ART

The egyptians were very proud of there art, and it was the very essance of its civilization. Not only did an Egyptian painter paint what he saw but also what he knew was there. This is perhaps why Egyptian art is so appealing to so many people.

In this picture not only do you see what the painter sees, (the brothers hunting wild foul, papyrus reeds and a scatering flock in the backround) but we can also see what the painter knows is there i.e. the fish under the water.

If an artist wanted to show the contents of a basket, he drew the objects in the basket in an arranged order- bread, vegtables, fishes and so on.

However Egyptian painters were not always free to express what they realy saw. The Pharaoh (per-ao in egyptian) was allways shown as young muscular and taller than all others in sculpturs and paintings.

In the 18th dynasty however, Egyptian art changed drasticly under the rule of Ankhenaten. No longer did the painters have to follow a code but were free to show the pharaoh and his subjects as they realy were. Ankhenaten was shown with wide hips and thighs, long fingers and toes and a unusaly long facial features. The Pharaoh did not try to hide these, what the Egyptians thought of as ugly features, but actually emphasised these features, made his fingers and toes even longer and his hips and thighs even wider and he even gave himself breasts.