Download Color symbolism in visualization of political power in ancient Egypt

Color symbolism in visualization of political power in ancient Egypt
Author(s): Mary Budyakova
From: Russia, Perm, The Higher School of Economics
[email protected]
Abstract
Color symbolism plays a great role in perception of culture in every country. In
this research I’m going to find out, what was color meaning in ancient Egypt. Has
it changed in the period of the New Kingdom. I will try to prove that there were no
changes in color symbolism at that time.
Introduction
The topic of my paper sounds as “Color symbolism in visualization of political
power in ancient Egypt”. The purpose of my research is to expose the power
attributes and its color meaning in different images. Are there any changes in the
perception of the color symbolism in the New Kingdom? What types of attributes
are depicted on the images of different officials? And what color symbolism do
they have? These are the questions on which I’m going to give answers in my
paper.
As I have already said, the purpose of my research lies in exposing of color
symbols which demonstrated a political power in ancient Egypt during the period
known as New Kingdom (XVIII-XX dynasties, 1085 – 662 B.C.) The basic aim of
the work is identifying particular colors used in statues and images of the officials
and pharaohs.
For the achievement of this aim, I will mostly use visual sources, such as ancient
relieves, frescos, statues and paintings of the New Kingdom. The basic sources are
the pictures of the gods from the Book of the Dead of Ani; the statues of the
pharaohs and priests; different attributes from the tomb of Tutankhamun etc.
In my research I will mostly base on the work of Graciela Gestoso Singer «Color in
ancient Egypt» [3]. Besides, there are a lot of articles in different encyclopedias or
dictionaries, such as Encyclopedia of ancient Egypt by Margaret R. Bunson,
Lexikon Der Agyptologie by Wolfgang Helck und Eberhard Otto, The British
Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson end etc.
The relevance of my research lies in the opportunity of deeper investigation of the
political power and its symbolic meaning in the minds of common people. What is
more, through the better understanding of ancient Egyptians thoughts and through
some symbols, particularly through the color, we will be able to understand what
the relations were between authorities and local population in ancient Egypt. As we
know, color symbolism usually has a significant effect on human emotions. At the
same time, color is one of the means of expression of these emotions and feelings.
So, it appears to be the different sides of the same coin. Colors helped people to
show the sense which they tried to put in the images of the power attributes
depicted on statues or in the tomb paintings of decedent Pharaohs or other officials.
In ancient Egypt there were six basic colors in artist’s palette. They were made
from mineral compounds (limestone, iron oxide, gibs, chalk etc.) That is why the
vibrancy has been saved for the millenniums.
I would like to start with the description of a color of an ancient Egyptian costume,
then I’m going to speak about color symbolism in ancient Egypt. After that, I will
try to analyse, if the perception of color changed in the period of the New
Kingdom or not. In my work I used the researches of different scholars who had
written about color symbolism. I used their theories as a method of an analyzing
the color of power attributes.
Colors
Speaking on this topic we should firstly define main colors in Egyptian art and
power attributes. In the Old Kingdom (2640-2155 B.C) the most used ones were
black, white, red, green, yellow, blue and grey. “In the New Kingdom material, the
use of color becomes richer and more diverse. The extended range is black, white,
red, green, yellow, strong blue, light blue, grey, brown, and pink” [3, p. 1] Already
in the Middle Kingdom (2134-1785 B.C.) Egyptians had begun to expend red
tones to form brown and pink hues [5, p. 195]. There also were several hues used
in ancient Egypt such as blue-red, blood-red, ocherous one and so on. In the New
Kingdom Period there was a tendency of increasing the amount of mixed colors
especially pink and lilac hues [10, p. 316]. But in general, the color palette of the
artist left unchanged.
During the long period of time Egyptian clothes were changing. In the Old
Kingdom men usually wore short white kilt made from flex (see appendix 1). And
the predominant color of Egyptian’s dresses was white. In the Middle Kingdom the
costume mostly remained the same. But in the New Kingdom the situation
constantly changed. An ancient type of garb gave place to the new, rethought one.
