Ch3 Art of Ancient Egypt

mastaba

a flat-topped, one-story structure with slanted walls built over an ancient Egyptian underground tomb. the most common tomb structure in Early Dynastic Egypt. Used by upper level society, the king's family and relatives.

necropolis

a large cemetery or burial area; literally a "city of the dead". mastabas tended to be grouped together in a necropolis. It was at the edge of the desert on the west bank of the Nile, for the land of the dead was believed to be in the direction of the sun.

canon of proportions

a set of ideal mathematical ratios in art based on measurements, as in the proportional relationships between the basic elements of the human body. For example, figures are designed 18 squares tall, measuring from the soles of their feet to the their hairline; the tops of their knees conform with the sixth square up from the ground-line. Their shoulders align with the top of square 16 and are six squares wide.

hieroglyph

a symbol used in hieroglyphics, a system of writing developed around 3000 B.C.E.

Menkaure

after Khufu; built the third and smallest pyramid at Giza. Dignity, calm, and permanence also characterize a sleek double portrait of Khafre's heir king Menkaure and a queen. The couple's separate figures, close is size, are joined by the stone from which they emerge, forming a single unit.

Hatsheptsut

A notable figure in a period otherwise dominated by make warrior-kings. There was no artistic formula for a female pharaoh in Egyptian art, yet Hatshpesut had to be portrayed in her new role. She was represented as a make king wearing a kilt and linen headdress, and occasionally even a king's false beard. Her appearance was adapted to conform to convention.

Pyramid Complex

A pyramid and the nearby structures associated with it. The imposting complex was designed for funeral rites and commemorative ceremonies and is much larger and more prominent than the tomb itself, reversing the scale relationship we saw in the Old Kingdom pyramid complexes.

New Kingdom

At the height of the New Kingdom, rulers undertook extensive building programs along the entire length of the Nile. Their palaces, forts, and administrative centers disappeared long ago, but remnants of temples and tombs of this great age have endured.

Armana Period

period of different art with perspective and pottery was different (Egypt). In portraits of the king, artists used startling stylizations, even physical distortians.

Aten

Amenhotep IV founded a new religion honoring a supreme god, the life-giving sun deity Aten (represented by the sun's disk), and changed his own name to Akhenaten. His reign not only saw the creation of a new capital and the rise of a new religious focus, it also led to radical changes in royal artistic conventions. In portraits of the king, artists used startling stylizations, even physical distortions.

Giza

An ancient Egyptian city; the site of the Great Pyramids. These were built by three successive Fourth- Dynasty kings: Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. Next to each of the pyramids was a funerary temple connected by a causeway-an elevated and enclosed pathway or corridor- to a valley temple on the bank of the Nile

Narmer Palette

An artifact discovered at the site of Hierakonpolis; its two sides show the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under King Narmer. It uses many of the representational conventions that would dominate royal Egyptian art from this point on.

Middle Kingdom

Arts and writing flourished in the twelfth dynasty, while reflecting a growing awareness of the political upheaval from which the country had just emerged. Using a strengthened military, Middle Kingdom rulers expanded and patrolled the borders, especially in lower Nubia. Royal portraits from the Middle Kingdom appear to acknowledge the hardship and fragility of human existence.

serdab

In ancient Egyptian tombs, the small room in which the ka statue was placed. The ka observed the devotions through two peepholes in the wall between the serdab and the funerary chapel.

Old Kingdom

The Old Kingdom was a time of social and political stability, despite increasingly common military excursions to defend the borders. The growing wealth of ruling families of the period is reflected in the enormous and elaborate tomb complexes they commissioned for themselves. Kings were not the only patrons of the arts, however. Upper-level government officials also could afford tombs decorated with elaborate carvings.