Ancient Egyptian artistic conventions

            One of the most fascinating civilizations in human history, the Ancient Egyptians had a unique style of artistic convention for their art. Most of it was strict, but it had some minor variations throughout its time. Even though the Egyptians were limited to their conventions, the Egyptians conveyed a unique form of creativity that would spark such an interest in their culture today.

            The Egyptians had a certain type of style they used when it came to their art called Egyptian Pictorial Relief. The way the Egyptians composited their scenes were very similar to the Near Eastern cultures such as the Sumerians. Most of the scenes of the human form were shown in profile composite view with multiple viewpoints. The heads were shown in profile view clearly showing the nose, forehead, and chin. The eyes though were shown in a frontal view to show its most expressive viewpoint. The hips, legs, and feet are also rendered in profile with the legs apart giving the impression that the person is walking and the torso is in full frontal view. The proportions of the humans would be drawn on a mathematical grid; the length of the human from head to toe is 18 squares long, the knees at the sixth square from the bottom, the shoulders are at the sixteenth square and would be sixth squares wide. Lesser social rank persons would be posed in more life-like poses.

            Although the Ancient Egyptians were limited in their stylization of art, their utilization of the physical properties of art conveyed a unique style of creativity. The idea of creativity in art is an attitude a person or groups of person have towards an idea, thought, event or basically something or someone significant enough that a person wants to express on a medium whether it be paper or a side of a rock. I believe the Egyptians were one of the most creative artists in human history. To the Egyptians creativity was expressed by the heavy influence of their religious culture and hierarchy.

Many of the reliefs had scenes of everyday life such as farming, and farming. Reliefs also depicted the power and rule of a Pharaoh, sacred rituals, and the duties and life of the Egyptians gods. The registers were in a two dimensional format, but there was a sense of third dimensionality by the carved forms and incised inscriptions underneath the paint. Speaking of paint, color was used heavily the Egyptian art. Unlike the Near Eastern reliefs and stone-medium art, the Egyptians often used color to emphasize the reaction an artist wanted the viewer to attain. Until the 18^th dynasty the only colors used in Egyptian art was black, white, red, yellow, blue, and green. The unique mathematical proportions the Egyptians used to image their human and a god’s form were not the norm, so it employs the viewer to analyze the art. The poses are very strict, but there is a certain energy that flows through the scene as many people are in a line.

Limited to their specific artistic convention, the Egyptians worked their creativity within their mediums. It was probable that creativity wasn’t as relevant as the message the artist was trying to convey, but it came at a close second. The Egyptians used size or scale to determine power and a hierarchy of beings. The composition of a scene would focus on the most powerful being in the register usually in front of a bold background showing a god-like presence. The lines in the art would repeat in patterns giving the piece a harmonic or rhythmic energy.

The Egyptians cleverly used their artistic conventions they had to put out the creativity they craved. Ancient Egyptian art does not need to be a manifestation of creativity in order to be valued today because our level of creativity is not in the same realm as theirs. This does not say that our current art is better or more creative, but only states that the Egyptians utilized what they had to be creative, such as the features of the humans, their proportions, color, line, and composition.