It was supplemented with new details. What is more, it became more elegant. It
became more colorful and resembled the plumage of divine birds and goddesses,
which helped the pharaoh to struggle with his enemies [6, p. 178] (see appendix 2).
White color of clothes also had a great symbolic meaning. Graciela Gestoso
Singer says that wearing white clothes is linked to the goddess in many
civilizations [3, p. 7]. In ancient Egypt the white color meant omnipotence and
purity. Besides, white was the color of priest robes and clothing of the most of the
Egyptians (see appendix 3). Victor Solkin maintains that the white color
symbolizes ritual purity and holiness [11, p. 255]. The color was made from gibs
and chalk or from powdered limestone. These materials were rather widespread
over the Egypt. White also symbolized silver and associated with the moon. The
tradition crown of Upper Egypt (hedjet) was white, so that color was the heraldic
color of the southern regions of the country (see appendix 4).
The crown of Lower Egypt (deshret) was red (see appendix 5). Red was made
from iron oxide. This color usually symbolized anger, rage, disorder, blood, fire
and death. It was also associated with the desert, which brought death. Very often
the name of god Apep was written in red color, which could be the meaning of evil
[3, p. 6]. Besides, anything bad or some bad days were written in the calendar in
red color. This color was ambivalent, the men’s bodies were always painted in
dark-red [11, p. 257]. May be it is so, because men usually took part in battles.
They were more warlike then women, whose skin was always yellow or pink. Even
in medicine the symbolic meaning of the color played a great role. For example,
plants with red blossom, berries or roots were used for cases of hemorrhage. The
commonly used were the red seeds of peony and the red roots of astragalus [1, p.
195].
The black color or kem was the color of death and of reborn at the same time. It
was used in the painting of the Underworld at the tombs to show that the action
took place in the sky. This hue was closely connected with the green color, which
also symbolized reborn and fertility, like the black productive land in Egypt.
“Green was usually associated with wadjet, the cobra goddess [2, p. 86]. It was
made from malachite, a natural copper ore, and in the later periods it was produced
from a paste manufactured by mixing oxides of copper and iron with silica and
calcium [3, p. 2]. The green color was also the one of vegetation, new life, and
represented protection, what is opposite to the red hue. Osiris and Hathor were
usually depicted with the green skin, as they were the gods of the netherworld, who
helped the dead with their travel through the afterworld (see appendix 6). The
green hue also was associated with joy and happiness. That is why the netherworld
was called “malachite fields” [11, p. 259]. Moreover, the god Horus was the
personification of the green color. The Eye of Horus amulet was commonly made
of green stone, but sometimes it was encrusted with blue stones [3, p. 2].
The blue hue (khesbed) was associated with Amun-Ra, and sometimes with Osiris.
The skin of the god Amon was rendered blue, like the other’s skin of solar gods in
Ancient Egypt [3, p. 12]. This color was the symbol of an immense sky, rebirth and
the water of the rive Nile. It was produced from powdered azurite, lapis, or copper
carbonate. In the New Kingdom appeared new types of military helmets, the first
one – blue, was made from leather, the second one – from gold. The both of them
were supplemented with the image of divine cobra (uraeuses). They were also
covered with a lot of small circles, symbolizing the Sun (see appendix 7).
And the final color in the ancient Egyptian pallet is yellow. This hue was made
from hydrated iron oxide. The yellow color usually implied gold, sunlight, the disk
and the rays of the sun. “Both the sun and gold were yellow and shared the
qualities of being imperishable, eternal and indestructible. The skins of the gods
were believed to be made of gold” [3, p. 11]. Yellow–gold was the flesh of the
immortals, and the light of the nature [13, p. 115].
