Imhotep was an Egyptian polymath and a high official in the 27th century B.C., and Djoser was a third-dynasty king during those days. Imhotep is famous for many achievements including the Step of Pyramid and the king’s tomb. According to the Egyptian historian Manetho, Imhotep was the first architect who invented the technique of building with the use of a dressed stone (Stokstad and Cothren 50). Imhotep had appeared to be such a significant figure in the history and development of ancient Egypt that he was even made a god, and in Egyptian and Greek historic accounts, he was later shown as a god of art and medicine. This fact is very noteworthy, especially because he was one of a few non-royal men who were deified. Djoser became the first Pharaoh of Egypt who decided to make his name lasting in history using building a magnificent tomb. This important task was commissioned to Imhotep.
The use of realism in Egyptian sculpture, relief carving, and painting cannot be evaluated as univocal. Mainly, the works of art reflect religious beliefs existing in ancient Egypt with its abundance of gods and deities. When Egyptian art masters depicted gods (and that was the main theme in their work), they were very far away from reality. This is no wonder as their goal was to impress the viewer with the mightiness and glory of the deities that were depicted. In painting, relief carving, and painting, images of gods were mystified, they had unusual sizes aiming to boggle the imagination of the viewer, and all their features were perfected so that people could think that those deities were flawless.
This was especially true when the deified Pharaohs were depicted. They were always shown with perfected face features and body parameters, and their bodies always had an enormous height. However, when the scenes from usual life were shown, the tendency to make the images perfected was not observed. Especially, when military scenes along with the enemies of Egyptians were shown, the pictures were more realistic. This is explained by the fact that Egyptians liked to exalt their deities (Stokstad and Cothren 57). The examples of this tendency are the Stele of Amenemhat (2000 B.C.), and the tomb painting “Ti Watching a Hippopotamus Hunt”.
In ancient Egypt, the falcon represented the god Horus who was the god of the Sun and the Moon. The root of the word ‘horus’ means something that is high above. The falcon flies high above to see everything that is happening on the Earth. Egyptians believed that the symbol of the falcon could be a well fitting symbol for the god Horus who is exalted above the land to see all of its inhabitants, and make his judicial decisions regarding them. Horus is the main deity in the religion of the ancient Egypt, and he symbolizes the Pharaoh himself. Such parallel between the falcon and Pharaoh is not difficult to understand. When Egyptian religious leaders showed the image of the Pharaoh in the form of god Horus with the face of the falcon, they wanted to affect people’s minds. They wanted to make people believe that the Pharaoh was exalted high above, and watched all of them so that to punish those who rebelled. The examples of the falcon image in the Egyptian art are Horus of Hierakonpolis (3700 B. C.), and the King Tut-Ankh-Amun sculpture-image (1300 B.C.).
Works Cited
Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael W. Cothren. Art History, 4th ed., Vol. 1, Upper Saddle River. NJ, Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.