Click here (blogspot.com) for expandable portraits of the entire Papyrus of Ani, popularly known at the Egyptian 'Book of the Dead' (which we'll discuss in class on Wed)...
What are your immediate observations/reactions about the artwork? To the spatial relationships between the images and the writing? Why do you suppose both media be necessary to successfully navigating the afterlife?
8 comments:
The spatial relationship between text and pictures is curious. The pictures are sort of couched in the text, the words being crammed into all the spaces around the images. Perhaps the images are necessary to give context to the words, and the words are necessary to further define what precisely is happening the pictures, since there is no motion to be had in these images.
The other thing I noticed was how women are often placed at the back of men. They are kind of hovering behind there, almost looking over their shoulders. The other relative positions of the figures are face to face, and kind of stacked side by side (so only one can be seen from our point of view). I wonder if these different relative positions of bodies has anything to do with the social and ritualistic relationships between these people in the images.
Margaret Ransdell-Green
My immediate thoughts are that most Egyptians couldn't read the hieroglyphics so pictures were probably the safest way to communicate instructions and stories. Since death was taken so seriously and involved intricate steps to do it right, they probably wanted to be sure that anyone who read this book would know what to do. The writing might have been reserved for the higher classes. Maybe they received special instructions on how to get ahead in the afterlife?
One image that caught my eye was the sixth picture. It had a very pale group of women who seem to be very distressed. It almost seems like they're being sacrificed or perhaps just mourning a death. It is interesting how the women are always paler than the men. Were they kept inside out of the sun more often? Or we're they considered to have a different spiritual quality that earned them a paler shade in artwork?
Deirdre Adams
It seemed to me that the pictures were closely related to the pictures, many of them seemed like a step by step demonstration of how things are going to be like after death. I figure sense life after death is such a difficult subject to explain, specially using only words, that the pictures were used to make the explanations clearer.
- Scott
My imidiate reactions to the art work is that it is so detailed, and that it almost seems to resemble a treasure map. For example a treasure maps shows clues of what you will see when you get to this point. The book of the dead just has alot more detail. The spacial relationships with the images and writting seems to change through the book. In the begining there is barely any writting in the imigaes, but by the end the words are written within the images. I think that both media is necessary because of this is a description of what one does after they die, then if one can't understand the written words maybe the images will work. I wouldnt want to get lost in the afterlife.
Emily Peterson-Wood
First, I noticed how the characters in the images were centered and designed to capture the eye. As soon as I looked at the first picture my eye was drawn to the symbol in the birds talons. My eye then took in the bird and the sarcophagus. After viewing more images of figures and text it occurred to me that the pictures are lined up with the squares in the text. That is, the edge of the image lines up with a text square. This tells me that Egyptians did recognize a need for uniformity in their magic, they were looking for control (if you will), and because humans are attracted to pictures and art which are aesthetically pleasing it only makes sense. They were looking for some sort of control in their life, the idea of death being the end did not appeal to them because they had left the bounty of nature, taking residence in a society which took them out of a day to day existence.This idea that death was the end drove some people crazy so they reasserted control drawing by pictures of what they wanted. pictures drawn in a particular way with certain specifications. Control was re established and the masses could sleep better at night knowing their life was meaningful while the Pharaoh was assured in his Godhead.
The Papyrus of Ani is very detailed in its artwork. Immediately I got a sense of this being an instruction manual on how to prepare and mourn the dead. It even depicted the journey the deceased is going on. Towards the end I got a little confused, it seemed like a list of what the deceased was bringing with them. Very cool instruction manual.
-Taylor E.
Outstanding observations & comments, folks. Many of the women are indeed paler than the men, as you note Deirdre. I had never noticed that before. After some lightning-quick research, I've come upon a book by Carolyn Graves-Brown entitled 'Dancing for Hathor: Women in Ancient Egypt' (2010). She suggests (just as you surmised!) that socially respectable women were prone to 'indoor work', and hence less tanned than their male counterparts.
Timothy, your comment regarding the deliberate aesthetic symmetry of the texts and images composing the papyrus is insightful. Yet another effort at wresting cosmic order from (potential) chaos, perhaps??
pdk
The Hieroglyphs actually aren't instructions it seems. Rather, they are hymns and homages to the various gods. It's funny but it seems as if they believed that the best way to get good treatment in the afterlife was to, 'butter up,' the appropriate deity. It's interesting to note that the very first plate is a hymn to Re who was seen as the creator and god of life and the sky. I say it's interesting because he is clearly an unrelated deity under these circumstances. The fact that he comes first on top of this seems to indicate that he was held in very high-esteem and that may indicate that his parent order cult was doing very well for itself during the 19th century.
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