There were three main periods of high artistic achievement in the art of ancient Egypt: the Old Kingdom (c.2686-c.2181 BC), the Middle Kingdom (c.2133-c.1786 BC), and the New Kingdom (c.1570-c.1085 BC). These were preceded by a Predynastic Period (c.3500-c.3100 BC) and a formative Early Dynastic Period (c.3100-c.2686 BC), during which the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt was accomplished by King \TMenes\t. Religion and the monarchy were the two major influences on the art of ancient Egypt. The Egyptians believed firmly in an afterlife, and the mortuary cult played an extremely important role in Egyptian civilization, determining the nature of much of its artistic production. Architecture The works that have survived from ancient Egypt consist almost entirely of spectacular funerary monuments, such as the world-famous pyramids and temples. Very little is known about the nonreligious architecture--the palaces, public buildings, and private houses--of ancient Egypt. The principal reason for this is that religious buildings and tombs were constructed of such durable materials as limestone, sandstone, and granite. Moreover, their location was favorable to their enduring: they were built on the edge of the desert, beyond the reach of the Nile, which overflowed its banks every year. Palaces, public buildings, houses, and other examples of secular architecture, on the other hand, generally employed perishable materials, such as reeds, wood, and mud brick (sun-dried blocks of clay, precursors of kiln-fired bricks). Furthermore, the secular buildings of ancient Egypt were situated in the damp, fertile portion of the Nile Valley and thus were subject to annual flooding. Temples. The \Ttemple\t was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as "the god's house." As such it was intended to be permanent, and so it was built of durable materials. In addition, and more important, the temple was seen as a static model of the universe. The building of such a monument was therefore an event of enormous ritual import. In bringing the various components together to form a coherent whole, the master builder was constructing a miniature cosmos; he was repeating, in a sense, the creation of the world. Initially there were many different types of temples, none of which predominated. The earliest types were chapels consisting of a single room and simple pavilions constructed of stone. An example is the pavilion of Sesostris I at \TKarnak\t; the present building on this site is a reconstruction. The later hypostyle temple was composed of several halls and chambers situated one behind the other, the main halls being surrounded by a colonnade of square pillars. Eventually, round, not square, pillars became standard, and their capitals and shafts were decorated with brightly painted plant motifs, especially papyrus, lotus, and palm leaves. Funerary Monuments. The early Egyptians buried their dead in a pit beneath the house. Later, burial was at the edge of the desert, and the custom developed of piling earth onto planking placed over the grave. The burial mound thus formed was surrounded by a wall of sun-dried brick, and it was from this that the \Tmastaba\t eventually developed--a rectangular superstructure usually several meters high and many meters long. Because the graves of ancient Egypt were frequently plundered, the funerary chamber was placed at increasingly greater depth and was connected with the superstructure by a perpendicular shaft. The walls of the superstructure were provided with false doors to permit the soul of the dead person to leave and reenter the tomb. During the early part of the Old Kingdom the mastaba gave rise to the \Tpyramid\t, which became the characteristic structure for royal burials. The most awe-inspiring pyramids are those of King Zoser, at \TSaqqara\t (3d dynasty, c.2686-2613 BC), and the three pyramids at \TGiza\t (4th dynasty, c.2613-2494 BC), belonging to \TKhufu\t, \TKhafre\t, and \TMenkaure\t. Pyramids continued to be built later, but on a much smaller scale. During the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom, royal graves were sunk deep into the sides of mountains. The site of each such tomb was marked by a mortuary temple. A passage several hundred meters in length led from the temple to a special gateway constructed at the junction of the Nile Valley and the desert to provide access to the temple. Examples that have survived include the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut at \TDeir el-Bahri\t (c.1490-c.1470 BC) and the gigantic temple (1257 BC) of \TRamses II\t at \TAbu Simbel\t. A tomb was regarded as the deceased's home, and consequently great pains were taken with its construction. Reliefs and wall paintings in tombs depicted the everyday life of the deceased in the hope that he or she would thus be enabled to live a similar life in the hereafter. The deceased was provided with food and objects for his or her personal use. Funerary monuments, like temples, were built to survive the passage of the centuries. The most richly arrayed tomb yet discovered is that of the 18th-dynasty king \TTutankhamen\t, discovered by the British archaeologist Howard \TCarter\t in 1922. Secular Architecture. The most reliable and complete information about domestic architecture is supplied by the model houses and the building descriptions that have been discovered in tombs. Private houses differed little from the early temples. Both had a rectangular ground plan and were divided into rooms. Another common feature was their single-storied construction. The