Tuesday, 4 February 2014

Egyptian Paintings


Egyptian Paintings

Illustrated and described by Nina M. Davies

Penguin Books . London


This book looks at the paintings in the ancient Egyptian world, their meaning and placements and the conventions of a typical painting.



Meaning of the paintings and their place on the tomb walls

The paintings on the tomb wall all conveyed the owner of the tomb, in each he was enjoying an activity that he had done on the Earthly plane and he would continue to enjoy in the afterlife. Activities included farming, fishing, dancing, feasting.

Not just the royal family got their own tombs as many people working under the king received their own tomb, in these tombs is where we see the daily lives of the people.

In the new Kingdom the layout of the tombs became more arranged as not all tomb paintings were showing the daily activities there was also plenty of space for the funerary rites.



Conventions followed by the ancient Egyptian artists

A full face is drawn yet only the shoulders are frontal and the rest of the body is shown from the side.

"Perspective is ignored except in a few rare instances"

Strict rules were followed and handed down through generations, these rules included the scaling of the people in the paintings - the greater the importance of the person the larger size they were shown.



Methods of lighting and decorating the tomb

The true method of how the caves were lit well enough to be able to decorate still remains a mystery because the lamps that have been recovered from the time do not provide sufficient lighting.
Modern methods include using mirrors to bounce light around the tombs, however this was not possible in Ancient Egypt. Furthermore many tombs were deep underground or in the sides of rock faces where no light would have reached naturally.

"The colours, which have not a great range, were undoubtedly mixed in quantity and then carried down to the dark recesses and applied to the forms which convention decreed must be of such and such a tint "
As well as the walls the ceilings were also painted, these were such as geometrical patterns separated by bands.
Later the addition of motifs were common and these included birds, butterflies and flowers for example.


Many of the plates in this book show the people in their tomb paintings, however the one that caught my eye was of the detailing in the birds, it is fascinating that such detail was captured even with the tools and colours they had available.

Geese of Medum 
Medum, Tomb of Itet; now in the Cairo Museum (c.2700 B.C.)



Although today the larger fowling picture has been destroyed this scene still remains.
The red-breasted goose is no longer found in Egypt however the other geese are still very common.
" And can serve as an example of the height of achievement reached by Egyptian artists at so early a date. "
The piece of the painting shows an almost symmetrical representation of the geese along the muddy banks of the water.





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