In ancient Egypt, the tombs of pharaohs and important dignitaries were often elaborately decorated. Tomb art was designed by a master artist and then executed by a team of apprentices and workers. It was frequently done in raised relief, but sometimes sunken relief was used instead, or the painting might simply be flat on the wall. The subjects chosen for tomb paintings were scenes from everyday life--or important events in the life of the person entombed if they had done great things--and events from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. You can read about how Egyptian tomb paintings were actually made in Relief, Raised and Sunken: How Egyptian Tomb Paintings Were Made.
Non-Decorative Art
As beautiful as the tomb paintings were, thought, they were not mere decoration. Egyptian tombs were sealed once the deceased was placed inside, so decoration for the sake of visitors would have been pointless.
But what were all these paintings and texts for, if not decoration? They certainly had a decorative function, as the tomb was intended as an earthy house for the parts of the soul that survived death. The ancient Egyptians believed that three forms of the spirit survived the death of the body. These were the ba, or the individual essence of a person, the ka, or life force, and the akh, the part of the spirit that could interact with the living world. The tomb painting provided the spirits of the dead person with views of human life and ensured that they would have all the things depicted when they reached the afterlife.
Magical Art
The scenes from The Book of the Dead had magical associations. The Book contained the secrets the deceased needed in the transition between worlds, from life to afterlife. There were specific places along the journey where the dead had to perform the correct action or recite the proper speech, and the passages from The Book of the Dead painted on the tomb walls helped provide the answers. Many people were also buried with copies of parts of the Book on papyrus scrolls. There were many spells in the Book that could be of use to a spirit journeying through the underworld. One spell tells the spirit how to protect itself from having its head cut off and another allows it to turn into a falcon. One funerary text that is commonly found on the walls and ceilings of tombs is called the Am Duat. It is an illustrated guide to the underworld and records the twelve hours that the sun god Ra spends under the earth each night.
While we can look on Egyptian tomb painting as attractive and skilled art, it was more than that to the Egyptians who had the paintings made. They were meant to be beautiful, but they also had an important task. Tomb paintings helped the spirit of the deceased find its way safely through the perils of the underworld and provided a good life to the spirit once it reached the afterlife.
Sources
Gore, Rick. “Ramses the Great.” National Geographic 179.4 (April 1991): 2-31.
Gougaud, Henri and Colette Gouvion. Egypt Observed. (1980) New York: Gallery Books, 1986.
James, T.G.H. An Introduction to Ancient Egypt. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.
Mertz, Barbara. Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt. Rev. ed. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co, 1978.
Starr, Chester G. A History of the Ancient World. New York and Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991.
Time-Life Books. What Life Was Like on the Banks of the Nile: Egypt 3050-30 BC. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life, 1997.
Weeks, Kent R. “Valley of the Kings.” National Geographic 194.3 (September 1998): 2-33.
 |
