The Conventions of Representation Used in Egyptian Two Dimensional Art

María Amor Martínez Mfbx9ma2 YEAR 1

DESCRIBE THE CONVENTIONS OF REPRESENTATION USED IN EGYPTIAN TWO DIMENSIONAL ART. DEMONSTRATE THIS WITH REFERENCE TO THE WALL SCENES IN ONE NON-ROYAL TOMB OF THE LATER OLD KINGDOM

2501 words

I hereby declare that the materials contained in this essay are entirely the product of my own work, that sources used are fully documented and that the whole has not been previously submitted for any other purpose.

Egyptian two dimensional arts are intended to be a timeless representation of life. Every single figure is full of meaning and the whole representation must to be read as a magic book able to revive magically and eternally the scene represented. Life is a succession of moments, it develops itself by an infinity number of particularities but the Egyptian art so close to the life, intends to be universal; every particular moment of life whenever is represented according with certain rules, become universal, so archetypal, and thus absolutely truth. Magic reality is more real even that objective reality because is real in more than one plane due to the strong conceptualization (thus abstraction) (Tiradritti p. 9) and, consequently, is full of potential energy. That is why certain representations have been meticulously erased in order to defeat its power.

The conventions of the Egyptian two-dimensional art acquired a distinctive character around the beginning of the Dynastic Period and despite the various changes and development that occurred, it remains to our eyes unmistakably Egyptian throughout pharaonic times (Robins1986, p.11). The basic plastic element in Egyptian Art is the contour (Sureda p.190).

Many of the painted tombs from the Memphis necropolis have a dark background color that encompasses a chromatic territory which ranges from indefinite black to bluish gray. These gradations are used to create a neutral outline around the figures (Tiradritti, 2008, p. 120) Pliny (pp. 228-229) stated that the Egyptians created the drawing following the contours (by charcoal) of a man's shadow cast. Every single object has its own convention: some shall be drew on profile, some in front view, always depending on which gave the more instantly recognizable shape for the type of object concerned (Robins 1986, p. 11).

Before the decoration of the monument, the walls were prepared by polishing to a smooth surface patching any flaw in the stone with plaster to provide a smooth surface for the carving of the relief. Once the surface was prepared, whether for relief nor painting, the areas which were to contain scenes were marked out with red lines and, from at least the Middle Kingdom onwards, all or some of these were covered with a squares grid used to obtain the correct proportions of figures. As the work was completed, the grid lines were either destroyed (when carved) nor covered with paint (when painted) (Robins 1986, p.20).

Two main kinds of relief were employed: raised and sunk. In the first the background is cut away from the scene leaving the figures standing out from the surface of the stone, in the last the surface of the figures is cut away below the background level. In both cases details can then be cut within the figures, which can also be modeled. The sharp shadows engendered by sunken relief make it particularly suitable for use in bright sunlight, which tends to flatten the contours of raised relief. Conventionally, raised relief was used inside buildings and sunk relief outside (Robins 1986, p.22).

Nowadays we are used to considering relief as a genre of their own between painting and sculpture, but we can still see today from the fact that even the highest relief is accommodated between the original surface of a block and its own base level, just as in a painting the frontmost part and the painted surface are the same, that the origin of relief is very close to that of the drawing and painting. In fact both have in common that they belong to two-dimensional as opposed to three-dimensional representations. (Schäfer, p.73).

The distinctive conventions of Egyptian art have been referred to as ‘conceptual’ rather than ‘perceptual’ (Teeter p.16). The animal and objects of the daily life have its particular way of representation as sacred letters; but, particularly, the human figure (when belonging to the owner of the monument) has a special canon considering each part as if were independent and drawn it in their most peculiar and typical way.

In the Old Kingdom the grid system were formed in the whole by 19 horizontals lines and 18 from the baseline to the hairline, from this must have developed out the guide line system. The old vertical axial guide became incorporated as a vertical guide line. (Robins 1994, p. 76). This procedure rendered uniform figures long-legged and highwaisted very typical. In the eighth century B.C., the system was expanded to twenty-one units, resulting in even more elongated figures (Teeter, p.16).

To illustrate every point the author is going to use the scenes from the tomb of Kagemni, a Chief Justice and Vizier of the king Teti of the VI Dynasty (c. 2321-2290). All the diagrams are drawing by the author based upon the information after Harpur and Tiradritti.

