Sculpture of ancient Egypt. The most important feature of the religious ideas of the Egyptians was that a necessary prerequisite for a prosperous existence

The most important feature of the religious ideas of the Egyptians was that the necessary prerequisite for the prosperous existence of the soul of the deceased in the afterlife was the safety of his "material shell", his body. This led to the emergence of tombs and the emergence of mummification of corpses. Mummy of Queen Hatshepsut

In that distant era, the custom arose to install portrait statues of the deceased in the tombs: they were supposed to become a kind of “duplicates” of the human body. The true masterpieces of ancient Egyptian sculpture are the portrait statues of Prince Rahotep and his wife Nefert, found in the tomb of Rahotep in Medum. Portrait funeral statues of Prince Rahotep and his wife Nefert from their tomb in Medum. Beginning of the 26th century BC e.

Images of characters who do not have a divine dignity are much more natural and less formal than images of pharaohs. This is manifested in more free postures and gestures; in a more lively and natural facial expression; in the reflection of individual personality traits, such as age, appearance, hairstyle, clothing, jewelry. Rahotep's clothing is minimal: he wears only a short white skhenti gaiter. It was the usual clothing of Egyptian men of that time. Nefert is dressed in a narrow, figure-hugging dress made of thin fabric, the so-called kazali-ris. A light cloak is thrown over the kasaliris.

The clothes of men and women of the era of the Old Kingdom are also conveyed by another sculptural group - a figurine depicting Tenti and his wife. Tenti wears a pleated gaiter. His wife is wearing a traditional kazaliris, tightly fitting the body. Tenti and his wife. Statuette of the era of the Old Kingdom. ca BC e.

The clothing of the Egyptian men was made up of a cuisse. Commoners and slaves were content with a simple bandage made of coarse fabric, then the shenti of high-ranking persons, and even more so of the pharaoh, had a very refined form. They were made of pleated fabric and supported by a leather belt. statue of Amenhotep III in the Luxor Temple (XIV century BC)

The nobleman Ptahkhenui served as the “chief of the palace servants” and was buried in a tomb located in Giza, not far from the pyramids of the pharaohs. In this tomb, a paired sculptural group was found, depicting Ptahkhenui and his wife. Noble Ptahkhenui and his wife. Sculpture from the tomb at Giza. Reign of the 5th Dynasty

An excellent example of Egyptian sculpture of the Middle Kingdom is found in the tomb of a certain Dzhekhutinakht (he lived in the era of the Middle Kingdom), a group carved from wood depicting female servants carrying boxes of provisions and birds, all this was supposed to provide food and drink to the owner of the tomb, who passed into another world. Bearers of gifts from the tomb of Jehutinakht in Deir el-Bersha. To the right is a maid carrying a box of sealed beer jars. Middle Kingdom, late 11th or early 12th dynasty (late 20th century BC)

Gift bearer. Figurine of the Middle Kingdom era from a tomb in Thebes. Early 20th century BC e. The figurine of the “bearer of gifts”, which is kept in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, belongs to the same period of the Middle Kingdom. Dated to the Twelfth Dynasty. It is assumed that this statuette depicts one of the servants of the temple of Isis.

There are a large number of statues and bas-reliefs, in which the pharaoh is depicted in a special ritual striped scarf, the ends of which fall on his shoulders. This scarf was called "nemese". The most famous image of the pharaoh in the nemes is the famous Great Sphinx, whose head repeats the facial features of the pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty Khafre.

A huge statue of the Great Sphinx, half lion - half man, in Giza near modern Cairo on the west bank of the Nile River. In the background of the Sphinx is the pyramid of Khafre (Khafre). The Great Sphinx is the largest monolithic statue on Earth, carved, as is commonly believed, by the ancient Egyptians in the 3rd millennium BC, somewhere between 2520 and 2494 BC.

There are also such statues in which the head of the pharaoh is decorated with both a nemes and a crown worn over it. It is these headdresses that adorn the heads of those granite sphinxes standing on the Neva embankment in St. Petersburg, which depict the pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty Amenhotep III, who lived in the XIV century BC. e.

