The theme that I have chosen for my exhibition project is ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian art began developing about five thousand years ago. The artwork began taking shape in early civilizations amongst the Nile Valley. Ancient Egyptians expressed their art in paintings and in sculptures. The art was known for being very symbolic and fascinating. The Egyptian artwork revolved around the past and was intended to keep record of history. Ancient Egyptian art is some of the oldest works of art, and it is still regarded as some of the greatest works of art in all of history. Egyptian art was split into 6 different time periods that encompass well over a thousand years. There is the Predynastic period, the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom, the Amarna Period, and the Ptolemaic period. The Predynastic art stretches all the way back into the Neolithic period. It is believed that Egypt was split into an Upper and Lower part during this time. The art and culture of Upper Egypt began to spread and eventually dominated Lower Egypt as well. The Old kingdom was the period when the Egyptians began constructing buildings for day-to-day activities. Little of this now survives, but the art that has survived very well from this era are the tombs. The afterlife was a very important matter in the Egyptian culture, and the Egyptians made sure that everything was done properly in order to preserve the body well after death so that the soul could have a place to live after death. Another part of the Old kingdom that is still very popular in art history today, and is considered some of the greatest architecture in all of history, are the pyramids at Giza as well as the Great Sphinx. The next period that took place was the Middle Kingdom. The Middle kingdom strongly emphasized reasserting ancient Egyptian traditional art. As well as an emphasis on tradition, the Middle kingdom also began to highlight the use of jewelry. The next period was the New kingdom. The New kingdom was a time of a lot of territorial expansion for Egypt, and thus they began constructing tremendous architectural projects. Another aspect of the New Kingdom that took on transformation was the royal burial practices. Instead of constructing pyramids for the dead, the Egyptians began excavating tombs out of the rock face in the Valley of the Kings. Throughout this flourishing period many things were constructed as well as several temples of worship. The next period of time was the Amarna period. During the Amarna period tradition was broken as King Akhenaten began to radically sway from tradition in several aspects including making a colossal sized figure of himself. This break in tradition continued until the young boy king, King Tutankhamun, returned the ancient tradition back into the culture. Therefore, the Ptolemaic period was again, a revival of the past tradition of ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian art is some of the oldest works of art, and it is still regarded as some of the greatest works of art in all of history. I have chosen to highlight several works that spread throughout the long time range of Egyptian art. In my project I will be looking at Tutankhamun’s Golden Death Mask, the Throne of Tutankhamun, the Statue of Cleopatra VII Philopator, the Nefertiti Bust, and Narmer’s Palette. I believe that each one of these works highlights a unique aspect of the broader Egyptian culture and further shows the fascination that can be found in its art.