The Kagemni´s tomb is located at Saqqara, to the north of the pyramid of Pharaoh Teti, and to the northeast of the step pyramid of Djoser. It testifies to the power reached by the highest commissioners at the time where the decline of royal authority began. The tomb is a mastaba type with 32 m. long sides. This solid structure is L shaped and enclosed several chambers (fig. 1). The southern arm of the L (along the entry axis) is oriented east west, the other arm is south-north (www.osirisnet.net p.1 2/04/10).

Fig. 1

The entry is located at the south end of the east facing façade. Two figures, Kagemni and his counterpart, are presented on the doorpost carving in a sunken relief that permit a very interesting effect of the shadows casting from the sunlight.

The chambers are organized in a way that permit shifting from the very naturalistic scenes near the entrance (Room I, II and III) to the most ritual ones as approaching the funeral chamber.

In the South wall of the Room VI is a very impressive image of the vizier wearing a leopard skin, fig 2.

Fig. 2

As we can see, the proportions are very similar to those of the later kingdom so there is little difficulty in inferring that it was an earlier grid system although not always preserved.

The vizier figure is show in a classic way: the head was shown in profile, into which were set at the appropriate place a full-view eye and eyebrow and a half mouth. The shoulders were shown full width from the front, but the boundary line on the forward side of the body from armpit to waist, including the nipple, was in profile, as were the waist, elbows, legs and feet. It was traditional to show both feet from the inside with a single toe and an arch. Whatever lay behind the foot might be seen through the gap of the arch. (Robins 1986, pp. 12-14).

The clenched hand, are showed in full view: the rear from the back showing the nails and the forward showing the knuckle (fig 3a). In all his standing figures, Kagemni is showed clenching the power´s insignia: the staff in his left hand and the sekhem sceptre in his right hand, sometimes are facing right (Fig. 2) and sometimes facing left (Fig 3a).

Fig .3

In the West wall of the Room IV (frontispiece) is a figure of Kagemni with a classical lasso on the hair (fig 3a) It is interesting to note that when the figure is reversed to face left, logically the left arm carrying the staff should become the rear arm and the right arm with the scepter the forward one. With such an arrangement, the scepter would stick out in advance of the body, while the staff held in the rear arm would not only run unattractively close to the body an threaten to obscure the face but would also cross the horizontal line of the scepter, making an ugly and confusing image (Robins 1986, p. 15) (Fig.3b). The artist has solved the problem by attaching a left hand to the right arm and vice versa. (Robins 1986 p. 16) (Fig.3a)

Fig. 4

Sometimes, such figures were complete reversals of right-facing ones. In Fig. 4 the figure of Kagemni in Room V, South wall is less expertly carved than others

(Harpus&Scremin 2004, p187) the proportions are not respected and the figure is just the reversals of the right position because if it is interpreted in real terms, the staff and scepter appear in the wrong hands: the staff on the right hand and the scepter on the left and it is overlapping the kilt.

In the façade of the mastaba, there are two standing images of Kagemni, (Fig 5) one facing right and the other facing left, both of them are composed according to the canon having the scepter and the staff on the correct position.

Fig. 5

A system of scale was used to encode the relative importance of the figures. The larger a figure, the greater its importance so that in tombs the figure of the owner may overlook scenes in four or five register and is also shown larger than the members of his family ( Robins 1986, p. 19).

Fig. 6

The relief of Fig 6 is placed above of the doorway of the room IV towards room VI. Kagemni is seated on a sedan-chair holding a staff in the left hand and leaning comfortably on his right arm. It is a very unconventional position but the rules are present in the relation between the size and relative importance of the characters, ‘y’ the son of Kagemni standing by his back, has the same size than the twenty bearers and foremen.

Objects are usually shown in their characteristic or most visually satisfying aspect, two dimensionally on the flat drawing surface, without depth. Rectangular objects would be represented in full view from the front or side depending on which gave the more instantly recognizable shape for the type of object concerned.

If the contents of a container were important, they were drawn above it, although they were inside. That is displayed in the scene of the North wall of the Room VIII, where a counterpoise and collar are over a chest (Fig 7). Furniture was also normally represented in profile, so that chairs and stools appear only two legs and no depth (Robins 1986, p. 11).

. Fig. 7

If, for one reason or another, more than one surface of a subject seems important, the draughtsman can do one of two things. He can separate the two with lines, or join one to the other without a dividing mark.

