Comparing Ancient Egyptian Art and Ancient Aegean Art

Introduction

Ancient Egyptian art was similar to other forms of art that majorly had magical and religious functions, and were mainly recognized from funerary and sacred backgrounds[1]. Art for its sole purpose was only and extremely produced on an occasional basis. The society in which recording, writing, listing, and controlling was of considerable significance developed the ancient Egyptian art and Aegean art. This society forged the dawn of civilization in the modern Egyptian state. On the other hand, Aegean art is art that developed in the Grecian lands immediate to Aegean Sea. Some forms of art included in Aegean art include the Mycenaean art, popular for gold masks and sturdy architecture comprising of 20 feet fortresses on hills and the Cyclades art, popular for Venus figurines carved in white marble. In light of this, paper compares and contrasts the ancient Egyptian art and ancient Aegean art.

Differences between Ancient Egyptian Art and Ancient Aegean Art

Ancient Aegean art and ancient Egyptian art existed in different historical periods. Ancient Egyptian art existed from 3000 BC to 300 AD, having reached its highest level in painting and sculpture[2]. In addition, it was both highly symbolic and stylized. Historically, it evolved over different periods such as the Predynastic, Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom, Amarna, third intermediate periods and Ptolemaic. On the other hand, ancient Aegean art existed from 3000 BC to 1200 BC employing various styles or cultures such as Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean and cyclopean.

Ancient Egyptian art portrays females with extremely less stride in comparison to males, whereas ancient Aegean art shows the both feet with only the big toe from the inner side. This Egyptian mode of representation is evident round sculptures having male figures with pronounced strides and women having almost parallel legs. The reason behind the Egyptian portrayal is to show that people have two legs rather than one leg. In addition, human hands are shown in either open or fist having all the five fingers. The thumbs are usually rendered as the final instead of the first finger, though the perception seems unrealistic. The Aegean art only shows one foot of sitting or kneeling person. However, the Aegean mode of representation changes when portraying persons of high status such as kings. A particular representational method showed kings in a kneeling position in ritual occasions.

The Aegean representation mode of humans is more diverse than the ancient Egyptian representation. The frontal view of the Aegean art shows human head having one eye, the chest having two breasts, whereas the Egyptian only shows the chest having a single breast[3]. Notably, many Aegean paintings lack details of the chest, which is in contrast to the Egyptian art. The Egyptian art depicts the pelvis and legs form the side and not front as in the case of Aegean. Other representation that is present in Egyptian and not in Aegean is the portrayal of females having heads in profile, but other body parts en face[4]. This is evident in the Temple fresco. Women with skirts also en face as revealed by Xeste three saffron gatherers[5].

Xeste 3

The mode of representing animals in both Aegean and Egyptian vary widely. The Egyptian art normally depict striding or crouching animals in profile. Some animals such as the cobra are shown in varying aspective views[6]. For example, the cobra’s head is depicted in profile, the chest en face and other parts of the body are in profile. This representation is pictographic writing to facilitate quick identification of the snake. Additionally the swollen chest of the snake is not depicted from the front side.

In ancient Egyptian art, striding mammals are portrayed with their inner rear leg forward, which is also the case of humans where inner leg is shown in front[7]. The front legs, in an analogous fashion, repeat this motion. It is a rule in Egyptian art to show mammals walking and some time with an incorrect parallel stride, which naturally occurs in animals such as camels and giraffes that have long legs. Aegean art, in contrast to Egyptian art, shows a realistic movement of animals. Naturally, mammals alternate their strides when moving, which is similar to what is portrayed in Aegean art.

Similarities between Ancient Egyptian Art and Ancient Aegean Art

Aegean art hardly shows the human face en face in painting except on the representation of beads of the jewel fresco. This representation usually occur, but in glyptic art without clear details of the face. However, in Egyptian art, frontality is exceptional, though used in cases of goddess Qudshu and when portraying enemies. Aegean art normally portray monkeys, bulls, felines and other animals en face. This implies that there is a form of taboo attributed to Aegean representation. The similarity depicted from frontal representation is that it is used selectively.

A similarity between Aegean art and Egyptian is in the way horns of animals are depicted. In Aegean art, horns of bulls are usually shown in side view except when the bull is depicted en face or in the rear view. However, the representation of the seal gives a front view of the horns with the head in profile. Egyptian art shows the horns of gazelles or oryx in strict side view to facilitate quick identification[8]. Notably, both Egyptian and Aegean art embrace the side view representation of animals with some exceptions.

 

 

Egyptian bull                                                           Aegean bull

 

Aegean art and Egyptian art show some similarity in that they were used for religious and cultural purposes[9]. Much of Aegean art was a form of thanking their gods for the considerable fortune and gain favor in opportune times. Many temples were specifically designed to hold religious statue or carvings. An example is the Erechthieon that is situated in Acropolis, built to honor Athena and Poseidon. Aegean art tended to humanize myths by portraying god as a human. Various sculptors represented a myth or symbolized man’s purpose in the world, because the myths emphasized a unified culture. On the other, Egyptians worshipped their own statues and other forms of art. However, they did not take perceive their artwork as gods, but strongly believed that gods existed in them. The use of grandiose in building Egyptian temples and pyramids symbolized honor for their gods.

In conclusion, the society in which recording, writing, listing, and controlling was of considerable significance developed the ancient Egyptian art and ancient Aegean art. Ancient Egyptian art existed from 3000 BC to 300 AD, having reached its highest level in painting and sculpture. On the other hand, ancient Aegean art existed from 3000 BC to 1200 BC employing various styles or cultures such as Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean and cyclopean. Ancient Egyptian art portrays females with extremely less stride in comparison to males, whereas ancient Aegean art shows the both feet with only the big toe from the inner side. The frontal view of the Aegean art shows human head having one eye, the chest having two breasts, whereas the Egyptian only shows the chest having a single breast. Egyptian art and Aegean art depict some similarity from frontal representation that is used selectively. Aegean art and Egyptian art show some similarity in that they were used for religious and cultural purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

Betancourt, Philip. Introduction to Aegean art. Philadelphia, PA : INSTAP Academic Press, 2007.

Capart, Jean. Egyptian Art – Introductory Studies. New York: Lightning Source Incorporate, 2009.

Hodge, Susie. Ancient Egyptian Art. Des Plaines: Heinemann/Raintree, 2006.

Janson, Horst, and Anthony Janson. History of Art: The Western Tradition. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall Professional, 2004.

Ryan, Charles. Egyptian Art: An Elementary Handbook for the Use of Students, Andc. London: BiblioBazaar, 2010.