Through the Eras

Visual Artsthe figure in half and/or in thirds. A line at the lowerborder of the buttocks divided the figure in half. Linesat the elbow and the knee divided the figure into thirds.Artists drew additional lines at the top of the head, atthe junction of the hairline and forehead, at the pointwhere the neck and shoulders meet, at the armpit, andat the calf. The base line of the register marked the bottomof the figure’s foot. The proportions that were maintainedmade the distance from the bottom of the foot tothe neck and shoulder line equal to eight-ninths of thefigure’s height. The distance from the bottom of the footto the armpit was four-fifths of the figure’s total height.This series of proportions gave figures their uniformityand most likely aided artists in drawing a figure on alarge scale.GRIDS IN THE MIDDLE KINGDOM. Grids ofsquares probably developed from guidelines. Grids werecertainly in use by the Middle Kingdom (2008–1630B.C.E.). Eighteen squares separated the hairline fromthe bottom of the foot in the Middle Kingdom grid.Various body parts also fell on regular grid lines. Forexample, the meeting point of the neck and shoulderswas at horizontal sixteen, the elbow at horizontal ninesix squares wide, similar in proportion to Old Kingdomfigures. Females were more slender with shoulders betweenfour and five squares wide.GRIDS IN THE NEW KINGDOM. The proportionsof figures changed in the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty(1550–1295 B.C.E.), becoming more elongated. Thesmall of the back rose from gridline eleven to gridlinetwelve, making the leg longer in proportion to thebody. At the same time, the width of the shoulders wasreduced from six squares to five squares. This reductionalso made the figure more elongated and gracefulin the New Kingdom (1538–1075 B.C.E.) than it waspreviously.LATE PERIOD GRID. Egyptian artists of the firstmillennium B.C.E. used a grid with twenty-one horizontallines rather than the eighteen lines used previously.Though the exact time when the transition fromeighteen to twenty-one squares was made is unknown,artists of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty (730–661 B.C.E.)were surely using the twenty-one square grid to lay outrelief sculpture. The new grid squares were thus fivesixthsof the old grid squares. In the new system thefollowing correspondences were made. Line twenty-onepassed through the root of the nose and upper eyelid.Line twenty passed through the mouth. Line nineteenpassed through the junction of the neck and shoulders.Line thirteen passed through the small of the back. Lineeleven passed near the lower buttocks. Line seven passedthrough at the top of the knee. Line zero, the baseline,passed through the sole of the foot. The result of thesechanges was a slight change in the proportions of thefigure. The knees, small of the back, and buttocks areall lower than in figures drawn on the Late Period gridsthan in the Middle and New Kingdom grids. Thus thetorso and upper leg appear longer in proportion to thebody as a whole in the Late Period than in the Middleand New Kingdom. This change is clear in figures untilthe end of ancient Egyptian history. However, themeaning of this change is not clear. The art historianErik Iverson suggested that the grid changed to accommodatea new measuring system that used a shorter unitof measurement. The Egyptologist Gay Robins convincinglyargued that the Late Period system used thesame measuring system but regularized the grid to makecalculations easier. In the early system the arm lengthwas five grid squares. This distance was the hypotheticalvalue of one cubit. A cubit was divided into six palms.A five-square arm thus equaled grid squares one and onefifthpalm wide and long. The new Late Period gridsquare used an arm length that was six squares long. Thusin the Late Period grid square each square was equal tothe measurement one palm. All calculations would besimpler using grid squares equivalent to one palm ratherthan equivalent to one and one-fifth palm.INGENIOUS TECHNIQUE. The grid was an ingeniousand simple way to maintain proper proportions for figuresno matter how large or small they were reproduced.Artists could maintain the same proportions for a sculptureonly twelve inches tall as in sixty-foot tall sculpturesin front of temples. This technique is also one element inthe tendency of one work of Egyptian art to resemble allothers.SOURCESGay Robins, Proportion and Style in Ancient Egyptian Art(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994).EARLIEST EGYPTIAN ARTSTYLISTIC BREAK. The earliest Egyptian art, createdduring the pre-dynastic period (4400–3100 B.C.E.), exhibitsa coherent style that does not continue into historical,dynastic times (after 3100 B.C.E.). All of thisart comes from graves that belonged to non-elite, nongovernmentalpeople. The objects created for thesetombs might be considered folk art. The earliest art ishandcrafted pottery with a surface ripple that potterscreated by running a comb over the surface. This pot-272 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)