The minor figures could be represented in a wide range of activities and their body could be less than perfect. The conventions here are less strict. The most noticeable difference in the delineation of the body between static major figures and more active

minor figures lies in the shoulder region. Instead of the usual full view the shoulders may be treated in several different ways in order to express different gestures and movement of the arms. (Robins 1986, p. 38). One method is where the two shoulders appears to be folder either forward or backward along the central axis of the body. Although not corresponding with reality the device enabled artists to illustrate a wide variety of activities and posture in a readily understandable way.

A second way was to continue to show the far or forward shoulder in full view while the near or rear shoulder was drawn in profile allowing the arm to appear in a whole range of positions. For certain postures a complete profile view of the shoulders was developed. In the best art it is astonishing how most of these minor figures are successful in terms of expressiveness even when their postures cannot be translated directly into real terms. (Robins 1986, p.39).

Fig. 8

This relief (Fig. 8) is at North wall, Room III, there is a herdsman strengthening his control of a rope wound tightly around the legs of a cow while a milkman fulfills a container with milk. The herdsman is folding his right shoulder and the milkman his left. Although the position of the body is unreal the general impression is very realistic.

All the feet and paws in the scene are on the baseline, even if the figures are overlapped on the drawing surface (Robins 1994 p. 6) as happens with the milkman and the cow. Curiously the left foot of the herdsman is partially hidden by the later cow´s hoof featuring a kind of deepness.

Fig. 9

On the north wall in Room IV of the tomb is featured a scene of bird-trapping developed in two plains. Depth is indicated by the overlapping of figures, but there is no attempt to render the illusion of the third dimension on the two-dimensional drawing surface; all the figures, the overlapping and the overlapped, stand up on the same baseline as if drawn to it by a magnet and further ones are of course, not reducing by perspective (Schäfer, p.179).

Figures are shown from the side (in elevation), but the clap net in its marshy pond is shown from above (in plan), although the birds and plants within it are drawn in profile. Thus two distinct views are combined in the same picture plane (Robins 2008, p.23).

In the west wall of the Room I is depicted a frog and butterfly cramping together under the bow of Kagemi´s boat (fig. 10)

Fig. 10

The conventions are used by depicting the frog from the side and the butterfly from above. (Fig 10)

From the Early Dynastic Period, artist began to divide the drawing surface into horizontal registers placed vertically above one another. Although scenes are often loosely linked by theme or location either horizontally within a register or in different

registers in sequences up and down the wall, the same basic set of scenes may exist in different versions which arrange individual scenes in varying order, making it plain that their position on the wall and the placing of one scene in relation to another does not itself give information about the order in which to read them (Robins 1986, p. 18). The tomb´s owner, normally, is overlooking four or five registers.

Fig. 11

This relief (fig 11) is on the west side of the Room IV. In order to organize the material on the drawing surface, the artist divided the area into horizontal registers placed vertically above one another. The surface itself was neutral, nor is there any indication of spatial or relationship between the registers, although sets of registers were often given unity by setting a major figure, in this case Kagemni, at one end overlooking what was happening in them. The lower border of each register acted as the baseline for the figures within it. Part of the register was divided into subregisters which then provided baselines for smaller figures within the original register. (Robins 1994 p. 6) In Conclusion, Egyptian art represents not only figures but symbols, that is, images with more concealed reference, whose depth of intuitive association cannot be explained intellectually or exhausted verbally (Schäfer p. 159).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Harpur Y. & Scremin P. (2006) The Chapel of Kagemni, Scene Details, Oxford Expedition to Egypt, Oxford. Pliny, The Natural History, Vol. VI, Book XXXV (trans. Bostock, J. & Riley, H.T.) London (1857). Robins, G. (1986) Egyptian Painting and Relief, Shire Publications LTD, Oxford. Robins, G. (1994) Proportion and style in Ancient Egyptian Art, University of Texas Press Robins, G. (2008) The Art of Ancient Egypt, Revised Edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Schäfer, H. (1919) Principles of Egyptian Art (trans. Baines, J.) The Alden Press, Oxford 2002. Sureda, J. (1993) Las Primeras Civilizaciones, Editorial Planeta, Barcelona. Teeter, E. (1994) Egyptian Art, The Art Institute of Chicago (http://www.jstor.org/411249) Tiradritti F. (2008) Egyptian Wall Painting (trans. Shore, M.) Abbeville Press, New York, London

Web sites: www.osirisnet.net , April 2010.