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| Egyptian funerary art | |
|---|---|
| Name | Egyptian funerary art |
| Caption | Great Pyramid of Giza, Giza Plateau |
| Years | Predynastic period–Late Period |
| Locations | Nile Valley, Giza Plateau, Saqqara, Thebes, Valley of the Kings |
Egyptian funerary art Egyptian funerary art developed across the Predynastic Egypt through the Late Period of ancient Egypt as an ensemble of material culture intended to secure afterlife continuity for rulers and commoners. It integrated objects, monuments, and texts produced in workshops at sites like Giza Plateau, Saqqara, and Luxor to manage transitions articulated in sources such as the Pyramid Texts and the Book of the Dead. Patronage from pharaohs including Djoser, Khufu, Hatshepsut, and Ramses II shaped evolving forms visible in royal complexes, private tombs, and funerary equipment.
Funerary art was situated within the political worlds of Old Kingdom of Egypt, Middle Kingdom of Egypt, and New Kingdom of Egypt and reflected cultic institutions centered on temples like Karnak and royal necropoleis such as Valley of the Kings. Elite patrons—pharaohs like Amenemhat I and officials like Kagemni—commissioned works produced by ateliers linked to centers such as Abydos and Deir el-Bahari. Interactions with neighbors including the Kushite Kingdom, Levantine city-states, and later Ptolemaic Kingdom influenced iconography and materials while religious authorities using texts like the Amduat mediated ritual meaning.
Artisans employed stone types quarried at Tura, Aswan, and Giza and metals sourced via trade with Byblos and Nubia. Common media included limestone, sandstone, granite, and imported alabaster, worked with copper tools known from sites such as Tell el-Amarna. Wood from Lebanon and local acacia was used in coffins and statuettes like shabtis; pigments—ochre, malachite, and azurite—appear on objects found in Saqqara burials. Techniques ranged from ka-priestly encaustic painting documented in tombs of Thebes to gilding traced to workshops operating in Memphis.
Monumental responses included mastabas at Saqqara, stepped pyramids such as the Step Pyramid of Djoser, and true pyramids exemplified by Great Pyramid of Giza and Pyramid of Khafre. Royal mortuary temples associated with rulers like Ramesses III and mortuary complexes at Deir el-Bahari reflect ritual landscapes interconnected with temples on the East Bank of the Nile at Thebes. The subterranean tombs of the Valley of the Kings and rock-cut tombs at Deir el-Medina and Amarna adapted chamber plans to texts such as the Book of Gates.
Coffins evolved from simple wooden boxes to anthropoid coffins seen in burials of Tutankhamun, Yuya and Thuya, and Nefertari, often nested within stone sarcophagi quarried at Aswan. Mummification equipment—resinous balms, natron salts, and canopic sets bearing heads of deities like Imsety, Hapi, Duamutef, and Qebehsenuef—is recorded in tomb inventories and in the works of embalmers documented at Deir el-Bahari. Royal sarcophagi from the New Kingdom of Egypt incorporate iconography linked to Amun-Ra and funerary spells derived from the Pyramid Texts and later funerary compilations.
Statues of royalty and private individuals—colossi of Ramses II and seated portraits of officials such as Horemheb—served as ka-houses and focal points for offerings. Statuary types include block statues, ka-statues, and shabti figures often inscribed with versions of the Book of the Dead or occupation titles seen in tombs of Sennedjem and Khay. Low reliefs on temple pylons and tomb walls at Karnak and Luxor depict scenes of offerings, ritual procession, and mythic voyages of Ra and Osiris, executed by workshops linked to royal projects of pharaohs like Seti I.
Wall paintings and painted stucco decorate private tombs in Beni Hasan, royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, and New Kingdom mortuary chapels at Deir el-Bahari. Scenes include agricultural cycles, daily life, and funerary rites with motifs of Isis and Anubis, and cosmological imagery drawn from the Amduat. The decorated burial chamber of Tutankhamun and the richly painted tomb of Kekheretnebti exemplify polychromy achieved with mineral pigments and binders prepared in workshop complexes near Theban Necropolis.
Belief in an eternal afterlife involved journeys guided by deities such as Osiris, Anubis, Thoth, and Ma'at, and rituals performed by priests in mortuary temples associated with kings like Amenhotep III. Textual corpora—Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, Book of the Dead, and the Amduat—provided spells and iconographic programs inscribed on sarcophagi, stelae, and tomb walls. Funerary economies engaged institutions like the priesthoods of Amun and local cults at Abydos and produced standardized objects—shabtis, ushabtis, and offering tables—connected to social identity in inscriptions naming officials such as Paser and Ineni.
Category:Ancient Egyptian art