The Puzzle of Egyptian Art. Dismembering an Iconography to Understand it.
As we have seen in a previous post, the iconography of this coffin contains traditional images of Egyptian art to guarantee the resurrection of the deceased. In...
Category: Blog “Hair and Death in Ancient Egypt”
THE DISTRIBUTION OF IMAGES IN EGYPTIAN ART. THE CLAY COFFIN OF MEN.
Images in Egyptian art were much more than just designs, specially in funerary sphere. They were a tool for achieving a goal and their effectiveness was out of ...
The Iconography in a Clay Coffin of Ancient Egypt. A Guarantee of Resurrection.
Coffins in Ancient Egypt were not made just in wood, but also in ceramic. Although these kind of coffins are much more common in the Middle East, there are some...
Resurrection Metaphors In Ancient Egypt.
Thanks to the numerous documents that has come down to us from Ancient Egypt, almost all related to their religious beliefs, we know about their gods, the cerem...
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Polychromy in Ancient Egyptian Art.
Colour is a very important element in aesthetics, because by itself it provokes immediate emotions. A colour can determine a state of mind, predispose us to som...
Isis and Nephthys: Key for the Eternity of “Qurna Queen”.
I would like to focus on an exceptional coffin located in the National Museum of Scotland. Because it contains a depiction of Isis and Nephthys, that well deser...
Isis and Nephthys Separated after Death.
In this post I would like to focus on two wooden sculptures of Isis and Nephthys. They are nowadays in two different museums; one is in the Art and History Muse...
The High Rank of Artist in Ancient Egypt
The artist in Ancient Egypt was part of the elite and worked very close to the Court. But his importance did not come from his proximity to the Royal House. Let...
The Anonymity of Art in Ancient Egypt.
How many great works of art in Ancient Egypt do we know? thousands!!! and yet … how many names of Egyptian artists (sculptors, draftsmen, painters …) do we know...
The Opening of the Mouth Ceremony on a “Living Image”?
In Ancient Egypt there were many practices in the funerary rite to grant the dead’s resurrection. The most represented, but also very unkown, was the Open...
Hair and Movement in the Post-Amarna Period.
The artists in ancient Egypt used the bending hair for drawing body movements. The Egyptian artists in Amarna could also depict hair in a more plastic and less ...
A Rare Goddess Nut in Copenhagen.
There are lots of artifacts from ancient Egypt all around the world. Many of them are still unknown and despite that they are important documents. Just surfing ...
Goddess Hathor: Three Ways of Mentoring the Dead.
In Ancient Egypt many verbal and artistic expressions were used to refer to the entrance of the deceased into the Hereafter with goddess Hathor as mentor.
A Missing Mourner in a Funeral of Ancient Egypt.
There are in museums small pieces from ancient Egypt, which are hardly paid attention. And usually they are very valuable. Sometimes because they offer relevant...
The Egyptian Coffin of Iineferty and Her Two Daughters.
Egyptian coffin was a good surface for decoration. And usually this decoration was quite standard. For example, goddess Nut was depicted on the chest of the mum...
Common Aspects in the Art of Ancient Egypt.
Official or private, formal or informal, the art of ancient Egypt had some characteristics in its production. These features formed a common denominator and hel...
The Ancient Egyptian Funerary Rite of Theban Tomb TT175.
Ancient Egyptian archaeology is plenty of small remains which are big in information. For instance the ushabti of Pay and Repit is a small artifact, which goes ...
The Senet Game: Three Steps to Eternity.
The Senet game of Ancient Egypt was a board game for leisure in common life, which also had its funerary side. It was present in the wall decoration and was par...
The Senet Game and its Decoration.
The Senet game in the funerary sphere was a path to eternity. The deceased played alone this “countdown” to the eternal life. To arrive to the last ...
The Senet Game. A Path to Eternity in Ancient Egypt.
The senet in Ancient Egypt was an enterteinment board game, but in the funerary sphere it was also a way of reaching the eternity.
Funerary Mask of Artemidora: Solar and Osirian Resurrection.
Recently we posted about the decoration on the upper register of the funerary mask of Artemidora. In it, we could differentiate two main elements: to the mourni...
The two Mourners in the funerary Mask of Artemidora.
We know how important was the decoration on the corpse in Ancient Egypt. The egyptian artist selected the most effective iconography for the benefit of the dece...
Osiris at both sides of Artemidora.
The both sides of the mummy was a good place for strategical iconography. At first sight, it seems that the Egyptian artist did not spend many sources in the de...
