Artistic Conventions, Canon of Human Proportions and Colours

Rigorous application of artistic conventions have helped create "typical" Egyptian art that remained virtually unchanged for over three millennia. Naturally, the sculptor (the 'one who causes life') and the draftsman (the 'scribe of forms') followed different sets of artistic conventions with regards to their art.

Artistic Conventions

Paintings, sculptured reliefs, engravings, and drawings - referred to as two dimensional art since they are produced on flat surfaces, whether papyrus, plastered walls, flat rock outcrops, or nicely cut stone walls - followed specific rules dictating how to draw the human body. Egyptians did not depict the body as they saw it with their naked eyes, but the way they thought corresponded to the truth, the way each body part was clearly identifiable. Such rendition of the human figure may appear extremely strange to us, yet, to the ancient Egyptians, these were very logical conventions: the head was drawn in profile, but the eye and the eyebrow were depicted in full view. Men's shoulders and upper torso were also depicted frontally so that the arms, hands, and fingers were visible as well. The belly and the waist were shown in three-quarters putting the belly button not in the middle of the stomach but more to the side of the figure. The posterior, legs, and feet were shown in profile thus balancing the head. The feet were always depicted from the inside, thus showing the arch of the foot, but from the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty onwards, the Egyptians preferred showing the outside of the foot. Needless to say, such contortions are absolutely impossible! Women's anatomical perspective differed slightly since the artists had to show the body from the under the arms all the way down to the feet in profile in order to make apparent the breasts. Exceptions were rare but nevertheless occurred sometimes to facilitate a certain movement of the arms. An interesting exception was the dwarf god Bes, who was depicted in two-dimensional art with his face seen from the front, just like in sculpture.

Credits: Caroline Rocheleau

Egyptian sculpture (three-dimensional art) has often been described as static, very cubic, and constrained. Ancient Egyptian statuary, unlike ancient Greek statues, had limited numbers of position in which people could stand, sit, or kneel because artists did not free the sculpted form from the block of stone. They rarely created voids and spaces that would create a lighter and more expressive sculpture. Whether this was typical Egyptian artistic expression or, as a famous Egyptologist recently said, the effort of an elite to define and sustain an ideology, scholars have no explanation. However, it must be said that wooden sculptures made of composite pieces (body parts that could be attached to the torso like a big 3D puzzle) allowed more possibilities of positions. Possible reasons for these more lively sculptures may reside in the fact that any damaged parts (during the carving or later) could easily be replaced unlike stone sculptures, which had to be entirely re-carved should any accident occur in the workshop. By creating a more cubic sculpture, the Egyptian sculptors certainly avoided the breaking small thin sections and parts easily. Statues are primarily to be viewed from the front, although there are a few exceptions notably the statue of King Pepy the Second and his mother. There were fewer conventions regarding the actual representation of the human body in three dimensions. Sculptors depicted the body the way it really was, without contortions.

Credits: Caroline Rocheleau

Except for a few cases, ancient Egyptians were depicted in a more or less idealised manner, the way they would have wanted to be for the rest of their eternal lives. The majority of the time they are beautiful, young and slim, however there were many occasions where a person was depicted both as a young adult and as a mature person in their tombs. Signs of maturity were a more plump stature, a longer kilt, and the person wore no wig. People were, in some instances, depicted as being corpulent - whether as true to nature or as a sign of prosperity. The most impressive sculpture of corpulent man must be the statue of Hemiunu, a royal architect, vizier, priest, scribe (among his many titles) who worked under King Khufu's (Fourth Dynasty). The statue (Hildesheim, Germany) must absolutely be seen, since it is exceptional in its physical rendering of the man, its skilled execution, and its incredible size (it weighs around 2 tons, if I am not mistaken).

King Akhenaton's figure also is another exception to these artistic rules. His elongated cranium, drooping features, long neck, pot belly, large hips and thighs, spindly arms, and short legs are so surprising that Egyptologists have been debating for years (and many more to come) as to the exact reason for this caricature and strange portraiture. It must be said though, that, in spite of the unexpected figure, Amarna art generally conforms to regular artistic and colour conventions.

Kings were clearly identifiable in art, as they stood much taller than the rest of the humans, and approximately the same size as the gods depicted in the same scene. Evidently size served to emphasise the divine office, the social status and power of the king. Occasionally, queens were represented as tall as their husbands, suggesting their own importance. More often than not, though, women - all women, queens included - were depicted rather small, barely taller than children.

Yet, females in ancient Egypt seem to have enjoyed much more power than their likes in Greece or Rome. Furthermore, kings sported royal garments and accessories, such as a variety of crowns with a cobra (uraeus) on the brow, special kilts, a false beard (held to the chin with a string), and crooks, flails, and other sceptres.

