Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian Color

The first half this year was marked by a series of archaeological discoveries in Egypt. What caught the eye of the foremost was the preservation of the many pieces of varied colors, in order that some coffins and statues emerged from under the sand as if they had been deposited in them yesterday.

Among the foremost prominent of those discoveries announced by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities during this era are the ascension city of Aten in Luxor, the painting of King Amenhotep II within the Karnak temples in Luxor, the wells and burial coffins and therefore the funerary temple of Queen Naart, wife of King Titi within the Saqqara area of Giza.

 Among the foremost visible and distinguished in its bright colors are the discoveries of Saqqara, until exclamation and question marks arose again about the standard of the materials employed by the traditional Egyptians within the manufacture and fixation of colours , and whether the utilization of every color had a special philosophy that made its meaning different from what our eyes wont to interpret for colors today.

environment secret

 The chief archaeologist at the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, Dr. Magdy Shaker, explains that the key within the art of colours within the Egyptian civilization is thanks to the utilization of natural stones from the valleys and mountains located in Luxor in Upper Egypt and in southern Sinai, which contain stones of gradient colors between red, green and yellow.

 As for the fixation of colours , Shaker told Sky News Arabia that the stage of fixing the natural color the inscriptions and drawings, during which the traditional Egyptian relied on materials extracted from tree resin and eggs, additionally to chemicals, the key of their composition are often discovered through the study and analysis of the colours of the tombs.

color models

 Al-Shamaa gives, for example, that the temples of Abydos in Sohag and Habu in Luxor are among the most distinguished temples in the colors of the walls until today, noting that the time factor is an important element for mastering the art of color in tombs and temples.

 He explains this point of time by saying: "The tomb of King Ramses IX is a vivid example of the element of time for the completeness of colors, as the colors of the entrance to the tomb are distinguished by their beauty and clarity despite the passage of 3 thousand years, and the next room appears carved without complete inscriptions and colors, and the burial room is very small in poor condition with a ceiling level.  colorful law.

 He explained the reason for the incompleteness of the tomb due to the death of its owner;  This prompted the workers to complete the cemetery and the burial chamber in only 70 days (the embalming period of the deceased).

 The Medinet Habu temple is distinguished by inscriptions and colors of a warlike nature, to refer to the battles led by King Ramses III, while the Abydos temple presented a different model in colors and symbols for the overlapping of letters and inscriptions together.

symbolic not random

 The Egyptian artist's choice of colours within the inscriptions wasn't purely a coincidence, but each color carried a selected significance that developed with the event of art over the ages and families.

 For instance , the blue color in its various degrees may be a joyful color for the traditional Egyptians, because it symbolizes the colour of the sky, until it had been referred to as an Egyptian color because most of the drawings

contained it, consistent with Shaker.

Queen Ahmose Nefertari 

 And about the remainder of the colours , he said: "The pharaonic art symbolized the land and giving in black and green, and therefore the green color was utilized in the symbol for water, therefore the statue of Queen Ahmose Nefertari was designed in black as a logo of land and giving."

The golden and yellow color - according to the expert - was chosen for the statues of kings in reference to the color of the sun, in addition to the red color denoting the forces of good and evil, such as the statue of the idol Set "the symbol of evil" in the Egyptian civilization;  Which means that the colors carried religious symbols as well.

 He points out that the art of color in the civilization of Egypt has rules, starting with the selection of drawings and their colors inside the cemetery in a certain way, and inside the burial room in another way.

 People were drawn in 114 squares, while animals were drawn between 60 to 70 squares on the walls, in addition to drawing the face of the deceased person from the side inside the tomb.

 He explained that all the drawings did not bear the signature of one artist, since these rules were subject to the authority of the priests and not a specific person.

Reality and the other world

Mentuhoteb II

 The Egyptian Museum in central Cairo contains a statue of King Mentuhotep II in a sitting position, wearing a red crown over his head and appearing with huge legs, face and hands painted in black.

 The reason for sculpting the legs of the statue of this size is due to the king’s infection with “elephant disease” that spread during this period in central Africa, in addition to the fact that the black color is the skin color of Mentuhotep II, and the red crown is evidence of the unification of the country again in the middle country.

 There are other explanations for this, related to the fact that the black color is a symbol of the color of the soil and fertility, especially that the statue is carved in the form of Osiris, where Osiris was the god of fertility caused by the brown silt of Egypt, and most of his statues are colored either in black or green.

 The enlargement of the feet has other explanations as well, related either to the lack of mastery of the sculptor in making this statue in a period when Egypt was almost emerging from a previous chaotic era, or that the artist wanted to express the greatness of his ruler with a huge statue, but the feet came out larger than they should.

 

As for the association of colors with war and the other world, Al-Shamaa says that "King Tutankhamun appeared with the blue crown (Khabresh) in bright colors, which is the crown of war battles and a guide to military strength and will in drawings on the walls of his tomb, in order to appear before the deities as a leader and transform these colors and inscriptions  to reality in the other world.

 Al-Shammaa concludes his interview with Sky News Arabia by saying that the uses of colors in the Egyptian civilization differed according to ritual and religious signs, or for the purpose of simulating the truth or showing manifestations of beauty, sophistication and art.