Color meaning in visualization a political power
Ancient Egyptians thought that images and especially statues were the
embodiments of the dead in the Underworld. Thus they tried to portray people as
realistic as possible with the saving of all traditions, to be reborn in the
netherworld. “Living image was an ancient Egyptian term for statue” [4, p. 4]. This
phrase implies that the statue was a body to house the vital essence of an individual
(ka ) [7, p. 9]. Each material had its own symbolic meaning, which was connected
with the color. The stone’s hues were valued as reflection of the divine [4, p. 5].
Lyvia Morgan in her article “Enlivening the body: Color and stone statues in Old
Kingdom Egypt” typologized the materials and its colors according to the different
social status group. For example, she writes that black stones (greywacke and
schist) were used commonly by the kings and occasionally by other royalty, while
granite (the black stone) was used only by the elite. “Stone shot with contrasting
light and dark appears to radiate divinity; glistening smooth black stone with a
greenish tinge seems to be a prerogative of kingship; translucent white or smooth
pink and yellow stone is characteristic of royalty; and mottled red and black
granites are, at this period, characteristic of the elite, although red granite is a
crucial element of royal funerary architecture, and at least two colossal heads of
kings herald the monumental use of the stone in royal statuary of the New
Kingdom” [4, p. 15]. Finally, she links the symbolic aptness of stones with the
purposes, which sculptors in ancient Egypt had: to protect the body for the eternal
existence through the creation of identical statues of people. It was available for
the most of the Egyptians, but what was the symbolic meaning of colors of the
power attributes, which distinguished political representatives from common
people?
As we can see from the different images, we can say that the most of the color
meanings remained the same in the New Kingdom. The new forms were created,
but color was some kind of connection between the new form and traditional
explanations. The new hues were produced, but they were applied mostly in the
secular pictures, to show the reality as vitally as possible.
In the understanding of ancient Egyptians, pharaoh was the living incarnation of
the god. He was deified as the son of the solar god and was a symbol of the
prosperity of the country [8, p. 195]. He received the divine protection with all the
attributes during the coronation. As an example of the pharaohs coronation can be
the one of Ramses II [10, p. 176]. Unfortunately, I could not find the images of his
coronation, but I could find the other one, where Ptolemaic VI is depicted [12, p.
93] (see appendix 8). From the right side there is Nekhbet in the White Crown, the
goddess of Upper Egypt, and from the left there is Wadjet in the Red Crown –
patroness of the northern part of Egypt. The Pshent – the Double Crown of Ancient
Egypt is depicted on the head of the pharaoh. Unfortunately, no Pschent has
survived, unlike Deshtet and Hedjet.
It was very important for ancient artists to show the succession of the pharaoh’s
power. Due to the traditions, the funeral mask of the dead lord was usually made in
gold to show the unity between god and pharaoh. An example of it is one of the
most famous masks of Tutankhamun (see appendix 9). On this mask we can also
see the striped headcloth – nemes. Sometimes we can meet images of rulers in both
nemes and crown. This headcloth had a very deep symbolic meaning. The striped
material of nemes regarded as an embodiment of halo and light. Golden bands as
the sun’s rays dispersed in different directions. Besides, lapis-lazuri bands together
with gold also identified with the divine flesh and hair [6, p.179 ].
What is more, there are the figures of Uraeus on the head of Tutankhamun. It is
made of gold and dark-blue faience, eyes were made of quartz and gold, and the
hood was decorated with carnelians, quartz and glass of the turquoise shade. These
symbols of form and color were used as a spell cast on the attainment of eternal
life and showed the importance of the divine protection in the Underworld.
The statue of Tutankhamun’s double, which was discovered in his tomb, also has a
deep color symbolism (see appendix 10). The black skin of the Pharaoh is identical
to the one of the god Osiris. Moreover, as it was written earlier, black color is a
symbol of death and rebirth at the same time that emphasizes the importance of the
death of the ancient Egyptians. On a dark face background stands out gold eyeliner
and eyebrows. There is khat – a head cloth worn by the nobility of ancient Egypt
on his head. In his right hand there is a club covered with a lot of small circles,
which is a symbol of the imperishable, eternal and indestructible sun.