"Western" sphinx Amenhotep III from Kom el-Khettan. Granite. St. Petersburg.

The artistic canons of Ancient Egypt The idea of ​​Eternity, the belief in the possibility of eternal existence in the Other World, as mentioned above, formed one of the most important artistic qualities of the art of Ancient Egypt - their monumentality. Comparatively small statues are also monumental, and sometimes works of Egyptian sculptors, which are quite miniature in size, like those stone statues of scribes from the collection of the State Hermitage Museum and the Moscow State Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin, quite small in size. Statuette of a scribe Soapstone grey. End of the Middle Kingdom, ca. 18th century BC. Museum. A.S. Pushkin Hall of Ancient Egypt. Statue of the grain scribe Maa-niamon. Middle of the 15th century BC, Hermitage.

Huge stone statues of Amenhotep III are included in the composition of the pylon built during his reign in the temple of Amun-Ra in Luxor. The pharaoh sits on the throne, and his main wife, Tia, depicted on a completely different scale, stands nearby, affectionately touching her master's lower leg.

The ratio of the sizes of the figures of the pharaoh and his wife could turn out to be different depending on the location and ritual function of the image. In the compositions of the colossal statues of the pharaohs that adorned the pylons and colonnaded courtyards of the temples, the queen-wife was depicted on such a reduced scale that her head barely reached the knees of the statue of the pharaoh. The beloved wife of Ramses II, the beautiful Nefertari, is also depicted on a reduced scale at the feet of the statues of the pharaoh decorating the goth portal of the temple of Amun-Ra in Luxor, which was erected during the reign of Ramses II

The postures of the scribes were very traditional. The most famous architects were sometimes depicted in the same sitting postures, whose portrait statues were honored to be placed in the temples they built. Architect Amenhotep, son of Hapu, builder of the temple of Amun-Ra in Karnak. 14th century BC e. Architect Senmut as the tutor of the king's daughter. Early 15th century BC e.

The osirical statues of the pharaohs, installed along the walls of the temples, always have their legs parallel and the heels are shifted together. The funeral statues in the niches and along the walls in the tomb of the nobleman Irukaptah are in the same poses: they depict the deceased in the traditional clothes of Egyptian men of that era. The poses of the sculptures are static and resemble soldiers standing in line on the command “attention!”. Osiric statues of Pharaoh Ramses III in the temple of Amun-Ra in Karnak. 12th century BC e.

Art of the period of the Early Kingdom. In ancient times, in Egypt, there was a ritual unpleasant for the leaders: the aged, but still full of strength and energy, the king had to safely reign for a certain period (usually thirty years), to prove that he was still quite capable. And the fact that the ruler, like any person, nevertheless grew old, reminds us of a unique and very touching bone figurine of the pharaoh in the high crown of Southern Egypt. Statuette of an aged pharaoh. Bone. Early kingdom

And in the ritual statues, the sitting pharaoh remained forever young and strong, as evidenced, for example, by the well-preserved statue of the pharaoh of the Second Dynasty Hasekem (XXIX century BC), carved from dark slate stone. This is perhaps the oldest example of a monumental portrait statue of this type. A statue of the Second Dynasty pharaoh Khasekhem was found in Hierakonpolis. It is considered one of the oldest statues depicting the royal person of the Tunisian era.

Pharaoh Djoser Pharaoh Djoser ruled for almost two decades in the middle of the 27th century BC. e. (According to the modern Egyptologist P. A. Clayton from about 2668 to 2649 BC). In the famous list of pharaohs compiled by Manetho, Djoser is identified as the founder of the Third Dynasty. The statue of Djoser was already damaged by robbers in ancient times: they broke out manholes made of rock crystal and alabaster. Now this statue looks at visitors with its empty eye sockets, which gives the pharaoh's face an even more severe expression. Portrait statue of Pharaoh Djoser. 27th century BC e.

The creator of the memorial complex of Djoser is the architect Imhotep. His name is written in hieroglyphs next to the name of Djoser on a stone slab left over from the statue of the pharaoh. It was a great honor for the architect, and such an arrangement of his name testifies to the great respect for him and his high social position. Imhotep was not only an architect, but also the vizier of Djoser - his closest adviser. The architect Imhotep is the creator of the Djoser Pyramid Ensemble. Bronze figurine, created two thousand years after his death.

Sculpture of Egypt of the Old Kingdom. One of the finest examples of Old Kingdom wood sculpture, the figure of the priest Kaaper, chief of the readers or ceremonial (height 109 cm), currently kept in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Discovered in his own mastaba at Saqqara, this sculpture, made in the late 4th or early 5th Dynasty, is known by the common name of Sheikh el Beled, meaning "village chief".

The seated scribes are sculptural representations embodying great realism. Undoubtedly, two of the most important are scribes dating from the 5th Dynasty. The eye socket is copper. Protein - alabaster. Iris - rock crystal. The crystal is carved with a cone filled with soot, which imitates the pupil and the gaze itself. The "Seated Scribe" is an ancient Egyptian (BC) statue of a scribe in the Louvre.

Physical strength was emphasized in the figures of pharaohs and noble persons. While retaining some undoubtedly portrait features, the authors discarded minor details, imparted to their faces an impassive expression, and generalized powerful, stately monumental forms of the body. But the most talented sculptors, even within the restraining framework of the canon, managed to create a number of wonderful, vivid portrait works. Bust of the royal son Ankhhaf (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts)

Sculpture of Egypt of the Middle Kingdom. Since the XII Dynasty, ritual statues have been used more widely (and, accordingly, made in large quantities). This type includes the heb-sed statue of Mentuhotep-Nebhepetr, depicting the pharaoh in a pointedly frozen pose with arms crossed on his chest. Also, a deviation from the deviation from the canon of the Old Kingdom is expressed in more slender proportions of the human body.

In the work of the Thebans, there is also a completely different, more realistic direction. The Theban masters perform a number of magnificent portrait heads of the pharaohs of the XII dynasty. Head of Senusret III, pharaoh of the XII dynasty, from the former MacGregor collection (now the Gulbenkian collection) Sculptural portrait of Amenemhat III. One of the most famous crayons from the collection of V.S. Golenishchev. XII din.

Sculpture of Egypt of the New Kingdom. During the New Kingdom, Egypt, on the basis of military conquests, is drawn into relations with the Asian world. These attitudes have led to the forging of close cultural ties that enrich artistic works. In sculpture, unprecedented figures are created, called colossi, which are installed outside the temples. The most famous colossi are located in Thebes and since the time of the Greeks they have been called the "Colossi of Memnon".

The facade of the temple built in Abu Simbe-le (Nubia) by order of Ramses II in honor of Queen Nefertari, his main wife in his youth, and in honor of the goddess Hathor. This rock-cut façade has seven buttresses, the central one providing access to the interior of the temple, while the others are inscribed in six niches in which are placed four standing statues of this pharaoh and two of Nefertari, adorned with the attributes of the goddess Hathor.

Bust of one of the 28 colossi of Pharaoh Akhenaten erected in the temple of Hematon in Karnak (Cairo, Egyptian Museum). The religious reform of this pharaoh produced a real revolution in art, which was embodied in a conscious desire, unique throughout the evolution of Egyptian art, to establish a break with traditional pictorial norms. Thus, the elongated face and the special expression of the monarch's gaze tend to convey, like new symbols of divinity, his inner spiritual strength.

Bust of Queen Nefertiti (painted limestone 48 cm high). This creation is kept in the Archaeological Museum of Florence (Italy) and is considered one of the most perfect artistic expressions in world art. Nefertiti shared with Akhenaten, her husband, a deep admiration for the Aten. Like other depictions of the heretic monarch's wife, this sculpture emphasizes the length of the neck and other facial features to represent her in line with the Eastern ideal of voluptuousness. Sculpture of the Late Period In the Late Period, Egypt appears to be much more connected with other civilizations of the ancient world. Although stylistically the sculpture of the first millennium BC. e. does not constitute a single whole, the general approach to the transfer of the human body in stone does not change, the statues of the Late Period retain all the main features and types of statues inherent in the canon of sculpture from earlier eras. The figurine was first published and identified as a portrait of Pharaoh Taharqa (BC) by N. D. Flittner, and then repeatedly cited in the literature. It is an excellent testament to the high level of art of royal and private portraiture during the XXV Ethiopian dynasty.

Statue of Osiris. Black granite. High 0.52 m. The statue gives the impression of an unfinished work; the bridge between the artificial beard and the neck is left the same width as the beard, while it should be narrower. The contours of the whip, wand and hands are not clear. Figures of goddesses and hieroglyphs are outlined in relief, but not finished. The entire surface of the statue is left rough and not finished.

Statuette of the priest Irefo-en-Hapi. Brown quartz. High 0.205 m. The figurine depicts a man sitting on the ground with his legs pressed to his body and his hands folded on his knees. He is wrapped in clothes that leave only his hands and feet exposed. Such statues, conveying the usual pose in which the Egyptian fellahs like to sit, resembling a "package with a head", in Maspero's words, are characteristic only of Egypt. They appear in the Middle Kingdom, but are then also made throughout the New Kingdom and the Late Period.

Part of a statue of a man. Basalt. High 0.098 m. Facial features are given softly, even somewhat indistinctly, without sharp lines and excessively prominent details. The face is somewhat asymmetrical: the left eye is placed higher than the right and set a little deeper. The small ears fit closer to the skull than is usually the case on Egyptian statues.

Great PRESENTATION ART for all PRESENTATION ART

The sculpture of Ancient Egypt is characterized by geometric generalization of form, strict frontality of figures, symmetry and statics. In round sculpture, the highest degree of realism is observed with the maximum rejection of everything accidental and secondary. The images are designed for eternity and are associated with the funeral cult. According to the Egyptians, portrait statues played the role of twins of the dead and served as a receptacle for their souls. Solemnly static portrait statues were distinguished by the clarity and accuracy of the transfer of the most essential characteristic features and the social position of the person being portrayed. The volumes of sculptures are summarized. The folds of clothing, wigs, hats, and jewelry are carefully crafted. The sculptures were painted, the eyes were made using the inlay technique. In the art of Ancient Egypt, animalistic sculpture reached great development, because. Many Egyptian gods had animal heads. The ancient Egyptian relief was very widespread and had its canons similar to painting. Canon(from the Greek word kanon - norm, rule) - firmly established rules that determine the norms of proportions, composition, color or, in general, the iconography of any image in a work of art:

1. The image of a person: shoulders, eyes, torso were depicted in front. The face, chest, legs were depicted in profile. The left leg always moved forward.
2. The image was combined with the hieroglyphic text.
3. The relief plane was understood as a “book”, where information with images was arranged in stripes.
4. Various scales of figures were used, reflecting the hierarchy of power of the social structure.

In the era of the Middle Kingdom, more individual features appeared in the sculptural portrait, while maintaining the canons of composition. Age features were fixed, elements of character disclosure appeared. Masterfully overcoming the resistance of the material, the sculptors revealed a clear structure of the face, emphasizing its severity, giving the image drama, expression. During the reign of Akhenaten (Akhetaten), sharpening of images, grotesqueness, imitation and typification of the painfully ugly features of the pharaoh and his family appear in sculpture. The ideal of beauty appears and for the first time the image of the family appears in relief.

Types of round sculpture:

walking man sitting man

with legs crossed forward.

left foot

Examples of Ancient Egyptian Art:

1. Narmer slab (relief, slate, h - 64cm, 1st dynasty)
2. Statue of Josser (limestone, 2nd dynasty, 28th century BC)
3. Statue of Khafre (diorite, h -1, 68m, 4th dynasty, 27th century BC)
4. Statue of Scribe Kai (painted limestone, inlaid eyes, 5th Dynasty, 3000 BC)
5. Statue of Kaaper (wood, inlaid eyes, h - 1.1m, 4th dynasty, 3000 BC)
6. Feasting Ptahhotep in front of the sacrificial table (relief, 5th dynasty, middle of the 3rd millennium BC)
7. Wailers (relief, limestone, h - o.29m, early 12th dynasty, 14th century BC)
8. Akhenaten's family (relief, limestone, 18th dynasty, 14th century BC)
9. Head of Nefertiti (painted limestone, inlaid eyes, h - 0.50m, 14th century BC)

It owes its appearance and further development to religious beliefs. The requirements of cult faith were the basis for the emergence of one or another type of statues. Religious teachings determined the iconography of the sculptures, as well as their places of installation.

The sculpture of Ancient Egypt, the basic rules for the creation of which were finally formed in the period of the Early Kingdom, had a frontal and symmetrical figure, clarity and calmness of lines. All these characteristics corresponded to its direct purpose, and were also due to its location, which were mainly niches in the walls.

The sculpture is distinguished by the predominance of certain poses. These include:

Sitting - while hands lie on their knees;

Standing - left leg extended forward;

The pose of a scribe who sits cross-legged.

For all sculptures, a number of rules were required:

Direct setting of the head;

The presence of attributes of a profession or power:

A certain type of coloring for female and male bodies (yellow and brown, respectively);

Inlaid eyes with stones or bronze;

An exaggeration of the power and development of the body, which contributed to the message of solemn elation to the figure;

Transfer of individual dead (it was believed that the statues watched the life of people through special holes made at eye level).

The sculpture of Ancient Egypt has become one of the means in mastering the art of portraiture. With the help of gypsum, they tried to save the corpse from decomposition, getting a semblance of a mask. However, for the image of a living person, it was required that the eyes of the sculpture be open. In order to achieve this, the mask was further processed.

Sculptures of ancient Egypt are found during the opening of the tombs. Their main purpose was to display various aspects of the funeral cult. In some tombs, researchers have found wooden statues. Over them, in all likelihood, certain cult rites were performed. At times, figurines of workers were also placed in the tombs. Their purpose was to provide for the deceased. At the same time, the sculptors depicted people at the time of engaging in a wide variety of activities.

The architectural design was made using statues. Sculptures stood along the roads leading to them, in courtyards and interior spaces. Those statues, the main load of which was architectural and decorative design, differed from the cult ones. Their figures were large, and there was no detail in the outlines.

The statues that conveyed the images of the kings contained prayers in which they asked God for health and well-being, and sometimes assistance in political affairs. The period that lasted after the fall of the Old Kingdom was characterized by fundamental changes in the ideological field. The pharaohs, seeking to glorify themselves and their power, commanded to put their statues in temples, next to the figures of various deities. The main purpose of such sculptures was the glorification of the living ruler. In this regard, these statues had to be as close as possible to the portrait of the pharaoh.

Art of Ancient Egypt. Portrait sculpture of the Old Kingdom.

As already mentioned, the funeral cult largely determined the appearance of portrait sculpture. But he also limited its development to certain limits. The monotony of the calm, motionless (sitting or standing) poses of statues endowed with the same attributes, the conditional coloring of their bodies (men's - red-brown paint, women's - yellow, hair - black, clothes - white) - all this was dictated by the requirements of the cult, which intended these statues are for the "eternal" life of the soul of the deceased.

The eyes of the statues were often inlaid with other materials, which achieved greater expressiveness and vitality.

The statues are not designed to be viewed from different angles, they seem to be leaning back against the plane of the stone block that serves as a backdrop for them. Viewers see them only from the front, they are entirely frontal. The statues are also characterized by absolute symmetry, the strictest balance of the right and left halves of the body. This rule is strictly observed not only in the depiction of a standing figure, but also in the transfer of all other poses characteristic of Egyptian sculpture of all times.

The Egyptian artist usually began his work by applying on a rectangular block of stone from which the statue was to be carved, according to a pre-drawn grid, a drawing of the image that he wanted to receive. Then, by carving, he removed the excess stone, processed the details, polished and polished the statue. But even in a finished work of art, one could always feel the rectangular edges of the block from which it was "liberated" by the artist. This explains the "geometrism" of Egyptian sculpture, which is its most characteristic feature.

Along with the statues of kings and nobles, there develops a type of scribe sitting at work, usually with a papyrus scroll on his knees. The variety of compositions was small. The pose of Pharaoh Khafre, seated on a throne, is characteristic of all seated figures of the Old Kingdom and of most statues of subsequent times. In a standing figure of a man, the left leg is always pushed forward, the arms are either lowered along the body, or one of them rests on a staff. The female figure usually stands with closed legs, the right hand is lowered along the body, the left lies in front at the waist. The neck is almost absent, the head sometimes rests almost directly on the shoulders, the gaps between the arms and the body, between the legs are almost always not drilled, and these parts of the remaining stone are conditionally painted over in the so-called empty colors, black or white. It was impossible, due to the special tasks of the funeral cult, to convey instant moods, random postures.

Physical strength was emphasized in the figures of pharaohs and noble persons. While retaining some undoubtedly portrait features, the authors discarded minor details, imparted to their faces an impassive expression, and generalized powerful, stately monumental forms of the body.

But the most talented sculptors, even within the restraining framework of the canon, managed to create a number of wonderful, vivid portrait works. Examples of such individualized statues are the sculptures of the 4th dynasty - the statues of noble people Rahotep and Nofret (Cairo Museum) and the bust of the royal son Ankhhaf (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts), the architect Hemiun (Cairo Museum), as well as the head of a male statue from the Salt collection (Paris , Louvre) and statues of the 5th dynasty - the nobles Ranofer (Cairo Museum), the scribe Kai (Paris, Louvre) and Prince Kaaper (Cairo Museum).

These portraits do not simply repeat the appearance of a particular person. These are images created by selecting the most characteristic features of the person being portrayed.

Sculptors of the 5th-6th dynasties began to resort more and more often to expensive wood, which made it possible to solve such problems that seemed unsolvable in round plastic, despite all the brilliance of the achievements of stone sculpture of the 3rd and 4th dynasties. The movements of the statues become freer, although the main canon remains in force when transferring the human figure.

Before us is the face of a Louvre scribe, then the smiling, good-natured face of a stout, elderly dignitary of the fifth dynasty, Kaaper, whom the fellahs who found him called the “village headman” because of his striking resemblance to the headman whom they knew. No wonder the Egyptian sculptor was called "sankh", which means "creator of life." By creating a form, the artist, as it were, magically called it to life.

Dozens of figurines depicting servants and slaves were also placed in the tombs, which differed from the portraits of pharaohs and noble persons by conveying in them only typical ethnic features of the Egyptians, without any hint of portraiture. Their purpose is to serve their masters in the afterlife. Made of brightly painted wood and stone, they realistically convey the features of the appearance of peasants, cooks, porters, etc.

Sculpture of Ancient Egypt

Sculpture in Egypt appeared in connection with religious requirements and developed depending on them. Cult requirements determined the appearance of one or another type of statues, their iconography and the place of installation. The basic rules for sculpture finally took shape during the Early Kingdom: symmetry and frontality in the construction of figures, clarity and calmness of poses best suited the cult purpose of the statues. These features of the appearance of the statues were also due to their location near the wall or in a niche. The predominant postures - sitting with hands on knees and standing with the left leg extended forward - develop very early. A little later, the “pose of a scribe” appears - a person sitting on crossed legs. At first, only the royal sons were depicted in the pose of a scribe. Family groups appear early. A number of rules were obligatory for the entire sculpture: a straight head position, some attributes of power or profession, a certain coloring (male bodies were brick-colored, female ones were yellow, and hair was black). The eyes were often inlaid with bronze and stones.

The bodies of the statues were made exaggeratedly powerful and developed, giving the statue a solemn elation. Faces, in some cases, on the contrary, had to convey the individual features of the deceased. Hence the early appearance in Egypt of the sculptural portrait. The most remarkable, now famous portraits were hidden in tombs, some of them in walled-up rooms where no one could see them. On the contrary, the statues themselves could, according to the beliefs of the Egyptians, observe life through small holes at eye level.

The mastery of the portrait art by the sculptor was probably facilitated by one of the means by which they tried to save the corpse from decay: sometimes it was covered with plaster. At the same time, a semblance of a plaster mask was obtained on the face. However, since the eyes had to be open to represent the face of a living person, such a mask required additional processing. Apparently, this technique of removing the mask and casting from it was used by sculptors when working on portraits. In some tombs, two types of statues are found: one - conveying the individual features of a person, depicting him without a wig and dressed in the fashion of his time; the other - with a face treated much more idealized, dressed in a short official girdle and in a magnificent wig. The same phenomenon is observed in relief. It is not yet possible to explain this with certainty, it is only certain that these statues reflected various aspects of the funeral cult. In a number of tombs, wooden statues were found, which may have been associated with one of the moments of the funeral ritual, when the statue was raised and lowered several times. The ritual of “opening the mouth and eyes” was performed over the statue, after which it was considered revived and got the opportunity to eat and speak.

In addition to the statues of the dead, in the tomb, especially in the Middle Kingdom, they also placed figures of workers who, it was believed, were supposed to ensure the afterlife of the deceased. From this come other requirements for sculptors - to depict people engaged in the most diverse work. In full accordance with the general requirement of Egyptian art, a characteristic moment is chosen for each lesson, which becomes canonical for this type. The general rules, such as frontality and accepted coloring, are preserved here as well.

Statues played an important role in the architectural design of temples: they bordered the roads leading to the temple, stood at the pylons, in courtyards and interiors. The statues, which had a large architectural and decorative load, differed from purely cult ones. They were made in large sizes, interpreted in a generalized way, without great detail.

The tasks of the sculptors who worked on the cult images of gods, kings and private individuals were different. A large group consisted of royal statues dedicated by the pharaohs to the temple in order to forever put themselves under the protection of the deity. Prayers on such statues usually contain requests for health, well-being, sometimes requests of a political nature. Changes in the field of ideology that occurred after the fall of the Old Kingdom led to changes in the field of art: the pharaoh, seeking to glorify his power, placed his statues not only in the mortuary sanctuaries, but also in the temples of various deities; such figures were supposed to glorify the living ruler and convey the portrait resemblance as specifically as possible.

As a sign of the special mercy of the pharaoh, statues of nobles were also dedicated to the temple, in particular, the architects who built this temple. At first, it was possible to dedicate one’s statue to the temple only with the permission of the pharaoh, but with a change in religious ideas and the spread of some royal rites to the nobility, and then to the middle strata of society, the privilege to dedicate one’s statues to the temple passed to private individuals.

Even by the end of the Old Kingdom, areas were distinguished, the monuments of which are distinguished by their originality. In the Middle Kingdom, centers are defined (in particular, the workshops of Middle Egypt) with their own characteristics and traditions. Light figures with elongated proportions, originating from Siut (modern Asyut), differ from Meir ones with their short heads and emphasized chest muscles; softly interpreted forms of bodies, the absence of sharp lines are characteristic of Abydos sculpture.

The period of the XVIII dynasty is the heyday of Egyptian art, in particular in the field of sculpture. A special direction appeared at the end of this period under the influence of the new religious and philosophical teachings and the state cult created by Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton). Having broken with the old canon, the royal sculptors of that time worked out new artistic principles. At the same time, in an effort to convey the characteristic features of the model, they excessively sharpened and emphasized them. A new canon began to be developed on the basis of the iconography of the pharaoh-reformer himself. However, the later statues of the Amarna period are distinguished by a greater refinement of the image, the absence of exaggerations. The sculptural portraits of Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti from the workshop of the sculptor Jehutimesu are world famous. During the 19th dynasty, there is a return to the old traditions, especially in Thebes. The political situation that developed in the second half of the New Kingdom led to the separation of northern workshops. Statues with mighty torsos, thick arms and legs, broad flat faces were opposed to the outward elegance and grace of sculpture with elongated proportions.