Through the Eras

Visual Artsin the second register, Narmer was portrayed double thesize of his sandal bearer and prime minister. The standardbearers are half the size of the sandal bearer andprime minister. The scale of any one person was basedon his or her importance in society rather than actualsize. This method of depicting figures is called “hieraticscale.”ICONOGRAPHY. The Narmer Palette uses standardiconography for the king for the first time that we knowof in Egyptian history. On the obverse the king wearsthe cone-shaped White Crown of Upper Egypt. He alsowears a bull’s tail and a false beard that were associatedonly with the king. On the reverse the king wears a similarcostume, but this time with the Red Crown of LowerEgypt. Many commentators have associated the wearingof each crown on the palette with the unification ofEgypt about 3,000 B.C.E.HIEROGLYPHIC LABELS. Narmer’s name appearsin hieroglyphic writing at the top of both sides of thepalette. It is also written in front of his face on the reverse.Hieroglyphic labels also identify the sandal bearerand the prime minister. These labels personalize theseimages, which otherwise could represent any king, primeminister, or sandal bearer. Hieroglyphic labels were astandard feature of Egyptian art.SOURCESCyril Aldred, Egyptian Art in the Days of the Pharaohs (NewYork: Thames and Hudson, 1985): 33–36.EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD ARTFORMULATED LONG-STANDING STRATEGIES. Duringthe Early Dynastic period (3100–2675 B.C.E.) andthe Third Dynasty (2675–2625 B.C.E.), Egyptian artistsformulated basic strategies for their works of art that theirdescendents continued to utilize for the next 3,000 years.Objects such as stelae with relief carving, seated statuesof kings, standing deities, and seated private officials assumeda form in art that remained quite static. Yet Egyptologistsnotice significant differences in style and in thedetails that distinguish this period from later works ofart. Continuity and change of this sort is a defining characteristicof Egyptian art.The Stela of Wadj. THE ART ARCHIVE/MUSÉE DU LOUVREPARIS/DAGLI ORTI.STELA OF WADJ. King Wadj, who ruled Egypt sometime in mid-Dynasty One (3100–2800 B.C.E.), erectedtwo stelae in front of his tomb in Abydos in middleEgypt. The stelae marked the place where worshippersmade offerings after the king’s burial. The relief on thetwo stelae emphasizes the centrality of the king to Egyptiansociety and the king’s link with the gods. In the relief,a falcon, the hieroglyphic writing of the god Horus’sname, perches on a rectangle. Within the rectangle isan image of a cobra, the hieroglyphic writing of Wadj’sname. Below the snake and completing the rectangle arethree tall towers with niches forming the gateway toWadj’s palace, called a serekh. Conceptually this compositionconveyed that when Wadj was in his palace, hewas the earthly incarnation of the god Horus. This themewould be constant in Egyptian art, though later artistsfound other ways to portray this idea. Here the artistused the fact that hieroglyphs are pictures to portray thisidea in a clear but also beautiful way.MULTIPLE VIEWS. Wadj’s stela also illustrates theEgyptian method of portraying multiple views of bothanimals and buildings in two-dimensional art. Thoughthe Horus falcon is in profile, his tail twists unnaturallyinto a top view to reveal the square tail that helps a vieweridentify him. The artist also combined a frontal view ofthe palace façade, a profile of the cobra, and a top viewof the rectangular plan of the palace into one continuouswhole. Thus the artist can portray all of the importantidentifying criteria of an object with one relief.276 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)