E. Art and Archaeology.—In the following sections a general history of the characteristics of Ancient Egyptian art is first given, showing the variation of periods and essentials of style; and this is followed by an account of the use made of material products, of the tools and instruments employed, and of the monuments. For further details see also the separate topographical headings (for excavations, &c.), and the general articles on the various arts and art-materials (for references to Egypt); also [Pyramids]; [Mummy], &c.
General Characteristics.
The wide and complex subject of Egyptian art will be treated here in six periods: Prehistoric, Early Kings, Pyramid Kings, XIIth Dynasty, XVIIIth-XXth Dynasties, XXVIth Dynasty and later. In each age will be considered the (A) statuary, (B) reliefs, (C) painting.
Prehistoric.—The earliest civilized population of Egypt was highly skilled in mechanical accuracy and regularity, but had little sense of organic forms. They kept the unfinished treatment of the limbs and extremities which is so characteristic of most barbaric art; and the action was more considered than the form.
(A) In the round there are in the earlier graves female figures of two races, the Bushman type and European, both probably representing servants or slaves. These have the legs always united, sloping to a point without feet (Plate I. fig. 1); the arms are only stumps. The face has a beaky nose and some indication of eyes. Upon the surface is colouring; red for the Bushman, with black whisker though female; white for the European type, with black tattoo patterns. Other female figures are modelled in a paste, upon a stick, and the black hair is sometimes made separately to fit on as a wig over the red head, showing that wigs were then used. Male figures are generally only heads in the earlier times. Tusks with carved heads (Plate I. figs. 2, 3) are the earliest, beginning at S.D. (sequence date) 33;[16] heads on the top of combs are found, from S.D. 42 to the close of such combs in the fifties. All of these heads show a high forehead and a pointed beard; and such expression as may be discovered is grave but not savage. In later times whole figures of ivory, stone and clay are found, with the legs united, and the arms usually joined to the body. A favourite way of indicating the eyes was by drilling two holes and inserting a white shell bead in each. The figures of animals (Plate I. figs. 4, 5) are quite as rude as the human figures: they only summarily indicate the mature, and often hardly express the genus. They are most usual on combs and pins; but sacred animals are also found. The lion is the most usual (Plate I. fig. 7), but the legs are roughly marked, if at all: the leonine air is given, but the attitude is more distinct than the form. The hawk (Plate I. fig. 6) is modelled in block without any legs. The slate palettes in the form of animals are even more summary, and continually degraded until they lost all trace of their origin. There are also curious figures of animals chipped in flint, which show some character, but no detail.
(B) Reliefs with animal figures belong to the later part of the prehistoric age. The relief is low, and the form hatched across with lines (Plate I. fig. 8), a style copied from drawing. There is more animation than in the round figures. At the close of this age the fashion of long processions of animals appears (Plate I. fig. 9); some character is shown in these, but no sense of action.
(C) Drawing is found from the earliest civilization, done in white slip on red vases. Figures of men are very rare (Plate I. fig. 10); they have the body triangular, the waist being very narrow; the legs are two lines linked by a zigzag, as if to express that they move to and fro. The usual figures are goats and hippopotami; always having the body covered with cross lines to express the connexion of the outlines (Plate I. fig. 11). This technique is in every way closely akin to that of the modern Kabyle. An entirely different mode is common at a later time when designs were painted in thin red colour on a light brown ware. The subjects of the earlier of these examples are imitations of cordage, of marbling, and of basket-work; later there are rows of men and animals, and ships (Plate I. figs. 12, 13), with various minor signs. The figures are never cross-hatched as in earlier drawing, but always filled in altogether. The fact that the ships have oars and not sails makes it probable that they were rather for the sea than for Nile traffic, and a starfish among the motives on such pottery also points to the sea connexion. The ulterior meaning of the decoration is probably religious and funereal, but the objects which are figured must have been familiar.
For this whole period see Jean Capart, Débuts de l’art en Égypte (1904; trans. Primitive Art in Ancient Egypt).
The Early Kings.—The dynastic race wrought an entire transformation in the art of Egypt; in place of the clumsy and undetailed representations, there suddenly appears highly artistic work, full of character, action and anatomical detail.
(A) The earliest statues of this age are the colossi of the god Min from Coptos; that they belong to the artistic race is evident from the spirited reliefs upon them (see below, B), but the figures were very rude, the legs and arms being joined all in the mass. The main example of this early art is a limestone head of a king (Plate I. figs. 15, 16), which is a direct study from life, to serve as a model. For the accuracy of the facial curves, and the grasp of character and type, it is equal to any later work; and in its entire absence of conventions and its pure naturalism there is no later sculpture so good: as Prof. A. Michaelis says, “it renders the race type with astounding keenness, and shows an excellent power of observation in the exact representation of the eyes.” By the portrait, it is probably of King Narmer or some king related to him, that is, about the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. The ivory statuette of an aged king (Plate I. fig. 14) is probably slightly later. It shows the same subtle sense of character, and is unsurpassed in its reality. Many ivory figures of men, women and animals are known from Nekhen (Hieraconpolis) and Abydos; and they all show the same school of work, simple, dignified, observant, and with an air which places them on a higher plane of truthfulness and precision than later art. There is none of the mannerism of a long tradition, but a nobility pervades them which has no self-consciousness. The lower class of work of this age is shown by great numbers of glazed pottery figures both human and animal. Later in the IInd Dynasty, the head of Khasekhem (Plate I. fig. 17) shows the beginning of convention, but yet has a delicacy about the mouth which surpasses later works.