have grouped Egypt's dynasties into an Early Dynastic period (1st to 3rd dynasties), an Old Kingdom (4th to 8th dynasties), a Middle Kingdom (11th to 14th dynasties), a New Kingdom (18th to 20th dynasties), and a Late Period (25th to 30th dynasties). Dynasties between these groupings represent periods when central government broke down and the state split into smaller units. Egyptologists based their divisions on the work of an Egyptian priest named Manetho, who wrote in Greek in the 3rd century BC.
In 332 BC Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, conquered Egypt. In 305 BC Alexander's general Ptolemy became king of Egypt, and for almost 300 years his descendants, the Ptolemies, ruled Egypt. Although Ptolemy was Macedonian by birth and his descendents remained tied to Greek culture, the Ptolemies also oversaw one of the greatest periods of building and decorating temples in Egypt. The Ptolemies did so to win acceptance for their rule from their Egyptian subjects. The Ptolemaic dynasty ended when Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, committed suicide after the Romans defeated her forces at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. The Roman victory marked the end of ancient Egypt as an independent power. This article discusses Egyptian art and architecture only until this point.
A Architecture
The most important buildings in ancient Egypt were temples, tombs, and palaces. Temples housed rituals for the worship of the gods. Tombs served as the burial locations for the king and the elite. The king lived in the palaces, where he performed governmental and religious duties. Because many cities, towns, and villages in Egypt today occupy the sites of ancient palaces and surrounding settlements, these buildings disappeared over the years as new buildings went up. By contrast, many ancient Egyptian temples and tombs have survived because they were located in the desert, or at the edge of the desert, where few people lived and little construction occurred.
A1 Royal Tombs and Pyramids
The royal tombs and pyramids of ancient Egypt were elaborate structures with important religious purposes. They were located along the Nile River, the vital waterway that runs the length of the country. For about 2,000 years, until the end of the New Kingdom in 1070 BC, royal tombs were built on the Nile’s west bank. Because the sun set in the west, Egyptians believed that the western desert was the entrance to the underworld, or duat, where the dead dwelled and through which the sun passed at night.
The kings of the 1st Dynasty (2920 BC-2770 BC) were buried in the cemetery of their ancestors at Abydos in southern Egypt. Their burial sites were built of mud brick (bricks baked in the sun) and consisted of two parts: a tomb in the desert where the king was buried, and a rectangular funerary enclosure at the desert's edge, where rituals were performed. A pair of stone slabs called stelae marked the tombs and bore the name of the royal occupant. In the 2nd Dynasty (2770 BC-2649 BC), most royal burials were moved north to the cemetery of Şaqqārah, which served the capital city of Memphis, but the last two kings were buried at Abydos.
Within the tomb enclosure of the last king of the 2nd Dynasty, Khasekhemwy, archaeologists have excavated a square brick mound. This mound was probably the forerunner of the first pyramid, which is known as the Step Pyramid at Şaqqārah.
The Step Pyramid was built by King Djoser, who ruled from 2630 BC to 2611 BC, during the 3rd Dynasty (2649 BC-2575 BC). In its final form it consisted of six huge, square tiers of decreasing size, placed one on top of the other to a height of nearly 60 m (200 ft). Its diminishing tiers resemble steps. The Step Pyramid stood in the middle of a rectangular enclosure. Also within the enclosure were various other buildings, some of which could be entered, while others had no doors. These buildings functioned only for the spirit forms of the dead king and the gods, who were believed to be able to pass through the thick rock walls.
Unlike the earlier mud-brick tombs, the entire complex at Şaqqārah was built of stone; however, similarities show that the complex evolved from the earlier tombs and funerary enclosures at Abydos. The Şaqqārah design combined the tomb and funerary enclosure so that the burial, placed under the pyramid, lay within the funerary enclosure.
King Sneferu built the first true pyramid with smooth sides at the beginning of the 4th Dynasty (2575 BC–2467 BC), and Egyptian kings continued to use pyramids for burial through the 12th Dynasty. The best-known pyramids were built on the Giza plateau for three 4th Dynasty kings: Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. Each pyramid is just one element in a line of structures that form a burial complex. The complex begins at the east, with a temple on a harbor at the edge of the cultivated land in the Nile Valley. From this valley temple, where the king’s body was first brought by boat, a long, covered causeway runs west into the desert to a pyramid temple. To the west of the temple is the pyramid itself, inside of which the king’s body was placed. Inside the temple, rituals performed for the king included the offering of food and drink to nourish his ka-spirit (life force).
The Egyptian pyramids served as more than a place to put the king’s dead body. They were places of transformation that enabled the king to pass into a new stage of life. The east-west orientation of each pyramid complex paralleled the daytime course of the sun as it rises and sets. The burial chamber represented the duat through which the sun traveled from west to east at night before rising in the eastern sky at dawn. While the king's body lay in its coffin, his ka-spirit was nourished by rituals that priests performed in the pyramid temple, and his ba-spirit (personality, or individual identity) joined the sun, triumphantly leaving the duat at sunrise to travel across the sky. At night it sank with the sun back into the duat to rejoin the king's body and ka-spirit, and here it was renewed before leaving the tomb again in the morning. In this way the dead king achieved eternal existence.
After the Middle Kingdom ended in 1640 BC, the Egyptians stopped building royal pyramids, and in the New Kingdom (1550 BC–1070 BC), kings were buried in tombs at Thebes in the Valley of the Kings, where the burial site of King Tutankhamun was found in 1922. The Valley of the Kings is a rocky desert area with high cliffs. The Egyptians cut the tombs into the cliffs. The tombs typically consisted of a series of corridors, steps, and rooms that ended in a burial chamber. The door to the tomb formed a point of transition from the world of the living to the world of the dead, so that the tomb represented the duat.
