enhancing the fi gures. In contrast, interior walls more com-
monly used raised relief.
Wood was also used for sculptures, though most of the
wood had to be imported. Some common woods included
tamarisk, acacia, and the wood from fi g trees as well as a va-
riety of pine from Syria. Wood was shaped with knives and
adzes and polished with rubbing stones. Some pieces were
made with single chunks of wood, but many were made with
pieces or strips that were joined. Sometimes the wood was
painted, but oft en it was left in its natural state, especially if
the quality of the wood was high.
Metal, too, was a common medium, especially arsenic
bronze (an alloy of arsenic and copper) in the Old Kingdom
(2575–2134 b.c.e.) and bronze (an alloy of tin and copper) be-
ginning in the Middle Kingdom. Gold and silver were highly
valued. Although today gold is regarded as the more precious
metal, in ancient Egypt silver’s rarity made it the more pre-
cious metal compared with gold, which was used extensively.
During the Old Kingdom some characteristic types of
statuary began to emerge. One of the most common was that
of a man standing with his left leg advanced slightly forward.
Another common form was a seated man. While fragments
of wooden statues of the fi rst type survive from the city of
Saqqara and date to the First Dynasty (2920–2770 b.c.e.),
more impressive examples include a statue of King Djoser of
the Th ird Dynasty (2649–2575 b.c.e.) in the temple complex
at Saqqara and the statue of King Menkaure II and Queen
Khamerernebty of the Fourth Dynasty (2575–2465 b.c.e.)
from the pyramid complex at Giza. During the Old Kingdom
the convention of “frontality” was established. Th is term re-
fers to t he convention of a lways hav ing t he fi g ure facing to t he
front, even if the fi gure is in motion, perhaps walking. Many
sculptures were housed in enclosed niches and alcoves, so it
made sense to have the fi gure face to the front so that viewers
could see the face and interact with the fi gure more readily.
During the Middle Kingdom sculpture became more real-
istic, and many statues from this period appear to be portraits
rather than idealized types. Many portray royalty, including
such fi gures as Sesostris III and Amenemhet III. Sculptors
during this period began to use the sphinx—with the body of a
lion and the head of a king—to create an image of the pharaoh
as the protector of Egypt. Th e most dramatic example is the
huge Sphinx on the Giza Plateau, the site of the Great Pyra-
mid. Another good example is the statue of Amenemhet II. In
addition to royal fi gures, some statuary appears to have been
commissioned by private individuals. Many of these pieces
show the fi gure seated, standing, or in many cases squatting
and oft en wearing a cloak. Some of the statues are entirely cu-
bical, with the fi gure portrayed with his or her knees drawn
up. Th ese types of statues are called block statues.
During the New Kingdom (1570–1070 b.c.e.) the art of
sculpture rose to new heights. Art historians regard many of
the statues that survive from this period as among the most
accomplished works of art the ancient world produced. Again,
many of the statues were created to honor a pharaoh. Particu-
larly well known are the statues of Hatshepsut and Th utmose
III. Hatshepsut, an 18th Dynasty pharaoh, remains famous
in part because she was a woman. In order to legitimize her
rule, she dressed as a man and was even known to wear a false
beard. Her statue, housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York City, is clearly that of a powerful ruler, with all
the trappings of authority rather than the subordinate, do-
mesticated woman most oft en portrayed in Egyptian art.
New Kingdom pharaohs commissioned a number of
so-called colossal sculptures. Many of these extremely large
sculptures were housed in funerary temples. Perhaps the best
known is the colossus of Ramses II, located now in a special
museum built to house it near the village of Mit Rahina in
Egypt. Although the statue is unfi nished, modern sculptors
and art historians remain in awe of the work. It portrays the
pharaoh lying down. Even without feet, the statue is nearly
34 feet long and carved out of a single block of limestone.
Modern artists point out that even with mechanized carving,
grinding, and sanding tools, creating a statue that achieves
the anatomical perfection of the Ramses statue would today
be a long, painstaking process. Th ey marvel, then, at the abil-
ity of teams of Egyptian artists to achieve the results they did
using far less sophisticated tools.
A pair of statues inspiring similar awe can be found in
Th ebes at the entrance to a mortuary temple built by Amen-
hotep III, an Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh. Both of these stat-
ues of Amenhotep III are 75 feet tall and carved out of single
blocks of stone. Th ese works are called the Colossi of Memnon
because the ancient Egyptians associated the statues in legend
with King Memnon, the son of Eos. Because of a crack in the
stone, one of the statues emitted a soft moan when it warmed
in the morning; according to the legend, this sound was
Memnon greeting his mother. (Later the Romans attempted
to “fi x” the stone, and the sound was no longer heard.)THE AMARNA PERIOD
Generalizations about the reliance of Egyptian artists on fi xed
conventions and rules do not apply strictly to the Amarna
Period, during and just aft er the reign of Akhenaten in the
late Eighteenth Dynasty, in the mid-1300s b.c.e. Th e period is
called Amarna, from El-Amarna, the name of a modern city
that has been built over the site of a new capital city Akhenat-
en had built in dedication to the sun god. Scholars conclude
that art in Egypt changed because the nation was in a state
of turmoil during Akhenaten’s reign. He was very much a
religious and social revolutionary, and he violated many of
the conventions that had dictated the behavior of the pharaohs
for centuries. Aft er his death Egypt returned to normal, and
the aberrations of Amarna Period art disappeared.
Amarna Period art was diff erent because it conveyed
more of a sense of motion and vitality than conventional
Egyptian art. Instead of being posed formally, fi gures were
oft en portrayed in motion. Figures appeared in groups, and
depictions of the pharaoh and his family were naturalis-
tic and informal. For some reason a great deal of attention96 art: Egypt