A special issue of Arts (ISSN 2076-0752).
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue will focus on ancient Egyptian Art as a dynamic. Artistic production is here envisioned as being in motion and taking part in a constant feedback loop of competing actors.
Art itself is understood as an agent, which works on multiple people: the artists, the commissioners and the consumers.
This Issue will underline how art acts upon society as a tool of power and eventually leads to identity questions, both for people who controlled human and economic resources and for those who could not afford monumental self-commemoration. Inclusion into certain parts of “high” society created opportunities and/or demands for art production; those close to but not within “high” society tried to emulate elite creations. Craftsmen/artist-producers and merchant-procurers found themselves negotiating much of this dynamic and are, thus, a part of it. In this highly competitive context, elite and non-elite were, thus, part of a never-ending competing sphere, using art production as a means of messaging their social place.
Art starts with the actors and their agenda. It is, thus, socially reactive. Commissioners both innovated newness and reverted to the past, sometimes with the same social goals in mind. Art, therefore, encapsulated the hierarchy dynamics and social changes of ancient Egyptian society while forcing its multiple actors to interact.
From this perspective, this Issue will re-examine epistemological and ontological questions about ancient Egyptian art and its fundamental actors. It will question how innovations were created, in which circumstances people manipulated past productions and how iconographic motives were put into motion for the purposes of creating useful social identities. It will underline how powerful art can be, whether put into the hands of the upper elite or their subordinates.
Prof. Dr. Kathlyn Cooney
Dr. Alisee Devillers
Guest Editors
Exploring Artistic Hierarchies among Painters in Ramesside Deir el-MedinaArts 2024, 13(5), 141; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13050141 - 20 Sep 2024Viewed by 969AbstractScholarship has described Deir el-Medina as a sophisticated community composed of highly trained and educated individuals, at least compared to most ancient Egyptian villages that were primarily focused on agrarian labor. The tombs at Deir el-Medina indicate that some community members were well-off [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
The Forces of the Hyksos and Their Representations: Glimpse of Reality or interpretatio Thebarum?Arts 2024, 13(6), 185; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13060185 - 16 Dec 2024Viewed by 593AbstractNot much is known about the forces of the Hyksos, 15th Dynasty rulers of the Second Intermediate Period in Egypt. This was a time when Egypt and Nubia were divided between several competing royal houses and corresponding dynasties, e.g., the 14th and 15th [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
Emotions and the Manifestation of Ancient Egyptian Royal Power: A Consideration of the Twin Stelae at Abu SimbelArts 2024, 13(6), 174; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13060174 - 20 Nov 2024Viewed by 469AbstractDrawing on methods and theories from the history of emotions, this paper examines the Twin Stelae that flank the entrance into Ramses II’s Great Temple at Abu Simbel in order to investigate the feelings associated with ancient Egyptian kingship from an ideological perspective. [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
Marginalized Textile Producers in New Kingdom EgyptArts 2024, 13(6), 171; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13060171 - 18 Nov 2024Viewed by 485AbstractTextiles were ubiquitous in the elite Egyptian cultural sphere—from clothing, furniture coverings, and wall decorations to grave goods and temple offerings. The Egyptian world was draped in cloth, yet the producers were often marginalized members of society—immigrants, war captives, and women, who produced [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
The “Invisible” Side of Yellow Coffins—The Set of the Chantress of Amun Tanethereret in the Musée du Louvre and Some Considerations on the Production of Yellow Coffins in the First Half of the 21st DynastyArts 2024, 13(6), 170; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13060170 - 11 Nov 2024Viewed by 1185AbstractThrough the coffin set of Tanethereret—dated to the first half of the 21st Dynasty—this article aims to underline the importance of analysing the masks and human features of ancient Egyptian yellow coffins and their value in disclosing new and important information about the [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
Artistic Production in a Necropolis in MotionArts 2024, 13(6), 165; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13060165 - 30 Oct 2024Viewed by 560AbstractThe present article studies aspects of the artistic production at New Kingdom Saqqara, a necropolis of the ancient Egyptian royal residence city Memphis. Following a brief review of the functions of ancient Egyptian tombs, this article will first set out to scrutinize the [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
Lebanese Cedar, Skeuomorphs, Coffins, and Status in Ancient EgyptArts 2024, 13(6), 163; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13060163 - 22 Oct 2024Viewed by 1115AbstractIn ancient Egypt, as with many cultures, funerary objects often communicated aspects of access, power, and social status. Lebanese cedar, for instance, was selected as a particularly desirable material from which to craft the coffins of Egypt’s upper echelons. This imported timber was [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