In the New Kingdom’s 18th Dynasty, tombs were mostly undecorated, except for the burial chamber. In the 19th Dynasty (1307 BC–1196 BC) and 20th Dynasty (1196 BC–1070 BC), decoration extended to the tomb entrance, where the sun’s passage was depicted through the duat at night until its rise, regenerated, in the morning. The dead king, who was identified with the sun god, achieved new life by taking part in the eternal cycle of the sun. Because the narrow Valley of the Kings lacked space for temples in which to honor the king, these were separated from the tomb and built where the desert's edge met the cultivated regions.
By the end of the New Kingdom, the Egyptians no longer built royal tombs in the desert, perhaps because of the difficulty of protecting these isolated spots from tomb robbers. Instead, tombs began to be built inside the most important temple complex in the king's capital or native city. Most New Kingdom royal tombs were smaller than those of earlier dynasties, and few of their associated buildings have survived. The Ptolemaic kings of the era following the Late Period, which ended in 332 BC, were buried in Alexandria, which was their capital city.
A2 Tombs of the Elite
The tombs for the elite members of Egyptian society were less elaborate than royal tombs, but they were nevertheless impressive. The preferred location for elite tombs was the west bank of the Nile, but many were built on the east bank as well.
In the 1st and 2nd dynasties the tombs of the elite at Şaqqārah consisted of an underground structure that contained the burial site and a flat, rectangular mud-brick structure built over it. Today these structures are called mastabas, from the Arabic word for 'bench.' The long sides of the mastabas had a north-south orientation.
In the 2nd Dynasty, tomb builders started creating a niche on the eastern side of the tomb. In it was placed a stone slab carved with an image of the deceased tomb owner seated before a variety of offerings. The slab marked the place for making offerings. During the next two dynasties, the niche was gradually cut deeper into the solid mastaba, so that the offering place lay within it. Decorated limestone slabs lined the walls of the niche.
In the 4th Dynasty, stone mastabas began to replace those of mud brick. In the 5th Dynasty (2465 BC–2323 BC) and 6th Dynasty (2323 BC–2152 BC), the large mastabas of the highest officials had a series of decorated rooms for the performance of funerary rituals. These rituals focused on a false door on the west wall of the offering chamber—a door that was intended to connect the worlds of the dead and the living. Although solid and impassable to the living, the door permitted the dead to pass through and receive offerings. This tomb chapel remained open to priests and family members after the tomb’s owner was buried, but the actual body was placed in a burial chamber at the bottom of a shaft cut deep into the ground below the chapel. After the burial, the shaft was filled in and made inaccessible.
Although freestanding tomb chapels were common in the Old Kingdom, some chapels were cut out of rock cliffs. During much of the Old Kingdom, most elite tombs were built near the capital city of Memphis, but by the 6th Dynasty, officials concerned with provincial administration were building their tombs in the provinces they governed. This tradition continued into the Middle Kingdom until the 12th Dynasty (1991 BC–1783 BC). The large decorated tomb chapels of the Middle Kingdom were cut into the cliffs that run along the edge of the Nile Valley.
The best-known elite cemetery of the New Kingdom lies on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes. The rock-cut tomb chapels there take the shape of a T. They are entered from an open court through a door that leads into the crossbar of the T, with the shaft of the T straight ahead. Like earlier tomb chapels, these provided a space for offerings by the living to the dead, but instead of a false door, the focal point was a statue of the deceased placed in a niche on the back wall of the chapel.
Elite burials of the New Kingdom also took place at Şaqqārah, some in rock-cut tombs, but most in freestanding tomb chapels. In the Late and Ptolemaic periods, elite burial sites had a variety of forms.
A3 Temples
The Egyptians believed that the gods occupied a different part of the universe than living human beings did. Temples were built as houses for the gods, where the gods could appear on earth. The focal point of any temple was a sanctuary area that contained a cult statue of the god. This statue, the sanctuary, and the temple were made as beautiful as possible so that the god would want to reside there, and the structures incorporated precious materials such as gold, silver, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and carnelian.
Most important deities had temples throughout Egypt, but some cities had a special association with a particular god. Among the most important gods and their cities were Ra at Heliopolis, Ptah at Memphis, Thoth at Hermopolis, Osiris at Abydos, Hathor at Dandara, Amon at Thebes, and Horus at Edfu.
Old and Middle Kingdom temples were typically built of perishable mud brick, and despite the fact that many of them were lined with decorated stone slabs, few have survived. Most surviving temples date from the 18th Dynasty or later, when major temples were built of stone, and stone structures had replaced older ones of brick. Decorated stone elements from earlier temples were sometimes reused in the foundations or walls of later temples, but most of the earlier buildings themselves have disappeared.
Because the space within a temple was sacred, a wall enclosed the temple area and separated it from the outside world. Most temples were rectangular, with the entrance on the side nearest the Nile. A huge gateway called a pylon stood at the entrance to the temple area and led into an open court. Then followed a covered, pillared room called a hypostyle hall. Beyond this was the sanctuary, which contained the shrine in which the cult statue of the god was kept.
The Egyptians believed that gods were fundamentally different from human beings, and that it was dangerous for humans to interact with gods unprotected. In fact, most people never went inside a temple. For those who had been purified through special religious rituals, the temple provided a safe place for contact with the gods. The space within the temple became increasingly sacred as one went further in, and the more sacred inner parts were restricted to the king and priests. The sanctuary was the most sacred space of all. Here the deity entered the temple from the divine realm and took up residence in the cult statue.
The architecture of the temple was designed to replicate the universe at the moment of creation. The Egyptians believed that before creation there existed only the dark, marshy primeval waters of chaos. Out of these waters a mound arose on which the creator god came into being and created the ordered universe. The dark hypostyle hall with its many pillars represented the primeval waters, and the pillars topped by papyrus or lotus capitals represented marsh plants. The polished stone floor represented the water itself. Moving back into the temple, the floor levels rose, because the sanctuary symbolized the mound of creation. The temple’s god, manifested in the cult statue, thus represented the creator god.
