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art sculpture history ancient River Valley civilizations
Sculpture History: Ancient Era--River Valley Civilizations
Figure 1.--Egyptian paintings and sculpture provide fscinating images of life for all classes of people, simething that us not commoin in Mesopotamian art. As we can now read hieroglyphic we can sometimes even identify undividuals. This sculpture is an amazung 4,500 years old--dating back to the 25th-24th century BC. The hieroglyphic enscription tells us that the woman is the courtier Mertites and her son Chennoe. For some reason Mertites is depicted twice, perhaps to remark she is the mother of Chennoe. Curiously, he was already an adult when this sculpture was produced and had become a scribe. Chennoe is, however, depicted as a teenager. He does b=not have his bioyhood hair lock and the finger in the mouth pose. He is still depicted naked which seems unlikely fior a teenager. Possibily the statue is a Chennoe's tribute to his mother.
It is located in Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (National Museum of Antiquities) in Leiden, Netherlands.
The first master works in sculpture came from the River Valley civilizations, primarily Mesopotamia and Egypt. Egypt and Mesopotamia produced a great number and variety of sculptures. Some especially in Egypt were monumental works. These were works created primarily political statements and religious ritual. Common materials included clay, metal, and stone fashioned into both reliefs and sculptures in the round. With the Uruk period tere was a marked a development of narrative imagery and increasing realistic depiction of human figures. Hieratic scale became stanbdard to convey the significance of gods and royalty. After the Uruk period we see increasing focus on warfare and violence with the intentiuon of intemidating. This reflected the creality of Mesopotamian life. While civilization began in Sumer (Mesopotamia) we soon see the samne development in the Nile River Vally and the rise of Egyptian civiization. As in Mesopotamisa we see sculpture and much more paunting, also created for political statements and religious ritual. We see monumental sculpture, amny well known, but in addition we see refined sometimes delicate small works in much larger numbers tan is the case of Mesompotamia. The distinctive pose of standing statues facing forward with one foot in front of the other was in part a practical matter of balance and strength. Seated statues were common as well. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Egyptian art including sculpture was the degree to which it depicted ordinary people and not just leaders and gods. And curiously only in Egypt so we find sculptures of children, beginning in the Old Kingdom. We note them done in both in clay and ivory. Egyptian sculptures are not as highly regarded as subsequnt classical sculpture because they are not as realistic. It should not be thought that Egyptian sculptors were not as capable. It is just that the Egyptians developed a style of sculpture and art and there was no impetus to change.
