"All the old paintings on the tombs" where the figures they depict are "walking like an Egyptian" were the subject of a song by The Bangles in 1986. One of the most striking features of ancient Egyptian visual art is the depiction of people, animals and objects on a two-dimensional plane. The ancient Egyptians did this. Is ancient Egypt the only place to make art in this style?
The illusion of perspective on a flat surface can be created with a specific viewpoint. The artist needs to depict just one surface of the object in a two-dimensional drawing. It turns out that highlighting just one surface has benefits.
According to John Baines, professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford in the U.K., the outline is the most important part of a picture. If it is defined by an outline, it is easier to comprehend.
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Even though details from several sides of the object are included in Egyptian drawings and paintings, the outline is the most important feature. Baines said there is a focus on clarity and comprehensibility.
According to Baines, "size equals importance." The royalty and tomb owners are often depicted larger than the objects around them. It would be against the principle to use a three-dimensional perspective to make a realistic scene with a foreground and background.
The creation of a visual narrative is one of the reasons why many objects are depicted on a two-dimensional plane.
Baines said that a comic strip is a parallel. Ancient Egyptian visual art was created and interpreted by many principles. Writing and pictures used to be in horizontal columns. The caption gives you information that isn't easy to put in a picture. These scenes don't represent actual events but a representation of life.
Not all depictions in ancient Egypt were two-dimensional. Most of the art was placed in a building. Relief modeling, also known as bas relief, is a method of carving a mostly flat sculpture into a wall. The tomb of Akhethotep, a royal official who lived during the Fifth Dynasty around 2400 B.C., has two sphinxes carved into the wall. Baines explained that the relief model the body surface so you can't say it's a flat outline.
Artists painted on top of a relief to add more detail to many examples from the Early Dynastic Period.
Baines said that Egyptian visual art used more or less universal human approaches to representation.
Baines said that Egyptian art influenced art in the Near East. Many ancient traditions of art have the same rules. Depictions and script are used in Maya art. Even though classical Greek and Roman art is an exception, there are examples of similar artistic conventions for two-dimensional drawing and painting from Medieval Europe. Baines said there was no need to change the system.
It was originally published on Live Science
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