Famous Queen Hatschepsut of the Eighteenth Dynasty, even though a woman, was depicted wearing the same accoutrement since she was the actual ruler. Queens' regalia were much simpler, although their regal appearance is obvious. The most famous headdress worn by royal women is undoubtedly the vulture headdress with the vulture's head on the brow and the wings on either side of the ears. Queen Nefertiti (Akhenaten's wife) also wore a unique tall blue coiffe.

Depictions of children, royal or not, in Egyptian art also followed specific rules. Children are easily recognisable by the simple fact that they were depicted naked. Needless to say, Egyptian children did wear clothes, as proven by very small garments found in archaeological excavations. Nudity, in this particular case, indicated the young age of the child. However, adults were sometimes depicted naked, as a symbol of rebirth in the Afterlife (in the case of a funerary statue) or simply because certain tasks were better performed without clothing impeding movements. Small children, in addition to being naked, were shown with their index finger on their lower lip, not unlike our own children sucking their thumbs, as well as sporting the 'side lock of youth,' a braid of hair worn usually at one side of the head. Adolescents, on the other hand, were represented wearing full clothing and adult hairstyle or wigs. Yet, just like small children, they were depicted much smaller than their parents were, sometimes barely keen-high, no matter how tall they really were.

Credits: Caroline Rocheleau

Interestingly, these conventions did not apply to Pepi the Second, a six-year old who became the fifth king of the Sixth Dynasty. Unlike boys of his age, little King Pepi was not represented naked, he did not sport the side-lock of youth, nor did he have his index finger on his lower lip. The magnificent alabaster statuette from the Brooklyn Museum shows Pepi sitting on his mother's lap wearing his royal regalia. Decorum would not allow that King Pepi, even though a young child, to be depicted like other boys his age. Nonetheless, he is represented as small as other children would be, with his mother holding him protectively.

Children and adolescents either stood or sat quietly at their parents' feet or accompanied them in various family activities. The former docile behaviour was typically rendered in statuary since artists had much less choice in their composition than in paintings or reliefs, were they actively participate in the action of the scene.

Canon of Human Proportions

The Canon of Human proportions was a square-grid of 18 units applied to a drawn human figure (standing) allowing its reproduction in various sizes, but always anatomically proportionate. There were 2 squares allowed for the face (from the hairline to the base of the neck), 10 squares from the neck to the knees, and 6 squares from the knees to the sole of the feet. There was a nineteenth square used for the hair, but it was not counted with the rest of the body. A sitting figure was divided into a 14 square-grid (15 including the hair). Not surprisingly, the Amarna artists (Eighteenth Dynasty) had to used a different square-grid of twenty units. The usual 6 units were kept between the sole of the feet and the knees, but two extra squares were added to the between the knee and the neck, creating shorter lower legs and a longer neck if one of the squares had been added to the neck rather than the torso.

These square-grid divisions corresponded to general human proportions, although Akhenaton's physical appearance is still the subject of hot debates among Egyptologists. Nevertheless, the 18 unit square grid remained in use until the Late Period, when the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty adopted a square-grid of 21 and a quarter units that was in used until the end of Pharaonic civilisation.

The same square-grid was also used in statuary and pale red lines can still be seen on some unfinished reliefs, painting and sculptures. The concept of the square-grid is still used by architects, draftsmen, designers, and artists nowadays.

Colours

Ancient Egyptian artists had a very limited palette of colours: red, blue, yellow, green, white, and black. The symbolism of each colour is best left unexplained at this moment as some colours are interchangeable and colour conventions are not yet fully understood. Although the Egyptians favoured strong, pure colours, skilled artists sometimes worked with mixed colours such as grey, pink, brown, or orange. Imagining all sculptures and reliefs painted with bright, vivid colours is quite a task for the imagination, especially since few fully painted monuments have been uncovered by archaeologists. Yet, all the statues and sculptured reliefs were entirely covered with thick, rich colours, despite the inherent beauty of the stone from which it was carved.

Credits: Caroline Rocheleau

Along with the artistic conventions and canons of proportions, there were colour conventions for artists to observe. The most interesting colour convention was based on gender distinction. Ancient Egyptian males were always painted in reddish-brown tones while females had a pale yellow (sometimes pink) coloured skin. Such colour distinction was partly symbolic of men and women's lifestyles. Men led a more active, outdoor life as opposed to the indoors life of women. Old men, and this is noteworthy, were often also depicted pale skinned, symbolising old age and a more sedentary lifestyle.
(Caroline Rocheleau)