Early Dynastic Art in Egyptian Art

The Early Dynastic period includes the First and Second Dynasties, which lasted from about 3100 to 2686 BC. Early Egypt had no large buildings, only a few modest dwellings and tombs. The main building materials were reeds, papyrus sticks, clay and a small amount of wood brought from Syria, and later earth bricks were invented. It is rumored that the first Egyptian king founded the capital in Memphis and built the White City, which was built with earth bricks, and its scale was already quite grand. After the unification of the country, the tombs of the pharaohs synthesized the different architectural forms of Upper and Lower Egypt, combining burial mounds with houses. Graves in Upper Egypt, the underground part of the house-style burial chamber, built with earth bricks, wood support, the ground piled up mound, and then surrounded by earth brick wall. Lower Egyptian tombs are no longer built in the village, but moved to the nearby desert plateau, but the mound is still a four-sided house style, the exterior is also surrounded by the Upper Egyptian-style enclosure, the form is more complex, for the concave-convex walls.

Sculpture and Painting Early round sculptures were mostly small clay sculptures, dental carvings, glazed terracotta figurines and stone carvings, mainly animal and human figures, the form is more realistic, specific, and the scope of use is more common, mostly used for celebrating victories and festivals, or dedicated to the gods and the dead. The earliest monumental stone sculpture is a 3-meter-high limestone idol, now incomplete. It is accompanied by a small stone statue that is more mature than the prehistoric carvings. The surface of the statue is smooth, with the contour lines of the eyebrows and eyes protruding from the surface, the limbs close to the body, and there is no neck as an intermediate link between the head and the shoulders. Wooden statues of the same period already have more reasonable proportions. Another kind of stone carving, the human body is wrapped tightly in robes, limbs and body into one. Compared with the figure carving, animal statues are more mature, such as lions, hippopotamus, baboons and other statues, from the proportion to the realistic skills, have reached a fairly high level.

A rock relief from the First Dynasty depicting King Jet's victory in the conquest of Nubia is a very crude image, but for the first time serves as a monumental record of a historical event. Tombstone carvings developed on the basis of palette carvings, and the compositions and techniques achieved clarity, balance, and fluidity. Altar reliefs also increased during the Second Dynasty, with wall paintings occupying a more important place, mostly of scenes from the future life of the tomb owner. The Old Kingdom, also known as the Pyramid Period, was dominated by pyramids, followed by temples and some mausoleum buildings for middle-class figures. The earliest pyramids were stepped and later curved. Typical pyramids appeared in the fourth and fifth dynasties, three large pyramids came out one after another, they are huge and majestic, known as one of the seven wonders of the world. There are no remains of the early temples, which were constructed of sun-baked earth bricks and wood. There are some remnants of stone structures, such as the temple buildings around the tomb of Pharaoh Chephren of the Third Dynasty. This is a complex with a rectangular plan, consisting of a columned hall, a colonnade, an inner room, and an outer room, with granite slab walls and floors covered with snowflake plaster. The columns in this building are rather diverse, ranging from simple and plain square columns, to stout round columns, and a kind of flared and fluted column resembling bundled reed poles. The invention and use of columns was one of the great achievements of the ancient kingdom, and it directly influenced the architectural forms of Greece and later Western architecture. This period also appeared two kinds of half-wall columns: one is a papyrus flower column shape, simple and generous, the head of the column for the rosette; the other is a concave semicircular fluted column, elegant and graceful, can be seen as the predecessor of the Greek column style.

The graves of the court officials were built around the pyramid of the Pharaoh's tomb, with the Mastaba style as the main form. It is a platform rectangular tomb, small at the top and large at the bottom. The side facing the east is generally built with niches and false doors, both decorative and a place of worship. The mastaba began as an earth-brick structure and evolved into a massive fine-square stone structure, and the niches evolved into separate altars and chapels. The development of mausoleum architecture contributed to the development of sculpture. As one of the main funerary objects - the double of the deceased - various forms of statues were made and placed in different chambers of the tombs. Not only the tomb owner's own statue, but also a large number of servants, slaves of the figurines, its content is rich and varied, constituting a lively underground real world. Character statues are mainly characterized by: strict compliance with the positive law of the performance method, the characters, regardless of what kind of state, do what kind of action, its ears, shoulders, hips and knees constitute the horizontal line绐eventually parallel to each other, and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the human body. Action is mostly static performance, or sitting, or upright. Male statue is generally half-naked, only in the waist around a skirt, one hand holding the scepter, one hand in front of the chest, the left foot towards the front, the center of gravity fell on average on the feet; female statue is wearing tight robes, feet together, two arms close to the body or put flat on the knee; pharaoh another symbolic headscarf and false beard or wear the top and bottom of the Egyptian crown. Characters of the five parts of the figure by a fixed proportion of the figures to determine the carving of the eyes more eyeballs and no pupil, gaze blank, nothing fixed vision. Looks like real people, but do not highlight the personality traits, but to the general characteristics of each class as a standard, such as the pharaoh to be majestic, sacred, can not be with secular emotions; royalty to be rich, satisfied; officials to be responsible, tame and obedient and so on. The proportion of the human body is short and stout, more accurate, bone structure and muscle performance is very realistic. Most of the original statues are painted with color, hair, beard for black, dress for white, skin color of male statues for brown, female statues for flesh-colored or light yellow. The statues are basically accompanied by backrests and bases, with the front of the figures finely carved and the backs rougher, basically according to the spatial concept of relief carving and carving procedures.

