Week 3 art 110 11
- 1. ANCIENT ART HISTORY SURVEY, WEEK 3 Remember, Week 2 was a holiday, so there was no “Week 2” handout NOTE: The attached sheets are intended to provide you with the names, associations, and attributes for some commonly depicted Egyptian deities. While I hope that it will help you in studying, I certainly do not expect you to know all of them. I have included more than I would expect you to know, and more than we will see in this class, because I wanted something that could also be a guide if you look at Egyptian Art outside of class. Names and terms: Neolithic, Catal Huyuk, megalithic, monolith, trilith, post and lintel, dolmen, cairn, menhir, alignment, cromlech, henge, heelstone, sarsen stones, Egypt (Upper and Lower), Nile, canon of proportions, hierarchic scale, dynasties, Old/Middle/New Kingdoms, Narmer, pharaoh, iconography, registers, Horus, Ren, cartouche, shwt, akh, ka, ankh, ab (ib), Anubis, Ammit, Ma’at, Osiris, khet, canopic jars, natron, Opening of the Mouth, shwabty figures, mastaba Possible essay questions: --Explain the iconography and meaning of the Palette of King Narmer. What are some of the characteristics which make it typical of later Egyptian art? Name some commonly depicted Egyptian deities; what were some of their distinctive attributes? --Discuss the importance of mummification in ancient Egypt; what were some of the aspects of a person’s being which needed to be preserved to obtain eternal life? Explain something about the mummification process. Images from the book: Stonhenge, c.2000 BC, page 14 Palette of King Narmer, c.3000 BC, page, 41 Statue of Khafre (KA statue), c.2500 BC, page 48 Judgment of Hu-Nefer (page from "The Book of the Dead"), c.1300 BC, page 62
- 2. A GENERAL GUIDE TO SOME COMMON EGYPTIAN DEITIES (Note: this is intended as a rough guide; depictions of divinities could change over time and also according to geographic location) Name Associated with Typical attributes AMUN; the sun; creation; fertility double-plumed crown; sometimes shown with the AMUN-RE head of a ram (especially in Thebes) ANUBIS death and the underworld jackyl-headed man, or simply as a jackyl BASTET or cats; Re (considered his shown as a cat or cat-headed woman BAST daughter); the moon; the city of Bubastis HATHOR mother or wife of both shown as a cow or a woman with bovine attributes Horus and the king; women, motherhood, and female sexuality; joy, music, and happiness HORUS monarchy falcon-headed man, or simply shown as a falcon; often shown wearing a royal headdress ISIS Osiris (his wife); long, sheath dress; sometimes crowned with horns resurrection and protection and the solar disk; sometimes shown with winged of the dead; magic arms KHNUM the Nile River; the ram-headed man creation of life NEKHBET Upper Egypt (WADJET, shown as a vulture the cobra, was associated with Lower Egypt) NUT the sky body extended over the ground as the canopy of the sky OSIRIS death, the underworld, and crook, flail, and feathered crown; sometimes rebirth mummiform; often dark-skinned PTAH craftsmanship and creation; scepter and tight-fitting skull cap; often the city of Memphis mummiform or dark-skinned RE or RA; the sun; king of the the sun; often shown as a falcon-headed man RE- heavens; creation; father topped with a solar disk encircled by a cobra HORKATHY of the king SEKHMET the military and warfare; shown as a lion-headed woman power and destruction SETH violence, chaos, confusion; head of an animal with a curved face and squared strength and cunning ears SOBEK procreative and vegetative shown as a crocodile or crocodile-headed man
- 3. fertility; water, rivers, and marshes TAW ERET household deity; fertility; bulbous female anatomy and the head of a childbirth hippopotamus THOTH writing, knowledge and shown as an ibis or an ibis-headed man; sometimes scholars; the moon shown as a baboon HORUS ANUBIS SEKHMET SETH