Ancient Egyptian Art

Joseph Jasieniecki
Written Assignment 2

Old vs. New

No other culture in the history of world has stayed true to its foundations as is true with the ancient Egyptians. This speaks true also for the art created by these people gathered along the great Nile River, for almost 2200 years. While the Egyptian style of art did not make great changes throughout time, it did make some subtle ones that I will be exploring in this paper. The main subject that I will be discussing is the differences between Old Kingdom arts against New Kingdom arts. I will be focusing on a statue of Chefren and a stone relief of Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and Three of Their Children.
The statue of Chefren is going to be my example of artwork from the Old Kingdom of Egypt. There is a certain aura of divinity about the statue, which I will explore further. The first thing I would like to point out is the size of the statue, the pharaoh is depicted sitting yet the statue stands 5'6'' tall. So standing the pharaoh would be almost 7' tall, towering over his subjects and promoting an aura of power and royalty. The next thing I would like to point out is the figure of Horus behind Chefren's head. This is obviously a symbol of divinity, showing the pharaoh as the divine being ruling over the people, as the hand of the Gods. Given the cultures acceptance of death as a continuation of mortal life, I find it kind of puzzling that the God of the rising morning sun is depicted with the pharaoh. Next let's look at the expression that is captured on the statue.   There is a feeling calmness, yet mood of confidence and certainty in the expression. This is represented through all the artwork created during the Old Kingdom.
Next I am going to look at a stone relief of Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and Three of Their Children from the New Kingdom. The first thing I would like to point out is the sun-disk depicted at the top of the relief; this is a representation of Akhenaton's one true God Aton. The relief has...