Every morning before dawn priests entered the temple. As the sun rose, the officiating priest opened the shrine doors in the sanctuary to reveal the deity. Each sunrise repeated the creation, so that every day in every temple the deity of the temple reenacted the moment when the newly created world emerged from the dark, primeval waters and was illuminated by the light of the newly born sun. The rituals that the priests performed for the god included the presentation of offerings, the burning of incense, and the recitation of ceremonial words and hymns.
A4 Palaces
Palaces provided a setting for Egyptian kings to carry out the rituals of kingship. Most were built of mud brick and have not survived well. Palaces that Egyptologists have excavated date mainly from the New Kingdom and include the palace of Amenhotep III at Malqata near Thebes, the palaces of Akhenaton at Amarna, and the palace of Merenptah at Memphis.
The nature of the Egyptian king was complex. Although he was a human being who was born, grew up, and died like other human beings, his body housed the royal ka-spirit, which transmitted the divine aspects of kingship from one king to the next. The king was also the earthly manifestation of various deities, such as Ra, the sun god, or Horus, the god of the sky. For this reason, the ritual area of the king’s palace resembled a temple. As in temples, an entranceway led into an open court that was followed by a pillared hall. But beyond the hall, instead of a sanctuary, was the throne room. Against the center of the back wall, a raised platform supported the king's throne. The throne sat within a kiosk that took the place of the shrine in a temple’s sanctuary. The enthroned king was therefore equivalent to the cult statue of a god.
The floors of the palace were decorated with images of pools surrounded by flowering plants through which young calves leapt while birds flew above, depicting the world at sunrise. The enthroned king therefore took on the role of the sun god Ra, at whose appearance each day the world came to life again after the dark night.
In Egyptian thought, foreign lands and their inhabitants represented the forces of chaos. Images of bound foreigners were painted on the steps leading up to the throne platform and on the platform itself. As the king ascended the platform, he walked on these images and then sat on them. The foreigners lay under his feet in subjection, symbolizing the triumph of the king over the forces of chaos.
B Sculpture
The function of most ancient Egyptian statues was to provide a physical place where a god or spirit could appear. In temples the god took up residence in the cult statue, and the divine royal ka-spirit could reside in statues of the king. Statues of the elite provided a place in the world of the living for the spirits of the dead. Such statues were the focal point of rituals. Offerings were presented to them, incense was burned, and ritual words were recited in their presence. These spirits were not restricted by time and space, but could simultaneously be present in all their statues, wherever the statues were located.
B1 The Purpose of Sculptures
Most statues of gods and kings were housed in temples. In addition to the cult statue, larger images of gods, or of gods and the king together, were placed within temple areas. In the Late and Ptolemaic periods, elite people presented offerings at temples of small bronze images of gods and of the animals sacred to those gods. They also put brightly painted wooden statues of funerary gods in tombs to help the deceased pass safely into the afterlife.
In the Old Kingdom, small chapels built in temple areas housed statues of the king, where the royal ka-spirit could receive offerings. In the New Kingdom, huge ka-statues of the king stood at the entrances to many major temples. Although most people could not enter the temples, they could come to the entrances, and these statues became places for people to communicate with the gods by addressing the king’s ka-spirit.
During the Old Kingdom, statues of the elite were placed in many tomb chapels in a special room, which today is called a serdab (modern Arabic for 'cellar”). The room was then made inaccessible so that it connected to the tomb chapel only through a small slot in the wall. Family members or special funerary priests performed rituals in front of the slot for the spirit of the deceased. Not all statues were hidden. In rock-cut tomb chapels, statues were carved out of the walls of the chapel and were visible to anyone entering to perform the rituals. By the Middle Kingdom, statues of the deceased, both male and female, had become the ritual focal point in chapels. And from the Middle Kingdom onward, statues of the elite, mainly male, were also placed in the outlying areas of the temple complex. Their purpose was to receive offerings, but they also enabled the statue owner (through his ka-spirit) to take part in the temple rituals and the great festivals that were celebrated on behalf of the deity of the temple.
Beginning in the late 4th Dynasty statues of servants and peasants were placed in tombs of the elite to serve them in the afterlife. These servants and peasants appear in a wide variety of poses, performing tasks such as grinding grain, baking bread, and brewing beer. What was important in these sculptures was not the person depicted but the action, which was meant to benefit the tomb owner in the afterlife.
B2 Sculptural Style and Materials
Ancient Egyptian statues were not intended to serve as realistic portraits. Instead, a statue represented an ideal image of the king or a member of the elite and did not include physical peculiarities, disabilities, or signs of aging. Although artists might incorporate some personal features in images of the king and the wealthy elite, people who were less wealthy simply bought ready-made statues. The subject’s name was then inscribed on the statue.
While kings were generally shown with youthful, physically fit bodies, elite male officials had two images that represented different stages of their careers. In one, the official appears youthful and physically fit. In the second, he is mature, with rolls of fat on his chest and sagging muscles representing the successful, sedentary official who eats well. Because elite women could not be government officials, they are represented by a single, youthful image that stresses the outline of their bodies and their child-bearing potential.
Statues of deities, the king, and the elite appear only in standing, seated, and kneeling poses. They also exhibit a characteristic called frontality, which means that they face straight ahead without twisting or turning the head or body. This posture relates to the ritual function of statues. Because the statue faces forward, it could witness people performing the rituals in front of it.
The majority of surviving statues are made of stone, most commonly limestone, but also calcite, sandstone, quartzite, granite, granodiorite, diorite, basalt, and other materials. Wood was widely used, but since it decomposes easily, fewer wooden statues have survived. Cult statues of gods employed precious metals, and some statues of the king and the elite were made of copper in the Old Kingdom and bronze from the Middle Kingdom on. Because metal was valuable and can be melted down and reused, however, only a small proportion of metal statues have survived to the present.
