Egyptian 18th Dynasty

The 18th dynasty in Egypt encompasses an age often referred to as the new empire, or the third high period of Egypt. A time of change had come. Egypt is a country that historically has rarely avoided conflict. With the beginning of the 18th dynasty, a kind of calm period set in and the glorious time of the pharaohs came. Egyptian art remained on a relatively low level until then. Art was made for the dead. The flat-painted art that decorated the tombs of the deceased was of simple elaboration and design. With the pharaohs, the understanding of art changed. The Valley of the Kings became the central point of the stately tombs. The chosen place became the link between the belief in the gods and the cult of the dead. The work of the artists was no longer to serve a single purpose, it was to enable the dead kings to live on magnificently and were intended as mild-mannered offerings to the benevolence of the gods. When Howard Carter opened the tomb of Tutankhamun, it revealed an almost unimaginable magnificence with works of art from the 18th Dynasty. The artists used materials of inestimable value. Precious stones, gold, silver and copper were used in the grave goods. It is hard to imagine that in parallel in Europe the Bronze Age was drawing to a close.

An excellent example of 18th Dynasty art is the statue of the ruler Hatshepsut. The only woman to have ever ruled Egypt, it can be admired today in Metropolitan Museum. The pharaoh appears impossibly young, polished stone makes her skin shimmer and her face has fine features. The viewer might mistake her for a ballet dancer rather than Egypt's only queen. Artist Judy Chicago has reserved a place for the queen in her installation The Dinner Party.

An important task of the Egyptian artists was to choose a precise and unambiguous form of representation. From today's perspective, the individual motifs appear simple and schematic, yet the murals tell detailed stories. With the closing of the graves the stories should become alive and accompany the way of the dead. The artists proceeded systematically in the creation of the murals. Sketches were made on papyrus and these were transferred to the walls with bold colors. Strings stretched beforehand marked the exact position for the motifs. To protect the soul of the dead, all works of art were made according to strict rules of representation. The Egyptian art of mural painting follows geometric regularities in the arrangement of recurring elements. The result is a harmonious and balanced impression, which is unique in this form. The sculptors and painters of the 18th dynasty would not be artists in the modern sense, as they lacked creative and artistic freedom, yet their representations still find imitators and admirers many centuries later.