Egyptian Art
Most of what we know about Egyptian art comes from the paintings the Egyptians created in the tombs of rich people when they died. These pictures were supposed to help the dead person out when he or she reached the next world, where the Egyptians thought you lived after you died in this world. So the paintings showed all sorts of things that people did in their regular lives.
A lot of people think that the Egyptians always
painted in the same style, but actually there are big changes
in style over the two thousand years that these tomb paintings were
being painted.
In the Old Kingdom, the carvers took
great pains with the pictures, but in the Middle
Kingdom, the carvers took a lot of shortcuts and did sloppier work,
for instance. In the Old Kingdom, the pictures are almost always about
daily life, but by the New Kingdom there are
more temples being built, and on temples there are pictures about events
that happened, reminding people about a big battle, for instance. Also
in the New Kingdom, the Amarna period is one
of great experimentation in Egyptian art as well as in religion
and government.
Once the Persians
conquered Egypt, Egyptian art became a mixture of different
cultures: Egyptian-Persian art, then Egyptian-Greek
art, then Egyptian-Roman art, and Coptic
and finally Islamic art. Each of these
cultures mixed with Egyptian culture in a different way.
To find out more about Egyptian art, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Eyewitness: Ancient Egypt, by George Hart. For kids.
Ancient Egyptian Art, by Susie Hodge (1998). Shows kids how Egyptian art relates to Egyptian religion and culture.
Hands-On Ancient People, Volume 1: Art Activities about Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Islam, by Yvonne Merrill and Mary Simpson. Art projects for kids, though the directions are really aimed at teachers or parents.
The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (Yale University Press Pelican History of Art), by William Stevenson Smith and William Kelly Simpson (revised edition 1999). The standard for college courses.
Egyptian Art, by Cyril Aldred (1985). Another standard.
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