C Painting and Relief
The ancient Egyptians decorated the walls of temples and tombs with painted scenes. The painting might be flat or in relief, meaning that figures and background occupy different levels of the wall surface. In raised relief, the background was cut away so that the figures stood out. In sunk relief, the figures were cut back to a slightly lower level than the background. Originally, sunk relief was designed to decorate exterior walls, because it is more visible in bright sunlight.
Although the relief decoration on many Egyptian monuments has by now lost all color, it was originally brightly painted. Before painting, artists sketched out scenes in red on the plaster surface of the wall. Then a master draftsman corrected the scene in black. Often the artists used squared grids that helped them obtain correct proportions as they laid out the entire scene. Artists painted onto dry plaster using ground mineral pigments combined with plant gum or glue made from animals. They applied the paint in broad strokes using thick brushes, one color at a time, with no shading or effects of light. The artists then outlined figures and other objects and added interior details with a thin brush.
Artists in ancient Egypt were not concerned with representing the world realistically, and they did not attempt to incorporate the illusion of depth in their art. They represented objects by their most characteristic view, sometimes combining different views within a single picture. For example, a chair might be drawn in profile (viewed from the side), and an animal skin in full view (viewed straight on). The human figure was a composite, with a face in profile that showed the full view of an eye and eyebrow, and full-view shoulders and chest facing the viewer. The waist, buttocks, and limbs were shown in profile. The different sizes of figures indicated their relative importance, with more important people shown larger.
The decoration of Egyptian buildings reflected their function. In temples, scenes depicted the interaction of the king and gods. On the outside walls the king was usually shown triumphantly battling foreign enemies. This action symbolized his role as upholder of order over chaos. Such scenes also served to protect and separate the pure, sacred space inside the temple from the impure, secular world outside. The decoration of the open court, which was open to some visitors, might show processions of sacred boats that held the statues of the temple gods when they were brought out at festivals.
The sacred interior of the temple was decorated with scenes depicting the king and gods together, drawn on the same scale. Each scene shows either the king performing a ritual act before the god—offering food, drink, or adoration—or the god acknowledging the king by embracing him, suckling him, or handing him an ankh, the sign of life in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Other human beings rarely appear in these scenes.
In the Old and Middle Kingdoms, scenes decorating the tomb chapels of the elite showed activities related to the tomb owner's estates and his government office. They also depicted the funeral procession and the performance of the burial rites, and the deceased before a table of offerings, often with rows of people bringing more offerings. Images of gods or the king were not included. In the New Kingdom’s 18th Dynasty, painted tombs at Thebes displayed similar subject matter, but they were by then allowed to show the deceased person worshiping funerary gods or being received in audience by the enthroned king.
The function of the tomb chapel was to provide a space where the living and the dead could interact. Intended to provide a familiar environment for the returning dead, much of the decoration portrayed images of daily life. Together with texts recording the tomb owner’s titles and achievements, the painted images also established the status of the dead person in the eyes of subsequent generations who visited the chapels. In the 19th Dynasty, these daily-life scenes disappeared and were replaced by scenes that showed the passage of the deceased from this world to the next and the deceased adoring and being welcomed by different gods in the afterlife.
Other important painted items in ancient Egypt were wooden coffins and funerary scrolls made of papyrus. In the Old and Middle Kingdoms, coffins were rectangular in shape. On the outside they were decorated with lines and columns of text that gave the titles and name of the owner and asked for offerings on his or her behalf. On the east side, a pair of painted eyes enabled the deceased to look out into the world of the living. During the first half of the Middle Kingdom, coffins were also richly decorated on the inside, with a false door painted behind the exterior eyes, painted piles of offerings for the deceased, and texts designed to protect the occupant and help him or her into the afterlife.
By the 18th Dynasty, most coffins had the shape of a mummified human body. The painted decoration of coffins changed over the next 1,500 years, though certain motifs remained popular. These included images of the sky goddess, Nut, who gave birth to the sun every day; of Hathor, who as the goddess of the west stood on the boundary between this world and the next; and of the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, who resurrected the murdered god Osiris. The painted images reflected the function of the coffin, which was not simply to contain a dead body but to help the deceased make a successful transition into the afterlife.
Funerary papyri, put inside many coffins, had a similar purpose. The most famous of them is the so-called Book of the Dead, which contains texts designed to protect the owner during the passage into the next world. A painted scene accompanied each chapter, showing, for instance, the funeral procession, the burial rites performed before the tomb, the deceased adoring a variety of deities, and the deceased as an inhabitant of the next world.
D Decorative Arts
Jewelry and amulets for protection were worn by the living and the dead in ancient Egypt. Both men and women wore necklaces, collars, bracelets, armlets (bands around the upper arm), and rings. Women also wore anklets (bands around the ankle), hip girdles (belts), and, from the end of the Middle Kingdom, earrings. Although young boys also wore earrings, adult men are rarely shown with them. The most popular materials for jewelry were gold, representing the flesh of the gods and the color of the sun; deep blue lapis lazuli, the color of the night sky; turquoise, the color of new plants; and red carnelian, associated with the sun and the color of blood. Egyptian faience, an inexpensive nonclay ceramic material with a glaze made from quartz, was also popular, even with the wealthy, because its shiny surface was associated with the brilliance of the sun.
Amulets were often made in the shape of what the Egyptians considered lucky hieroglyphs. These included the looped cross, or ankh, which was an emblem for life; the papyrus stem and flower, which stood for new growth and regeneration; and the djed pillar, which was associated with the backbone of Osiris, for stability. One of the most famous amulets is the wedjat eye. This was the eye of the god Horus, which was wounded and made whole again, and it protected the wearer from misfortune and bad influences. Other amulets were in the form of gods. For example, the goddess Isis protected pregnant women, women in childbirth, and young children.