rooms were situated around a central courtyard, which was the source of light. The house was surrounded by an outer wall in which there was a single entrance. Houses in Egyptian towns were built close together and opened onto narrow, winding streets, which could be closed off into blocks by means of gates. Royal palaces had the same layout as private houses, differing from them only in scale and, presumably, luxuriousness. The palace was frequently situated near a temple complex. Sculpture In sculpture, as in other branches of art, the works that have been preserved are mostly objects associated with burial and religious ceremonies. The many portrait statues that have survived, varying from a few centimeters to over 20 m (65 ft) in height, were produced for either tombs or temples. Many are furnished with the name of the person depicted, although in some cases the original name was later erased and another substituted for it. Notable objects from the Predynastic Period are the human and animal figurines, the significance of which is uncertain, found at Naqada, in Upper Egypt. Slate cosmetic palettes also appeared during this period. The most important of these is the Narmer Palette, a shield-shaped plaque commemorating the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by King Narmer (who is sometimes identified with King Menes). Funerary statues of kings, such as the seated figure of Khafre known as the Great Cephren (Egyptian Museum, Cairo), were life-sized and made from hard stone such as granite or diorite. Statues of private individuals were usually smaller and made of softer stone, such as limestone, or of wood. Sculpture was painted, but the original colors have often disappeared. In sculpture in the round, the seated human figure was almost always depicted in the same way: the subject faces forward, with the knees drawn together and the hands often resting on the thighs. Funerary sculpture also depicted standing figures such as that of the high priest Ranofer from Saqqara (Egyptian Museum, Cairo). Here, too, the frontal posture is standard, with the left foot placed before the right and the arms hanging by the sides. As early as the Old Kingdom, standing and seated figures were portrayed in groups and carved from a single block. A fine example is the 4th-dynasty double portrait representing the standing figures of King Menkaure and his wife, Queen Khamerernebty (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Funerary statues were often placed in a serdab--an enclosed space inside the tomb connected to the sacrificial chamber by two small holes or a narrow slit. This arrangement prevented the statues from being seen while at the same time allowing the depicted personages to look through the openings in the serdab and thereby participate in the ritual being performed. Statues of private individuals, such as the famous Seated Scribe (Louvre, Paris), lack the air of divine authority projected by images of the pharaohs and thus appear more lively and personal. In addition to statues of the deceased, funerary sculptures include small wooden, stone, or faience statues, called ushabti figures, placed in tombs to perform any menial tasks that might be required of the deceased in the afterlife. Sculptures portraying a \Tsphinx\t, composed of a lion's body with a human head, first appeared during the Old Kingdom. The most famous sphinx forms part of the pyramid complex at Giza and measures approximately 57 m (187 ft) long and 20 m (65.5 ft) high. The sculpture of the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom was essentially a continuation of the Old Kingdom tradition, but its subject matter was more varied. Greater affluence in Egyptian society led to an increase in the amount of sculpture produced. From the Middle Kingdom onward, temple sculpture included not only monumental portraits of rulers but also statues of private persons, placed either before the temple or in its court. A new form to emerge was the cube-shaped squatting figure, dressed in a long robe that covered the knees and the legs as far as the ankles. Key works from the New Kingdom are the immense seated statues of Amenhotep III near Thebes known as the Colossi of Memnon (c.1380 BC), which are over 20 m (65 ft) high. The sculpture of the Amarna period (corresponding to the reign of \TAkhenaten\t, or Amenhotep IV, c.1379-1362 BC), in the 18th dynasty, is characterized by a degree of individuality that is remarkable by Egyptian standards. A famous example is the elegant portrait head of Queen \TNefertiti\t. Amarna sculpture also shows innovations in subject matter; for example, the daily life of the king and his family is depicted. The naturalistic Amarna style continued for a time to exert an influence in the 19th dynasty, after which Egyptian sculpture became more rigid and suffered a decline in quality. The period from the 25th and 26th dynasties onward was marked by a strong revival of the sculptural traditions of the Old Kingdom, accompanied by a renewed preference for hard varieties of stone. Painting Most painted works of art were executed on the walls of tombs and temples. A technical distinction exists between painting proper and painted relief, but there is no distinction between the two as far as composition and subject matter are concerned. The mode of representation in Egyptian painting always conforms to a distinct set of rules. In the human figure, for example, the head is always presented in profile, but the eye is seen frontally. Similarly, the torso appears frontally, and the legs and feet are shown in profile. All