Art in the battlefield-Scenes from Egypt

Source: http://abaadblogs.com/imagefeed/

Source: BBC

 

 

Source: Al Jazeera, SSEA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: http://abaadblogs.com/imagefeed/

 

Source: http://abaadblogs.com/imagefeed/

Source: http://abaadblogs.com/imagefeed/

Source: http://abaadblogs.com/imagefeed/

Source: http://abaadblogs.com/imagefeed/

Source: http://abaadblogs.com/imagefeed/

Artwork of the day

Gravestone from the Coptic Period of Egypt, 5^th century AD, limestone, Coptic Museum, Cairo

A work of art with a highly functional role as it is a gravestone placed above the tomb of the deceased. It represents a woman raising her hands in prayer, a traditional pose for Coptic gravestones. The work combines many different artistic traditions that have existed in Ancient Egypt through the course of its long history. Gravestones were common in Ancient Greece; the long mantle the woman wears is Roman, while the architectural structure under which she is placed also reminds of a classical temple.

The representation of the deceased in his/her grave has a very long tradition in Egypt coming from the Dynastic period and connected with the belief that an image of the person must survive in order for his/her soul to live eternally. At the same time the lamps above the woman's hands are parts of the Christian tradition, the religion the Egyptian Copts adopted in the first century AD.

Artwork of the day

The Berlin Stela, 18th dynasty, c 1340 BC, Egyptian Museum, Berlin

This relief is part of a unique phase in Egyptian history and art. The Amarna period saw a radical change in religious beliefs with the pharaoh, Amenhotep IV changing his name to Akhenaten and establishing a monotheistic religion. Art changed too to support the religious changes. The picture has two reading. At first, the viewer is invited to witness a tender, everyday family scene. The king and the queen, like every other family, play with their young daughters. This however, was a relief found inside a house shrine in Amarna, a place of worship. Automatically, this ceases to be an everyday scene and becomes religious. The stela was not made to commemorate an event. Instead it served as an icon with the protagonists being elevated to divine status. The young girls, daughters of the pharaoh and his chief wife need to be included in the pictures as pendants to the male and female “principles of the universe” represented by their parents.

Statue of Djoser, Pharaoh of Dynasty III, c 2700 BC, limestone, Egyptian Museum, Cairo

Djoser was probably the first king of the third dynasty which inaugurated the period of the Old Kingdom in 

c 2700 BC. Even from this early period the status of the pharaoh was well defined. Seated majestically on his throne, Djoser looks straight ahead to an unidentified horizon (in its original placing in the step pyramid complex he was looking towards the north). His right arm is crossed on his chest holding emblems of royalty, which could symbolize his social and political authority. He is wearing ceremonial robes, symbolizing thus his religious role in the Egyptian society. The rigidity of the posture, the austerity of the facial characteristics, the gaze towards infinity, even the stylized wig and beard all give a sense of eternity, stability and order.

Art and propaganda -Hatshepsut's mortuary temple

There have been many times in the history of humankind where art has been used as a means for the creation and manipulation of political structures, with modern art historians citing most often the examples of Nazi Germany and Communist Russia as major examples of such practices. Political propaganda in the art of antiquity is less often discussed, although it was indeed part of most ancient civilizations. From the Assyrian Empire and the Egyptian civilization in the Near East to Rome and Byzantium in later antiquity, art served the purposes of the ruling elites that had the power and the resources to order and patronize exquisite artworks.