Shaping New Identities in the First Intermediate Period (2160–2050 BC): Archers and Warriors in the Iconography of Upper EgyptArts 2024, 13(5), 157; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13050157 - 11 Oct 2024Viewed by 994AbstractThe First Intermediate Period was a time of cultural innovation and social competition. The collapse of the monarchy and the cultural productions it sponsored paved the way for the emergence of new artistic and cultural expressions, better adapted to a context of fragile [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
The Author Takes a Bow: A Self-Portrait in Assistenza in the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-BahariArts 2024, 13(5), 142; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13050142 - 20 Sep 2024Viewed by 1653AbstractIn art-historical terms, a self-portrait in assistenza refers to an artist having inserted their own likeness into a larger work. In Renaissance-era art, more than 90 examples have been identified, famously including Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi (c. 1478/1483). There, Botticelli glances out [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
Soldiers and Prisoners in Motion in Mesopotamian Iconography during the Early Bronze AgeArts 2024, 13(4), 132; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040132 - 6 Aug 2024Viewed by 1336AbstractMilitary images of the ancient Near East during the Early Bronze Age are characterized by one of their main features: the serial reproduction of soldiers and prisoners, side by side, the former clearly identifiable by the visual signs of power they bear and [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
Imperial Art: Duality on Tanwetamani’s Dream StelaArts 2024, 13(4), 128; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040128 - 29 Jul 2024Viewed by 1071AbstractIn the 7th century BCE, the Kushite king Tanwetamani commissioned his “Dream Stela”, which was to be erected in the Amun Temple of Jebel Barkal. The lunette of the stela features a dualistic artistic motif whose composition, meaning, and significance are understudied despite [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
Egyptian Art in Colonized Nubia: Representing Power and Social Structure in the New Kingdom Tombs of Djehutyhotep, Hekanefer and PennutArts 2024, 13(4), 118; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040118 - 14 Jul 2024Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1526AbstractMonumental rock-cut tombs decorated with wall paintings or reliefs were rare in New Kingdom colonial Nubia. Exceptions include the 18th Dynasty tombs of Djehutyhotep (Debeira) and Hekanefer (Miam), and the 20th Dynasty tomb of Pennut (Aniba). The three tombs present typical Egyptian artistic [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
Reviving Ancient Egypt in the Renaissance Hieroglyph: Humanist Aspirations to ImmortalityArts 2024, 13(4), 116; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040116 - 8 Jul 2024Viewed by 1981AbstractIn his On the Art of Building, Renaissance humanist Leon Battista Alberti wrote that the ancient Egyptians believed that alphabetical languages would one day all be lost, but the pictorial method of writing they used could be understood easily by intellectuals everywhere [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
How Many Lives for a Mesopotamian Statue?Arts 2024, 13(4), 111; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040111 - 21 Jun 2024Viewed by 939AbstractAmong the indicators of the value and power ascribed to statues in Mesopotamia, reuse is a particularly significant one. By studying some of the best-documented examples of the usurpation and reassignment of a new function to sculptures in the round from the 3rd [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
The Creative Impulse: Innovation and Emulation in the Role of the Egyptian Artist during the New Kingdom—Unusual Details from Theban Funerary ArtArts 2024, 13(3), 109; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13030109 - 19 Jun 2024Viewed by 1512AbstractThe present research analyses the role of the Egyptian artist within the context of New Kingdom art, paying attention to the appearance of new details in Theban tomb chapels that reflect the originality of their creators. On the one hand, the visibility of [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
Leaving the “Discomfort” Zone: The Correlation between Politics and New Artistic Practices at the Beginning of the 19th DynastyArts 2024, 13(3), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13030098 - 30 May 2024Viewed by 1051AbstractAt the end of the Amarna Period, a process of political and religious restoration began. This attempt at recovery went beyond the strictly official, as the Egyptian society seemed to demand a moral reparation. It was a much-needed change that would encompass all [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
Through the Eyes of the Beholder: Motifs (Re)Interpreted in the 27th DynastyArts 2024, 13(3), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13030076 - 23 Apr 2024Viewed by 1783AbstractThis paper aims to highlight examples of artistic motifs common throughout Egyptian history but augmented in novel ways during the 27th Dynasty, a time when Egypt was part of the Achaemenid empire and ruled by Persian kings. These kings represented themselves as traditional [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
Dialogues between Past and Present? Modern Art, Contemporary Art Practice, and Ancient Egypt in the MuseumArts 2024, 13(3), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13030099 - 30 May 2024Viewed by 1691AbstractWhenever twentieth-century modern art or new contemporary artworks are included amongst displays of ancient Egypt, press statements often assert that such juxtapositions are ‘surprising’, ‘innovative’, and ‘fresh’, celebrating the external perspective they bring to such collections. But contemporary art’s relationship with museums and [...] Read more.(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)► Show Figures
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