of the characteristic features of an object were rendered. Thus, a painting of a table shows not only the four legs but the whole of the tabletop. The intention was to give each depicted figure or object its greatest possible material completeness. Funerary Painting. Probably the oldest painting that has survived in Egypt is a tomb painting from \THierakonpolis\t (Egyptian Museum, Cairo), which dates from c.3200 BC and depicts schematically drawn human figures, animals, and boats. Numerous wall paintings have been found in the funerary chambers of Old Kingdom tombs of the 3d dynasty and later. Common in these murals are scenes of such activities of daily life as feasting, hunting, and tours of inspection of cattle herds and grain supplies. Famous works of this period include an early 4th-dynasty wall painting of geese, from the tomb of Itet at Maydum, and the 5th-dynasty painted reliefs of cattle and herdsmen in the mastaba of Ti at Saqqara. Murals in the tombs of the Middle Kingdom, such as those of the provincial rulers of the 12th dynasty at \TBeni Hasan\t (c.1880 BC), were generally painted in much the same manner as those of the Old Kingdom. A new feature was the inclusion of the ceremonies associated with the burial of the deceased among the scenes depicted. In addition, the figural style became somewhat looser and less rigidly stylized. During the New Kingdom, the paintings in the 18th-dynasty (1570-1320 BC) tombs at \TThebes\t represent a peak in Egyptian art. They are livelier than earlier works and embrace a greater variety of themes. Many are concerned with the mortuary cult and show women lamenting, dancing, and making music. The reign of Akhenaten was an exceptional period in painting as well as in sculpture, differing from other periods both in style--with its graceful, elongated figures--and subject matter. A relief showing the king and queen playing with their young children is unique in Egyptian art. After the 18th dynasty, there was stagnation in the development of painting. Countless works of mediocre quality were produced in imitation of the paintings in the tombs of the Old and the Middle Kingdom. Much later a revival in Egyptian funerary art occurred, during the 1st-3d centuries AD. This revival is seen in the so-called Fayum portraits. These intense, realistic mummy portraits on wood or linen were strongly influenced by Roman art. Temple Paintings. Images of gods and of kings, who were regarded as divine, were the primary motifs in the painted reliefs that decorated the walls of temples. Scenes from daily life similar to those executed in tombs also appeared. In the Old Kingdom such depictions were confined to the funerary temples of the pharaohs; during the New Kingdom they were found both in funerary temples and in cult temples dedicated to gods. Both the themes and their positions in the temple were governed by fixed rules: the decorations on the interior walls were generally of a liturgical nature; those on the exterior and on the pylons--the two enormous gateway towers that flanked the entrance to the temple--usually dealt with the life of the ruler. Book of the Dead. The \TBook of the Dead\t consisted of magical texts written on scrolls of papyrus and buried with the deceased. The text was accompanied by drawings, which were intended to provide the deceased with information concerning the hereafter, often in maplike form. Frequently recurring motifs include funeral processions with a sledlike vehicle bearing a boat on which the coffin rests, lamenting women, the reunion of a husband and wife in the afterworld, and the worship of the sun god. Illustrations to texts from the Book of the Dead were at their height in the period from the 18th to the 21st dynasty. Decorative Arts The decorative objects of ancient Egypt that have survived have been discovered mainly in tombs and bear witness to a high degree of luxury and refinement and to a taste for brilliantly colored ornament. The most commonly used materials were stone (funerary objects), pottery (vessels and tiles), glass (small vases), gold, faience, and semiprecious stones (jewelry), and wood (coffins and furniture). Wood, unlike stone, was scarce in Egypt. Nevertheless, the art of furniture making reached a high level. Exceptional pieces of furniture have been discovered at Giza, including the armchair and bed from the tomb of Queen Hetepheres I, the mother of King Khufu. Both of these items have legs in the form of animal limbs made of wood overlaid with gold. Most of the discoveries of furniture, however, have been made in tombs dating from the New Kingdom, a notable example being the tomb of Tutankhamen. The so-called throne of Tutankhamen stands on powerfully formed lion's legs; the back is overlaid with gold on which brilliantly colored faience decoration depicts the king with his wife. B. W. B. Garthoff Bibliography: Hayes, William C., The Scepter of Egypt, 2 vols. (1959, 1960); Lange, Kurt, and Hirmer, Max, Egypt: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting in Three Thousand Years, 4th ed. (1968); Mekhitarian, Arpag, Egyptian Painting (1978); Michalowski, Kazimierz, The Art of Ancient Egypt, 2d ed. (1977); Petrie, W. M., The Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt (1974); Rachewiltz, Boris de, An Introduction to Egyptian Art (1960); Smith, William S., The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (1958); Westendorf, Wolfhart, Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (1969); Woldering, Irmgard, Gods, Men and Pharaohs (1967); Wolf, Walther, The Origins of Western Art (1971).