E The Amarna Period (1353 BC-1335 BC)
One period stands out from all others in Egyptian art because it represents a major change in style and subject matter. The Amarna period, as it is known, lasted fewer than 20 years at the end of the 18th Dynasty and reflected a religious change made by King Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaton. Akhenaton worshiped only one god, Aton, who appeared as a sun disk . During Akhenaton’s rule, depictions of the sun disk above the king replaced traditional temple decoration showing the king interacting with different gods in human form. From the sun disk, rays ending in human hands reach down to touch Akhenaton and his queen, Nefertiti, and the offerings that they present to Aton. In tomb chapels as well, the king and queen, not the tomb owner, form the focal point of the decoration.
Most noticeable in Amarna art are the changed proportions of figures, particularly those of the king. Because Aton as the creator god was believed to embody both the male and female principles of the universe, Akhenaton, who was the representative of Aton on earth, was portrayed with characteristics the Egyptians regarded as feminine, such as narrow shoulders, a high waist, and pronounced belly, buttocks, and thighs. Other figures have similar proportions but are less exaggerated. A number of scholars have suggested that the king's image reflects his actual appearance, but given the lack of realism in Egyptian art generally, this portrayal is more likely to relate to his religious beliefs. After the death of Akhenaton, the style and subject matter of Egyptian art returned to traditional forms during the reign of his son-in-law, Tutankhamun.
IV LEGACY OF EGYPTIAN ART
The Egyptians created their art and architecture to affirm a distinctive social, political, and religious system. After the Roman conquest of Egypt, Alexandria became an important center of Christianity, and what Christians regarded as pagan art ceased to be produced. Existing monuments were viewed negatively and their images defaced. The Arab conquest of Egypt in AD 640 brought a new language (Arabic) as well as new cultural and religious traditions. This event removed the Egyptians even further from their ancient past.
Although curiosity about ancient Egypt never died out completely in Europe, there was little informed knowledge about it. Renewed interest in Egypt during the 18th century led to the use of Egyptian motifs in art and architecture. Notable for their incorporation of these motifs were Italian graphic artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Scottish-born architect Robert Adam, English potter Josiah Wedgwood, and English furniture designer Thomas Sheraton.
European interest in Egypt reached a peak after the invasion of the country by French general Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798. With his invading forces, Napoleon brought along a group of scholars whose task was to study Egypt, ancient and modern. The result was Description de l'Égypte, published between 1809 and 1828. This massive work contained many illustrations of temples, statues, and reliefs. Napoleon's expedition also discovered the Rosetta Stone. Inscriptions on the stone in three languages—Greek, Demotic (a late form of the Egyptian language and script), and hieroglyphs—provided the key that enabled French scholar Jean-François Champollion to decipher hieroglyphic script. His success, in turn, led to the beginnings of modern Egyptology.
During the 19th century, scholars collected and studied inscriptions and texts on monuments throughout Egypt. Besides Champollion, Egyptologists included Ippolito Rosellini of Italy and Karl Richard Lepsius of Germany. Collectors of antiquities brought Egyptian reliefs, statues, coffins, papyri, and other items to Europe, where they constitute the basis of major museum collections. European artists and architects incorporated Egyptian motifs in paintings, decorative arts, and monumental architecture. During the 20th century, scholars from Europe and the United States together with their Egyptian colleagues worked to excavate, record, and conserve the monuments of ancient Egypt under the supervision of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, later called the Supreme Council for Antiquities.
In addition to excavation and collection, scholars and the Egyptian government have taken increasing care to save Egyptian artifacts from destruction caused by development. Perhaps the biggest effort occurred in the 1960s, when the Aswān High Dam was built, causing a large area to be flooded by newly created Lake Nasser. A massive rescue campaign was undertaken to excavate the area before it was flooded. The two temples of Ramses II at Abū Simbel and the Ptolemaic and Roman temples on the island of Philae were moved to higher ground and saved. Though this is the most dramatic example, numerous such measures of conservation occurred throughout the late 20th century. These efforts remain a top priority in Egypt.
Contributed By:
Gay Robins
Palette of King Narmer
The Palette of King Narmer from Hierakonpolis is a slate slab representative of the art of ancient Egypt. The object, which stands 62.5 cm (25 in) high and dates from Egypt’s Predynastic period, depicts the ancient Egyptian king (center) smiting an enemy. The piece symbolized the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt and marked an early example of a trend in Egyptian art to glorify the king.
Giraudon/Art Resource, NY
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Egyptian Pottery
Pottery was one of the earliest art forms undertaken by the ancient Egyptians. This piece from the Predynastic period (5000 bc-3000 bc) is decorated with ostriches, boats, and geometrical designs.
Art Resource, NY
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Funerary Temple of Hatshepsut
Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt reigned in the 1400s bc. Her funerary temple is near the Valley of the Kings, in present-day Luxor.
MedioImages/age fotostock
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Iranian Art and Architecture
I INTRODUCTION
Iranian Art and Architecture, the visual arts of Iran. Although in the West this has been traditionally known as Persian culture, the inhabitants of the country have long called it Iran and themselves Iranians, rather than Persians. In accordance with popular usage, however, the term Persian will be used in this article to refer to the period before the advent of Islam in the 7th century AD—that is, the period of the ancient Persian empires—as well as the preceding prehistoric times.
II ANCIENT PERIOD
Ceramics and clay figurines were the chief artworks of the prehistoric period, and architecture and sculpture predominated during the period of the first two Persian empires (6th century BC to 7th century AD ). After the Arab conquest and the introduction of Islam in the 7th century AD, sculpture was little practiced but architecture flourished. Painting became a major art in the period from the 13th to the 17th century. In the 20th century these ancient arts were being revived, and traditional forms were combined with Western technology and contemporary materials.
