EGYPTIAN ART
2,000 B.C. - 30 B.C.
Art emerged as a way for a civilization to record its history and glorify itself. A fascination with mythology and life-after-death were driving forces in the development of art during this period.
As the belief in both civilization and a higher power became more widespread, art became a form of glorification while simultaneously playing the role of “recorder of history.” The same period, extending from 5,000 B.C. to three centuries after the death of Christ, gave us The Book of the Dead (a series of spells to assist a dead person through the afterlife) and the golden funerary mask of Tutankhamen. Yet, as the Egyptian civilization melted into the Roman Empire, we also saw the seeds of an emerging artistic realism such as Portrait of the Boy Eutyches, with his sparkling eyes that have stared at us for centuries.