Isis and Nephthys on the feet of Artemidora.
Isis and Nephthys are the most preeminent figures on the decoration over the mummy of Artemidora. Over the wrappings of the feet, two appliqués of gold depicted...
Isis and Nephthys on the Mummy of Artemidora
Looking carefully at the decoration on the mummy of Artemidora we can discover the intentions of the artist.
The Egyptian Artist, the Master.
To understand the figure of the Egyptian artist it is convenient to differentiate art and craft in ancient Egyptian art. Ancient Egyptians just had the word hem...
Duality in Egyptian Art. Duality as a Conception of Egypt.
The idea of duality referred to good and evil confronted and linked. And it also meant two halves, which formed a unity. Duality is Egypt. Egypt itself evoked a...
Duality in Egyptian Art. Duality in Egyptian Landscape.
In the ideological thinking of Ancient Egypt, duality played a crucial role. The equilibrium principle could not exist without the imbalance; and in front of th...
Pharaoh and Uniformity in Egyptian Art.
The uniformity of Egyptian Art had also political basis. Pharaoh and Uniformity in Egyptian Art. In the state sphere, the Egyptian society required a balance, w...
Uniformity in Egyptian Art. The Celestial Level.
At a celestial level, the cycles of the moon and the sun also had a strong influence in Egyptian Art. This influencie was in uniformity and also in iconography....
Uniformity in Egyptian Art. The Cyclic Nature of Ancient Egypt.
Plastic manifestations in Egyptian art remain almost unchanged for more than three millennia. Why? Art is something intimately linked with human feeling, with i...
Uniformity in Egyptian Art. An Aproximation.
Egyptian art shows an apparent uniformity, which makes us to refer to a unique Egyptian style. However, if we pay attention to other cultures of antiquity this ...
Reading the Egyptian Art (II).
Artists and theologist of Ancient Egypt worked together in the emergence of iconographies and they combined different planes of meaning: images and words. ...
Reading the Egyptian Art (I).
Egyptian art had a magical-functional purpose and did not take into consideration the figure of the spectator. For that reason, we cannot consider Egyptian art ...
The Purpose of Art in Ancient Egypt. II
The image in Ancient Egypt had a power in itself. Why? Because in addition to evoking a reality, they made it arise. In Ancient Egypt everything that was depict...
The Purpose of Art in Ancient Egypt. Part I.
It is necessary to know the physical space in which an ancient Egyptian plastic production is located in order to analyse it. Reliefs, paintings and statues of ...
A Reflexion on Royal Iconography in Ancient Egypt: News with Nefertiti for Same Needs.
The king in Ancient Egypt, despite his solar nature, was also a human being. After dying, the pharaoh became also a corpse, so a mummy. Therefore it was i...
Nefertiti granted the resurrection of Akhenaten. Part II
Isis, Nephthys and later on also Serket and Neith were essential in the regeneration sphere. They, as women/goddessees, played a crucial role in the process of ...
Nefertiti granted the resurrection of Akhenaten. Part I
Let’s start with that: women were crucial in Ancient Egypt for the dead’s resurrection. The rite of the professional mourning ritual in ancient Egyptian funeral...
The Orientation of the Iconopraphy in the Tomb of Tutankhamun.
In Ancient Egypt the iconography on the walls of the tombs were crucial for the dead’s resurrection. The iconography in the tomb of Tutankhamun was ...
Ancient Egyptian Funerary Environment in the Treasury of Tutankhamun.
The tomb of Tutankhamun needs to be seen as an historical document. Nowadays everyone knows about Tutankhamun. His mummy, his funeral mask, his golden sarcophag...
The First Moment of the Death in Ancient Egypt. Tutankhamun’s Tomb
The tomb of Tutankhmun is more than a mask, a mummy, Howard Carter… It is an historical document with lots of useful information about the funerary belief...
A lament in Amarna made by common mourners.
Iconography proofs the existence of a mourning practice in Amarna. Specially relevant is the Royal Tomb, where the funeral of Meketaten, the royal daughter, was...
An Ancient Egyptian Mourning Ritual Took Place in Amarna.
In Ancient Egypt the afterlife and the eternity were concepts very inserted into belief. The funerary art granted food, drink, furniture, religious cult…T...
The Ancient Egyptian Mourning Ritual, existed also in Amarna?
During the reign of Akhenaten many things changed in Ancient Egypt. The new Pharaoh modified the artistic canon, his residence, the religion, the cult…but what ...
Ancient Egypt had no artists, but craftsmen.