A Architecture
Prehistoric architecture in Iran remains little known but has gradually begun to come to light since World War II. Among the earliest examples are a number of small houses of packed mud and mud brick found at several Neolithic sites in western Iran: Tepe Ali Kosh, Tepe Guran, Ganj Dareh Tepe, and Hajji Firuz Tepe. These sites show that small villages made up of one-room houses and storage structures were already established along the western border of the country by 6000 BC. Excavations at Tal-i Bakun, near Persepolis, and Tal-i Iblis and Tepe Yahya, near Kermān, show that by 4000 BC buildings with a number of rooms were being erected and grouped into villages or small towns. All of these structures indicate that the traditional building techniques using packed mud and sun-dried mud brick had already been invented. At Shahr-i Sokhta in Seistan an elaborate Bronze Age palace (circa 2500 BC) was excavated. The plans of these remains show a steady growth in complexity ending with the establishment of important commercial centers on the plateau.
At the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the Iranian tribal groups, including the Medes and Persians, spread over the plateau and displaced or absorbed the indigenous inhabitants. The architecture and crafts of this Iron Age period, which immediately preceded the founding of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great, have been brought to light by excavations near Kangavar (Godin Tepe and Babajan Tepe), near Hamadān (Nush-i Jan Tepe), and at Zendan-i Suleiman and Tepe Hasanlu in northwestern Iran. These sites revealed for the first time a tradition of building in which large columnar halls are used as a central feature. The columns were of wood set on stone slabs, while the buildings themselves were of uncut stone and mud-brick construction. Stairways and terraces, along with other features, formed the prototypes for later developments in the imperial architecture of Pasargadae and Persepolis. The buildings at Nush-i Jan Tepe and Godin Tepe are almost certainly Median in origin and are the first structures excavated belonging to the Medes. These discoveries confirm the generalized descriptions of battlements and palaces found in the literary sources, especially of the Greek historian Herodotus.
A1 Achaemenian Period
The first great development of ancient Persian architecture took place under the Achaemenid dynasty during the Persian Empire, from about 550 to 330 BC. Remains of Achaemenian architecture are numerous, the earliest being ruins at Pasargadae, the capital city of Cyrus the Great. These ruins include two palaces, a sacred precinct, a citadel, a tower, and the tomb of Cyrus. The palaces were set in walled gardens and contained central columnar halls, the largest of which was 37 m (111 ft) in length. The proportions of the principal rooms varied from square to rectangular; all were lighted by a clerestory. Walls were constructed of mud brick; foundations, doorways, columns, and dadoes along the walls were of stone. Columns were capped with stone blocks carved to represent the forequarters of horses or lions with horns, placed back to back. The roof was flat and was probably made of wood. The sacred precinct consisted of a walled court containing two altars and a rectangular stepped platform. The tower was a tall rectangular structure built of yellow limestone; a contrasting black limestone was used for the doorway and two tiers of blind windows. The tomb of Cyrus was a small gabled stone building placed on a stepped platform. The surrounding columns were placed there during recent Islamic times.
Darius I built a new capital at Persepolis, to which additions were made by Xerxes I and Artaxerxes I (reigned 465-425 BC). Three vast terraces were hewn and leveled out of the rocky site, and on them mud-brick and stone buildings, similar to those at Pasargadae, were erected. The buildings at Persepolis differed from those at Pasargadae in a number of ways. The columnar halls were square, walls were broken by windows and windowlike niches of stone, and the stone dado was not applied. Doorways bore a quarter-round cornice ornamented with a petal motif, probably of Egyptian origin. Column shafts were fluted rather than plain, the bases and caps were ornamented with floral decorations, and the termination of the column, called the impost block, took the form of naturalistically rendered forequarters of bulls or bulls with wings. These buildings had ceilings of cedarwood, carried on heavy balks or beams that rested on the stone impost blocks at the tops of the columns.
Other remains of Achaemenian architecture exist at Sūsa, where Darius I built a large palace, which was subsequently rebuilt by Artaxerxes II (reigned 409-358?BC). Royal architecture under the Achaemenids also included tombs cut in solid rock, of which the best-known examples are those at Naqshah Rostam near Persepolis. Little is known of the popular building practices of the period, but archaeologists believe that the ordinary dwelling was made of mud brick.
After the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, and the assumption of power by the Seleucid dynasty, Persian architecture followed the styles common to the Greek world (see Greek Art and Architecture). The great Greek-style Temple of Anāhita at Kangavar was excavated by the Archaeological Service of Iran with a view to eventual restoration. The temple had been destroyed by a severe earthquake in antiquity.
Subsequently, under the Parthian Arsacid dynasty, which lasted from about 250 BC to AD 224, a small number of buildings was constructed in native Persian style. The most notable monument of this period is a palace at Hatra (now Al Ḩadr, Iraq), dating from the 1st or 2nd century AD and exemplifying the use of the barrel vault on a grand scale. The vaults, heavy walls, and small rooms of this palace indicate a continuation of earlier Assyrian and Babylonian tradition.
A2 Sassanian Period
A great renaissance in architecture took place under the Sassanid dynasty, which ruled Persia from 224 until 651. Construction was radically different from that of the Achaemenian period. Walls were built of burnt brick or small stones bound with mortar; barrel vaults of brick were used to span rooms and corridors; and domes were erected over the large halls. The principal features of the plan of the palaces at Persepolis were adopted, but the various rooms were enclosed within a single building. Thus, the same building incorporated a public audience hall, a smaller private audience hall, and a complex of lesser rooms. Remains of the major monuments of Sassanian architecture include the ruins of domed palaces at Firuzabad, Girra, and Sarvestan, and the vast vaulted hall at Ctesiphon. The large site of Bishapur was systematically excavated in the mid-20th century by the Archaeological Service of Iran. Palace sites have also been excavated at Qais, Hira, and Damghan. Other ruins include bridges at Dizful and Shushtar and a number of small temples built at various locales for the Zoroastrian worship of fire.
