For our choice day, we chose to look at the beautiful and meaningful 5,000 year old art of ancient Egypt. Which was conveyed through not only the beautiful paintings, but also though their magnificent sculptures. (Note: we did not look at the literature or music on this day)
Why Create Art?
The ancient Egyptians didn't create art just because of the mere purpose of admiring it, instead, Sand in their food caused bad breath and bad teeth And the carvings as well as paintings on the walls of temples were a form of religious praise that told stories and myths about ancient Egypt's Gods and Goddesses. And because of those pieces of art, we are able to decipher quite a bit about ancient Egypt and its religion. Even if sometimes it gets interpreted wrong.
How Did They Make it?
Now that you know why they created art, you're probably asking yourself how they did it. And the answer to that, painting wise, is that the artist would first sketch out the picture on a piece of papyrus paper, then add a grid-system on top of it. Next, they would find a good place to put the art, and make sure it fits. After that, they would copy the grid-system onto the desired area by covering the wall with pieces of string dyed red with ink and stretch them on top of the wall, making the lines of the grid. And finally, they'd copy the image onto that area grid by grid.
Egyptian Art Style
Ancient Egyptian art had a very unique style when it came to they way figures were shown, for example, the individual's bodies were very unrealistic.
The heads, arms, and legs were all facing sideways, while the chest, shoulders, and hands all faced towards you. Additionally, sometimes the feet and hands are on the opposite legs and arms! Which was on purpose, because the artists wanted to insure that the complete view of the hands were visible in certain positions, like carrying a weapon.
The heads, arms, and legs were all facing sideways, while the chest, shoulders, and hands all faced towards you. Additionally, sometimes the feet and hands are on the opposite legs and arms! Which was on purpose, because the artists wanted to insure that the complete view of the hands were visible in certain positions, like carrying a weapon.