I have already written about the consideration of the Art of Ancient Egypt as an artwork or a craftwork. In that post some elements were enumerated as necessary...
Isis and Nephthys on the Neck of a Mummy.
Thanks to the many artifacts of Ancient Egypt found mainly in tombs, we know many aspects of the habits of ancient Egyptian people. However, the archaeological ...
In Ancient Egypt. Artwork or Craftwork?
We have been lately writing about the artwork in general. The artwork is a human production conditioned by the author’s skills, by the historical moment and the...
Controlled Attitude of Professional Mourners in Ancient Egypt.
In Ancient Egypt common mourners taking part in funerary cortege were depicted making many different gestures. These women could raise their arms as if they wer...
The Art of Ancient Egypt. A short Reflexion.
The art of Ancient Egypt has a very big interest from the esthetical point of view. But its composition, its scenes, its colors… have always a specific meaning....
SUPERPOSITION IN ANCIENT EGYPT. ISIS AND NEPHTHYS OVERLAPED.
The artists of Ancient Egypt had a particular conception of perspective, which affected in the way they depicted groups of living beings and amounts of things. ...
Juxtaposition in Ancient Egypt. Isis and Nephthys justaposed.
During the New Kingdom the dead was buried with rolls of papyrus containing passages of “The Book of the Dead”. That meant that the artist of the Ancient Egypt ...
Pulling the front lock of hair in Ancient Egypt?
In Ancient Egypt groups of common mourners walked during funerary processions making many gestures of lament: raising arms, beating their arms…One of the most t...
A Teenager in Ancient Egypt with Lock of Hair?
In Ancient Egypt the lateral lock of hair was a distinctive of childhood. For the ancient Egyptian artist of the Old Kingdom, the lateral lock of hair pending f...
Two Professional Mourning Men in Ancient Egypt?
In Ancient Egypt a couple of two professional women in the role of Isis and Nephthys were actively involved in the dead’s resurrection. They appear usually at b...
Isis and Nephthys in the Ancient Egyptian Coffin of Nesykhonsu.
The iconography in Ancient Egypt was not gratuitous. Every image had a reason to be, but also every space. From the Old Kingdom the two mourners in the role of ...
In Ancient Egypt Isis was the South and Nephthys the North.
In Ancient Egypt the Legend of Osiris was so important that it was integrated into the solar theology. As a result Isis and Nephthys, the two mourners of Osiris...
In Ancient Egypt were Isis and Nephthys Essential in Cartonnages.
Cartonnages in Ancient Egypt were used over the wrapped mummy mainly for mummy masks and some important parts of the body. The cartonnage of Irtirutja in the Me...
Lunar Rituals with Hair in the Ancient Egyptian City of Heliopolis.
It seems that in Ancient Egypt there were a relationship between the hair element and some rites of Heliopolis. The funerary texts show that the hair, the lock ...
Young Girls with Common Mourners in Ancient Egypt.
Tha artist in Ancient Egypt followed the rule of depicting children with the side lock of hair. However, this archetype so common in the Old and Middle Kingdom,...
A New Ancient Egyptian Tomb with Typical Funerary Scene Discovered.
Ancient Egypt gives us again a good document. The tomb of Amenhotep, the Gater’s keeper of god Amun, has been discovered in Gourna. Although it is still t...
In Ancient Egypt Isis and Nephthys became Midwifes of Nut.
The most evident proof of the importance in Ancient Egypt of Isis and Nephthys in a rebirth process is in the Books of the Day and Night, which describe the jou...
Isis and Nephthys rising Osiris-Re in the XX Dynasty of Ancient Egypt.
The religion of Ancient Egypt developed during the New Kingdom sophisticated religious texts, which combined the solar theology with the Myth of Osiris. As a co...
Isis and Nephthys in Ancient Egyptian Solar Iconography.
It was a fact, that the ancient Egyptian corpus of images needed an iconography for expressing the union of Re and Osiris. And little by little in this iconogra...
Isis and Nephthys, Essential in the Ancient Egyptian Union of Re and Osiris.
The union of Re and Osiris supposed a challenge to the Ancient Egyptian Art, since new iconography was needed for decorating the tomb walls and the papyri. From...
Ancient Egyptian Union and Rebirth of Re and Osiris.
The union of Re and Osiris in ancient Egyptian culture produced as a result new decorative motives in the ancient Egyptian iconography. The earth god and the sk...
A challenge in the Art of Ancient Egypt: Osirian-Solar Iconography.