B Sculpture
In the first great period of Persian art, during the reign of the Achaemenids, sculpture was practiced on a monumental scale. About 515 BC, Darius I had a vast relief and inscription carved on a cliff at Behistun. The relief shows him triumphing over his enemies as Ahura Mazda, the chief Zoroastrian deity, looks on. The carving was derived in plan and detail from Assyrian models, but the naturalistic treatment of the drapery and the eyes was original.
At Persepolis, sculpture was an important adjunct to the architecture. In addition to the sculptured animal capitals on the columns, which were a dominant feature of the interiors of the buildings, friezes representing lions were set on the exterior cornices. Doorjambs were carved with reliefs of the king, and staircases were decorated with friezes of royal guards and tribute bearers carved in low relief. The main gateway to the city was flanked by a pair of huge bulls with human heads, carved in high relief.
The decoration of the palace at Sūsa consisted of stone reliefs in the style of those at Persepolis, and panels of bricks glazed blue, green, white, and yellow. The use of glazed bricks continued a tradition that was first established in Assyria and Babylonia. The glazed-brick panels at Sūsa portrayed soldiers, winged bulls, sphinxes, and griffins. The best known of these panels make up the Frieze of Archers (Louvre, Paris). Achaemenian sculpture in relief is further exemplified at Naqshah Rostam, where four royal tombs were hewn out of the rock. At each tomb the face of the cliff was carved to represent the facade of a palace; above the palace, figures support a dais on which the king stands worshiping the gods.
After the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great, Greek influence, in its late, Hellenistic phase, was predominant in the arts of Persia. Examples include fragments of bronze sculpture found at Shami, and the Parthian sculptural reliefs at Behistun. The second great period of Persian art began, as noted, with the reign of the Sassanid dynasty in AD 224. A single example of sculpture in the round has survived from this period: a colossal standing figure of a king near Bishapur. A few statuettes have also survived, but the characteristic sculptural work, as in Achaemenian times, was the relief cut in rock. The best-known examples are colossal reliefs at Naqshah Rostam portraying the Persian kings Ardashir I and Shapur I (reigned 241-72) mounted on horses. A similar equestrian relief at Taq-i-Bustan represents another Persian king of this dynasty, Khosrau II. Following the Sassanian period, sculpture ceased to exist as a major art.
C Pottery, Metalwork, and Weaving
The earliest examples of Persian decorative arts date from the late 7th millennium BC and consist of animal and human female figures fashioned in clay. The female figurines, found at Tepe Sarab near Kermānshāh (Bākhtarān), are complex objects made of many small pieces fitted together on small dowels. The thighs and breasts of the figures are exaggerated, and the heads are reduced to small pegs. In contrast to the highly stylized and abstracted human figures are quantities of animal figurines done in an extremely natural style.
The second great development in prehistoric art occurred during the 4th millennium, when a variety of painted pottery styles appeared on the plateau. The vessels are usually red or buff in color and are covered with animal figures, often goats, painted in black. The pottery was found alongside small objects such as stamp seals and small instruments of copper including pins and chisels. During the 3rd millennium, burnished gray pottery was manufactured in northeastern Persia along with a great amount of cast copper objects such as axes, decorated pins, figurines, and the like. Painted pottery continued to be made in other parts of the country except in northern Iranian provinces of Azerbaijan, where black and gray burnished wares appeared, decorated in many instances with geometric patterns incised into the surface and then filled with a white paste. About 1300 BC gray burnished pottery appeared over the whole of the north, perhaps originating in the northeast, and probably associated with the spreading Indo-Iranian tribes. About 800 BC painting again revived, with geometric patterns, animals, and human figures represented.
Beginning at the end of the 2nd millennium and continuing to the middle of the 1st millennium a great florescence of bronze casting occurred along the southern Caspian mountain zone and in Lorestān. Harness trappings, horse bits, axes, and votive objects were made in large quantities and reflected a complex animal style created by combining parts of animals and fantastic creatures in various forms.
Luxurious works of decorative art were produced during the Achaemenian period, including ornaments and vessels of gold and silver, stone vases, and engraved gems. A collection of these objects, called the Treasure of the Oxus, is exhibited at the British Museum, London. Sassanian metalwork was highly developed, the most usual objects being shallow silver cups and large bronze ewers, engraved and worked in repoussé. The commonest themes were court scenes, hunters, animals, birds, and stylized plants. The largest collection of these vessels is in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg; other examples are in museums in Paris, London, and New York City.
Silk weaving was a flourishing industry under the Sassanid dynasty. The designs, consisting of symmetrical animal, plant, and hunter patterns framed in medallions, were imitated throughout the Middle East and also in medieval Europe. Even after the Arab conquest, Sassanian silks and metalware continued to be manufactured, and Sassanian designs strongly influenced artists in Byzantium to the west and as far as Eastern Turkistan to the east.
III ISLAMIC PERIOD
After the conquest of Persia by the Arabs in 641, Iran became part of the Islamic world. Iranian artists adjusted to the needs of Arabic Islamic culture, which was in turn influenced by Iranian traditions. Architecture continued to be a major art form, but because Islamic tradition condemned the three-dimensional representation of living things as idolatrous (at least in a religious context; see Islamic Art and Architecture), sculpture declined. Painting, on the other hand, not affected by proscription of the human form, reached new prominence, and the decorative arts, too, continued to thrive.
A Architecture
The mosque became the major building type in Iranian architecture. The established style of vaulted construction was continued; common features were the pointed arch, the ogee arch, and the dome on a circular drum. Outstanding examples of early Islamic Iranian architecture include the Mosque of Baghdād built in 764, the Great Mosque at Samarra erected in 847, and the early 10th-century mosque at Nayin. The Mongols destroyed much of the early Islamic architecture in Iran, but after their conquest of Baghdād in 1258, building was resumed according to Iranian traditions. Subsequently, a number of the most notable buildings in the history of Iranian architecture were erected. They include the Great Mosque at Veramin, built in 1322; the Mosque of the Imam Reza at Meshad-i-Murghab, erected in 1418; and the Blue Mosque at Tabrīz. Other major structures include the mausoleums of the Turkic conqueror Tamerlane and his family at Samarqand, the Royal Mosque at Meshad-i-Murghab, and the vast madrasas, or mosque schools, at Samarqand, all of them erected during the 15th century.