Whip and scepter of pharaoh considered ancient symbols of the royal power, which
the ruler had to wear during the ceremony of coronation and the royal holiday hebsed, the purpose of which was to confirm the power and the revival of the king’s
forces [9, p. 222] (see appendix 11). Osiris is usually depicted with these attributes.
He had inherited them from his earthly life, when he became a king of the
Underworld. These items are made of bronze and covered with blue and gold
stripes as nemes. Probably they have the same symbolic meaning.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to say that color meaning has the same importance as
the attributes in visualization of political power. Different hues help us to
understand, what the Egyptians wanted to show in their art. The combination of
blue and gold is of the most commonly encountered mixture of divine colors, as it
personifies the god’s substance, his hears, bones and skin. What is more, if we talk
about changes, which took place in color perception in the New Kingdom, we
should say that in this period a lot of new hues were created. Nevertheless, the
basic colors didn’t lose their original sense. An enlarged palette of an ancient
Egyptian artist helped him to create a more realistic picture, but not to change it
through the creation of new symbolic meanings.
Referenses
In English
1) Bonser W. The Significance of Colour in Ancient and Medieval Magic:
With Some Modern Comparisons. Man, Vol. 25 (Dec., 1925), pp. 194-198
2) Bunson M. Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. New York : Facts On File, Inc.
2002. 462 p.
3) Gestoso Graciela Singer. Color in Ancient Egypt. Forum Unesco –
University
and
Heritage
–
World
Heritage
Centre.
Online
:
https://www.academia.edu/386121/Color_in_Ancient_Egypt
4) Morgan L. Enlivening the Body: Color and Stone Statues In Old Kingdom
Egypt. Ars Brevis Foundation, Inc. In Source: Notes in the History of Art,
Vol. 30, No. 3, Special Issue: Superficial Approaches to Painted Sculpture
(Spring 2011). pp. 4-11
5) Redford D.B.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt Volume 3.
Oxford New York : Oxford University Press, Inc. 2001. 622 p.
In Russian
6) Ассоциация по изучению Древнего Египта «МААТ», Древний Египет.
Энциклопедия. М.: Арт – Родник, 2008. 480 с.
7) Большаков А.О. Человек и его Двойник. СПб.: Издательство
«Алетейя», 2001. 288 с.
8) Васильев Л.С. История религий востока. М.: Книжный дом
«Университет», 2000. 277с.
9) Крол А.А. Египет первых фараонов. М.: Издательство «Рудомино»,
2005. 218 с.
10)
Матье М.Э. Искусство Древнего Египта. М.: В. Шевчук, 2010.
672 с.
11)
Солкин В.В. Египет: вселенная фараонов. М., 2001. 446 с.
12)
Хаген Р.М., Хаген Р. Искусство Древнего Египта. М.: Арт –
Родник, 2009. 96 с.
In German
13)
Wolfgang Helck, Otto Eberhard, Wolfhart Westendorf. Lexikon der
Agyptologie. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. 1977 115-128 pp.
Appendix 1
Agricultural scene from the tomb of Nakht, 18th Dynasty Thebes.
Appendix 2
Ramses III in “Horus clothes”. XX dynasty.
Appendix 3
An image featuring a priest(Nesu-ur.t Unu) give King Ramses II an offer. XIX
dynasty.
Appendix 4
White crown of Upper Egypt.
Appendix 5
Red Crown of Lower Egypt.
Appendix 6
The god Osiris.
Appendix 7
Gold military crown.
Appendix 8
Temple of Edfu, Wall Decoration, Coronation of Ptolemy VI.
Appendix 9
Mask of Tutankhamun's mummy. XVIII dynasty.
Appendix 10
Statue of Tutankhamun’s double
Appendix 11
Whip and scepter of pharaoh Tutankhamun