The masterpiece of this period, the Pharaoh of Hafra, was carved from feldspar, sitting on a throne, with a divine eagle spreading its wings behind his head, symbolizing divine protection. The seated statue of Prince Rahutep and his wife Nefert is two separate statues in tinted limestone, with a more typical use of color. The eyes are inlaid with clear quartzite. The neckline of the female figure's robe is very low, revealing her full breasts and shoulders, and the breasts wrapped tightly in the garment are soft, graceful and elastic. Clerk statue" shows a loyal and meticulous image of the clerical staff. This kind of statue is more, the clerks are mostly sitting cross-legged, the left hand holding a papyrus roll, the right hand seems to hold a pen in writing. Wood carving "village headman statue" is a masterpiece of realism, reproducing a stout, sturdy, short, fat and thick middle-class overseer, his fat body, proud look, reflecting the affluence and satisfaction of this class of life.

There is another kind of stone-carved heads in the tombs of the ancient kingdoms, the technique is concise and generalized, with a high level of art. But the figurines are more crude, free form, not subject to strict limitations, but also appear vivid and interesting.

Egyptian relief and painting have a close relationship, most of the relief is line carving, and painted with color, and painting is often carved contour lines. Some of the basic laws of relief painting in the Old Kingdom period were established as early as the period of the Tablet of King Narmer, and are now more refined and consolidated. The upper body of the figure is frontal, while the head and lower limbs are in profile, a "mix of frontal and profile". This method of representation is directly related to the needs of the ruling class and the Egyptian understanding of space as well as traditional customs. There are several reasons for its formation: ① in order to a certain concept and must highlight the positive image of the figure; ② in order to represent the human body in a more complete plane, highlighting the characteristics of the human body in all aspects; ③ so that the activities of the figure has a directional; ④ preserved the performance of the animal method. The proportion of the human body also has strict regulations. Egyptians are accustomed to the use of mathematics, geometry, knowledge of art, painting before the wall to draw an accurate squiggly line, and then according to a certain numerical value to determine the relationship between the various parts of the body. Because of the precision and certainty of the number, many works reached a high degree of unity, the imitation of later generations, inheritance established a standard norms, but also to make this form of expression continued for 3000 years. Proportion in a certain period of time is stipulated as a relatively stable law, shall not be changed arbitrarily. Such as the ancient kingdom of the human body ratio of 2:10:6 (hairline to shoulder, shoulder to knee, knee to foot), the human body thick and powerful, solemn and simple; and the new kingdom of the proportion of 3:13:6, the human body slim and slender.

The content of relief painting is extremely wide, there are celebrations, religious ceremonies, funerals, banquets, the construction of tombs, mummies, carved stone statues, slaughtering livestock, as well as driving a boat, fishing geese, shepherding, sowing, harvesting, shipbuilding, pottery, textiles, brewing, juggling, dancing and so on. The composition is arranged by dividing the wall into several levels with several long lines, and the figures are arranged in straight lines on each level. In some places, the main figures are allowed to occupy the entire wall, with blank spaces filled with episodes or hieroglyphics. The colors are mainly black, white, gray, red, pink, brown, yellow, blue and green. In the Fourth Dynasty there is a picture of a flock of ducks which is one of the masterpieces of the Ancient Kingdom, and the author's ability to achieve a high degree of realism is evident in the form of the ducks as well as in the coloring of the brush. Furniture, jewelry and other things left behind in the ancient kingdom period are less. Wooden furniture is usually outsourced with a layer of gold flakes and inlaid with colorful glazed ceramic flake patterns. Jewelry was mostly made of colorful gemstones and sub-precious stones woven together with gold wires in various patterns. In a prince's tomb found in a belt, completely by stringing up the gold beads and black and red gemstones woven, the pattern is gem-shaped; belt buckle made of pure gold, engraved with the owner's name, two portraits and two eagles.