Under the Safavid dynasty (1501-1722), a vast number of mosques, palaces, tombs, and other structures were built. Common features in the mosques were onion-shaped domes on drums, barrel-vaulted porches, and pairs of towering minarets. A striking decoration was the corbel, a projection of stone or wood from the face of a wall, used in rows and tiers. These corbels, arranged to appear as series of intersecting miniature arches, are usually called stalactite corbels. Color was an important part of the architecture of this period, and the surfaces of the buildings were covered with ceramic tiles in glowing blue, green, yellow, and red. The most notable Safavid buildings were constructed at Eşfahān (Isfahan), the capital at that period. The city, laid out in broad avenues, gardens, and canals, contained palaces, mosques, baths, bazaars, and caravansaries.
Since the 18th century, the architectural styles of western Europe have been adopted to an increasing degree in Iran. At the same time, traditional forms have remained vital, and native and imported elements have often been combined in the same building. Recently, unadorned steel and concrete structures, similar to those seen in other parts of the modern world, have been built as dwellings, public buildings, and factories.
B Painting
Painting in fresco and the illumination of manuscripts (see Illuminated Manuscripts) were practiced in Iran at least as early as the Sassanian period, but only fragments of the work have survived. In Islamic Iran, painting was one of the most important arts. Manuscripts of the Qur'an (Koran) in the Arabic Kufic script were executed on parchment rolls at Al Başrah and Al Kūfah at the end of the 7th century. These manuscripts did not contain painted scenes but depended for their effect on the beauty of the calligraphy. Ornamental calligraphy was widely practiced in the 8th and 9th centuries. Painting and illumination became important elements in the decoration of manuscripts in the 9th century. With the introduction in the 10th century of paper for making books, the forms and varieties of religious and secular books increased greatly.
In the 12th century, a school of painting at Baghdād became known for its manuscripts of scientific works, fables, and anecdotes, illustrated with miniature paintings. In the 13th century the influence of Chinese landscape painting, introduced after the Mongols came to power in Iran, became apparent. Paintings of stories, legends, and historical events, often occupying whole pages and pairs of pages, illustrated books devoted to poems and world histories. The text was usually written in Persian rather than Arabic as had previously been customary. In the 14th century Baghdād and Tabrīz were the main centers for painting. Subsequently, Samarqand, Bukhara (Bukhoro), and Herāt also became important centers. In general the paintings consisted of figural scenes of hunting, warfare, or palace life and of landscapes of jagged rocks, single trees, and little streams bordered by flowers. At the beginning of the 14th century the backgrounds of the paintings were usually red; later they were more often blue, and at the end of the century gold backgrounds became common.
The best-known Iranian miniature painter was Bihzad, the greatest artist of the end of the Mongol and the beginning of the Safavid periods. He was head of the academy of painting and calligraphy at Herāt until 1506, when he went to Tabrīz and became the royal librarian. Bihzad's paintings are characterized by rich color and realistic figures and landscapes. He differentiated the figures in group scenes, and his portraits are strongly individual. Many painters studied with him, including the celebrated artists Mirak and Sultan Mohammed, and his style was imitated throughout Iran, Turkistan, and India. Among the few extant manuscripts illustrated by Bihzad are the History of Tamerlane (1467), now in the Princeton University Library, and the Fruit Garden (1487), a book of poems now in the Egyptian Library, Cairo.
Portrait painting became an important art form during the 16th century. One of the most distinguished portraitists was Ali Reza Abbasi, who delineated his figures with spare but expressive brush strokes. Most of his paintings represent single figures, but he also painted realistic group scenes of pilgrims and dervishes. In the late 16th century and in the 17th century, monochrome ink drawings brightened with touches of red and gold replaced the jewel-like polychrome paintings of the earlier manuscripts. After the 17th century, Iranian artists copied European paintings and engravings, and the native traditions declined. Paintings of conventional Iranian themes in brilliant colors on lacquer boxes and book covers became a handicraft industry in the 19th century, and the lacquerware was exported in large quantities to western Europe. This industry was still flourishing in the late 20th century. Modern imitations of 16th-century miniature paintings were also common, but no contemporary national style of painting had emerged.
C Decorative Arts
Techniques of weaving, metalwork, and pottery, developed during the Sassanian period, were practiced throughout subsequent Iranian history. The weaving of rugs, for which Iran has been especially noted, was encouraged by the Sassanids and has continued to be an important artistic skill until the present time. Rugs were made in small villages and in court workshops. The design of carpets used in mosques or for private prayer usually consisted of a medallion or arch within a field surrounded by a border, the whole covered with delicate floral forms. Carpets for secular use might have animal or human figures (see Rugs and Carpets).
Metalwork was also important. Fine bronze, brass, and copper wares inlaid with silver and engraved were made in Mosul and other centers.
Pottery of outstanding quality was made during the Islamic period, especially in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. The potters of Rayy and Kāshān made minae ware with delicate polychrome figures, lusterware with metallic glaze decoration, and wares with strong, dark naturalistic motifs under a clear or turquoise glaze.
See also Indian Art and Architecture.
Contributed By:
Robert H. Dyson
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Griffin Bracelet
This gold armlet, made in Persia during the Achaemenid dynasty, is part of the Treasure of the Oxus, a collection of decorative objects from the Persian Empire now located in the British Museum in London, England. The armlet was originally inlaid with glass and colored stones; its most distinctive features are the huge winged griffins, whose heads form the ends of the piece. Large animal-headed armlets such as this one were highly prized by the Achaemenids; similar pieces are shown being offered to the king on the reliefs of the Apadana stairs.
Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York
Source: Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation
