page_title: Old Kingdom of Egypt
section_title: Art
hierarchical_section_title: Old Kingdom of Egypt / Art
caption_attribution_description: Triad statue of pharaoh Menkaura, accompanied by the goddess Hathor (on his right) and the personification of the nome of Diospolis Parva (on his left). Material:Graywacke. Dimensions:Height 93 cm Width 47 cm
context_page_description: In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2686–2181 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth Dynasty, such as King Sneferu, who perfected the art of pyramid-building, and the kings Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, who constructed the pyramids at Giza. Egypt attained its first sustained peak of civilization during the Old Kingdom, the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley.
  The concept of an "Old Kingdom" as one of three "golden ages" was coined in 1845 by the German Egyptologist Baron von Bunsen, and its definition would evolve significantly throughout the 19th and the 20th centuries. Not only was the last king of the Early Dynastic Period related to the first two kings of the Old Kingdom, but the "capital", the royal residence, remained at Ineb-Hedg, the Ancient Egyptian name for Memphis.
context_section_description: The most defining feature of ancient Egyptian art is its function, as that was the entire purpose of creation. Art was not made for enjoyment in the strictest sense, but rather served a role of some kind in Egyptian religion and ideology. This fact manifests itself in the artistic style, even as it evolved over the dynasties. The three primary principles of that style, frontality, composite composition, and hierarchy scale, illustrates this quite well. These characteristics, initiated in the Early Dynastic Period and solidified during the Old Kingdom, persisted with some adaptability throughout the entirety of ancient Egyptian history as the foundation of its art.
  Frontality, the first principle, indicates that art was viewed directly from the front. One was meant to approach a piece as they would a living individual, for it was meant to be a place of manifestation. The act of interaction would bring forth the divine entity represented in the art. It was therefore imperative that whomever was represented be as identifiable as possible. The guide lines developed in the Old Kingdom and the later grid system developed in the Middle Kingdom ensured that art was axial, symmetrical, proportional, and most importantly reproducible and therefore recognizable. Composite composition, the second principle, also contributes to the goal of identification. Multiple perspective were used in order to ensure that the onlooker could determine precisely what they saw. Though Egyptian art almost always includes descriptive text, literacy rates were not high, so the art gave another method for communicating the same information. One of the best examples of composite composition is the human form. In most two-dimensional relief, the head, legs, and feet are seen in profile, while the torso faces directly front. Another common example is an aerial view of a building or location. The third principle, hierarchy of scale, illustrates relative importance in society. The larger the figure, the more important the individual. The king is usually the largest, aside from deities. Similarity in size equated similarity in position. However, this is not to say that physical differences weren't shown as well. Women, for example, are usually shown as smaller than men. Children retain adult features and proportions, but are substantially smaller in size.
  Aside from the three primary conventions, there are several characteristics that can help date a piece to a particular time frame. Proportions of the human figure are one of the most distinctive, as they vary between kingdoms. Old Kingdom male figures have characteristically broad shoulders and a long torso, with obvious musculature. On the other hand, females are narrower in the shoulders and waist, with longer legs and a shorter torso. However, in the Sixth Dynasty, the male figures lose their muscularity and their shoulders narrow. Eye also tend to get much larger. In order to help maintain the consistency of these proportions, the Egyptians used a series of eight guidelines to divide the body. They occurred at the following locations: the top of the head, the hairline, the base of the neck, the underarms, the tip of the elbow or the bottom of the ribcage, the top of the thigh at the bottom of the buttocks, the knee, and the middle of the lower leg. From the soles of the feet to the hairline was also divided into thirds, one-third between the soles and the knee, another third between the knee and the elbow, and the final third from the elbow to the hairline. The broad shoulders that appeared in the Fifth Dynasty constituted roughly that one-third length as well. These proportions not only help with the identification of representations and the reproduction of art, but also tie into the Egyptian ideal of order, which tied into the solar aspect of their religion and the inundations of the Nile.
  Though the above concepts apply to most, if not all, figures in Egyptian art, there are additional characteristics that applied to the representations of the king. Their appearance was not an exact rendering of the k
caption: Statue of Menkaure with Hathor and Anput from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Demonstrates a group statue of graywacke with Old Kingdom features and proportions.[19]
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