For over three thousand years the Egyptians adhered to a prescribed set of rules as to how a work of art in three dimensions should be presented. Egyptian art was highly symbolic and a painting or sculpture was not meant to be a record of a the result of subtle changes, not an altered conception of art or its role in society.

Seated Scribe

Of the materials used by the Egyptian sculptor -- clay, wood, metal, ivory, and stone -- stone was the most plentiful and permanent, available in a wide variety of colors and hardness. Sculpture was often painted in vivid hues as well. Egyptian sculpture has two qualities that are distinctive; it can be characterized as cubic and frontal. It nearly always echoes in its form the shape of the stone cube or block from which it was fashioned, partly because it was an image conceived from four viewpoints. The front of almost every statue is the most important part and the figure sits or stands facing strictly to the front. This suggests to the modern viewer that the ancient artist was unable to create a naturalistic representation, but it is clear that this was not the intention.

Art was used as a medium to decorate religious shrines. It was very idealistic and rigid.

Painting and sculpture was main means of expression. Art usually reflected the pharoahs and their life.

Egyptians, like many ancient people, used bright colors to decorate their tombs and temples.

Only during Akhnaton's reign did a realistic portrayal of life develop.

MUSEUM TOUR
David Robert's Art of Ancient Egypt




THE ART OF ANCIENT EGYPT




INSTITUTE OF EGYPTIAN ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY





ANCIENT EGYPT INDEX

ANCIENT AND LOST CIVILIZATIONS

ALPHABETICAL INDEX  OF ALL FILES

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