One of the main challenges for priests and artists in Ancient Egypt were to combine the osirian and solar cosmogonies in the funerary literature and iconography...
Ancient Egypt Resurrection. The Penis of Tutankhamun.
In Ancient Egypt, virility was an essential faculty for granting the dead’s resurrection. All along my work I have been showing that, among the many pract...
Isis in Ancient Egypt: A Winged Snake with Hathoric Crown.
There is always news about artifacts of Ancient Egypt. Now it is the turn of the coffin of “Denit-Ast”. It dates from the Persian Period and it is i...
Isis with Apis in Ancient Egypt Iconography.
Isis and Osiris were in the religion of Ancient Egypt the perfect couple. Despite the murder of Osiris, they could go on, Isis could revive her husband and both...
Nephthys in Ancient Egypt, Assitant of Isis.
In the last post it was considered the role of Nephthys in the religion of Ancient Egypt. It is a fact that Nephtys was a very important goddess in the ancient ...
Had in Ancient Egypt the Goddess Nephthys a Lower Status?
There is a scene of the Book of the Dead from the tomb of Ay, in which are depicted on the solar boat the gods of the Heliopolitan cosmogony and the Myth of Osi...
Requirements of Professional Mourners in Ancient Egypt.
Among the Ancient Egypt gods, Isis and Nephtys occupied a very important role. It is an ancient Egypt fact, that the two professional mourners in the role of Is...
Sexual Stimulation in Ancient Egypt: The Ushabti of Pay.
In ancient Egypt the dead needed many faculties for restarting his new life in the Hereafter: breathing, seeing, walking…and virility. Sex was an essentia...
A Sexual Scene in Egyptian Art: Stele of Sebekaa.
Egyptian art can hide very important information in small pieces. That is the case of the stele of Sebekaa in British Museum. This piece of ancient Egyptian art...
The Ancient Egyptian Dead Breathes Thanks to “The Hand in the Mouth”.
We have been writing about the ancient Egyptian expression “The Hand in the Mouth” (Djat Ra) as a way in Egyptian language of referring to the gesture made by t...
“The Hand to the Mouth”. Suckling the Dead in Ancient Egypt.
The assiduousness of the icon in the icnongraphy of Ancient Eypt of the mother bringing closer her breast with the aid of her hand to her baby’s mouth seems to ...
“The Hand in the Mouth”: Nursing the Baby in Ancient Egypt.
Let’s make a reflection about the expression “Djat Ra” belonging to the Opening of the Mouth ceremony of Ancient Egypt and that we saw in a p...
The Dead: An Observer in the Egyptian Art.
Perspective in Egyptian art was special. For us, perspective is the representation on a flat surface of reality how it is seen by human eye. That means that obs...
Hair was essential in Aztec Mourning like in Ancient Egypt.
Mourning is a extended practice in funerals of many cultures all over the world. Not just in Ancient Egypt, but also in some other African cultures, in the anci...
Serket: scorpion and waterscorpion in Ancient Egypt.
The goddess Serket was associated in Ancient Egypt to the scorpion and to the waterscorpion. Scholars have usually cosidered the ancient Egyptian goddess Serket...
The Ancient Egyptian Goddess Serket, a Dead Protector.
We know why the ancient Egyptian goddess Neith was part of that team of four goddesses-mourners (Isis, Nephtys, Neith and Serket) protecting the dead. Serket wa...
Why Became the Ancient Egyptian Goddess Neith a Protective of the Dead?
In Ancient Egypt Isis, Nephtys, Neith and Serket formed a team of four goddesses, who protected the caponic jars containing the organs of the dead. For that rea...
The Beauty of Hair in Ancient Egypt.
Hair has been from ancient times an important element for preserving a good- looking. Recently in the blog Studia Humanitatis it was published a very interestin...
Hair in Egyptian Art for Respect and Reverence in Women.
Egyptian artisans of the New Kingdom used hair in their drawings for expressing body movements (dance, body bow…). This technique, adopted from the way of...
Hair in Egyptian Art for Expressing Respect.
Hair became in Ancient Egypt a resource for expressing things. The bending hair was used in Ancient Egypt art for drawing body movements. As some movements were...
Hair in the Art of Ancient Egypt for expressing Dance.
Due to the estrict rules of the Egyptian art, artists in Ancient Egypt needed to find unnatural ways of expressing some movements, especially during the Old and...
About the blog “Hair and Death in Ancient Egypt”
The blog “Hair and Death in Ancient Egypt“ started in May 2013 as a way of transmiting the results of my research about the mourning rite in the fun...