By: MOHAMED HAMZA
This season the
Alexandrina Bibliotheca, one of the
major cultural edifices in Egypt, held an exhibition entitled "Faces from
Egypt", following which it released a book under the same title written
by Mustafa Al Razaz and Ahmed Abdul Ghani. The book includes a panorama
of Egyptian faces through history. The book inspired this week's
article.
The art of portrait in Egypt extends back more than 7000 years, since pre-
historic times. The diverse creative abilities of the Egyptians,
their experimental and expressionistic approaches and fine expression of
human feelings have been clearly evident in their heritage of portraits
through Pharaonic times, the Graeco-Roman ages, the Coptic era and Islamic
age up until modern times.
The faces inscribed or drawn denote tolerance and kindness. Some
were pictured as dreamy while others were burdened with responsibility.
But in all cases never is there a face filled with anger or violence
because tolerance has always been an intrinsic trait of the Egyptians.
The items that belong to the pre-dynastic period and which are on display
at the Egyptian Museum show how the ancient Egyptians pictured people hunting
or rowing boats sailing on the Nile. They also left behind small
statues of clay and ebony, statues of human figures with rounded or hazelnut
eyes. Their features are realistic, accomplished with an instinctive
style. These items represented a popular trend parallel to the official
artistic trend.
The genius of the Egyptian artist in the age of dynasties was apparent
in reliefs, sculptures, textile weaving and pottery making. The faces
of that age are diverse showing royalties, noblemen, farmers, men enjoying
vigour and health, charming women, funerary faces; they all had piercing
eyes and deep human expression. Some of these have become so familiar
in modern times like the mask of Tutankhamun, the budding face of Nefertiti,
the silent face of the Sphinx on which the sun rises every morning.
We Egyptians feel that the likes of these faces still live among us.
The ancient Egyptians believed that Betah the god of Memphis was the creator
of the world and as such he inspired ancient Egyptian artists in their manifestation
of human shape. The chief priest of Betah bore the title of master
of masters of artisans.
Artists in ancient Egypt took atelier and studios in royal palaces or temples
under the personal supervision of the king. Such kings gave orders
revealing high awareness and understanding of the nature of artistic production.
Artists showed control over anatomical proportions of faces and bodies.
Archaeologists excavating monuments found remains of oxides, sculpturing
tools, analytical studies of faces on stone, ostraca and papyri scrolls
showing proportional rules used to magnify a picture. With the advent
of Alexander the Great, the Greeks influenced the Egyptians ultimately leading
to a Hellenistic culture in art, philosophy and science. The Greek
faces enjoyed the standard beauty of Aphrodite. Pictures of Greek
gods started to replace those of the ancient Egyptians. There were
also faces of toiling workers.
The mastery of the art of portrait was very evident in the discovered Greek
and Roman faces excavated at Fayyum. They were found extracted from
mummies. For more than 600 years the ancient artists used to draw
magnificent faces on wood using the encaustic technique, with coloured dyes
melted in wax to give colours lustre and vitality. The colours were
fixed with a thermal effect and more colours were added with a knife instead
of a brush. The faces of Fayyum were sometimes drawn on linen covered
with a layer of gypsum using oxides mixed with egg white. At times
the face and the bust were sculptured and then coloured. They were
basically made for nobles during their lifetime. They hung them on
walls but upon their death the portraits were placed on their coffins.
The faces were characterised by amazing diversity. And because the
portrayed model and the artist knew that the portraits were primarily made
for a funerary purpose, the eyes bore a gloomy straying look and spiritual
feelings. The eyes were protruded in silent alertness. The
faces however, were drawn in a facial position, unlike the ancient Egyptians
who usually drew profiles.
In the Coptic era, there were no mummified bodies hence no sculptured or
drawn faces were preserved with the dead. However, there were Coptic
sculptures of stone, wood, bone and ebony. There were also icons
of saints and Coptic figures with wide eyes, round faces and wavy plaits.
In the Islamic age, despite the prohibition on drawing human figures artists
did handle human and animal shapes in such diversity and skill that pinpointed
their creative abilities. These shapes were woven in textiles, engraved
on metal or ebony and coloured with oxides of metallic lustre on pots.
Nevertheless, we find pictures of men and women with brief facial features.
Human pictures going back to the Islamic age were found to be made
of fresco and tempera bearing genuine Egyptian features.
The advent of the Ottomans caused all artistic features to dwindle because
they took all craftsmen and artists to their capital, Istanbul, leaving
behind only a few number of folk artists.
The opening of the School of Fine Arts at the early 20th century qualified
a number of Egyptian artists who studied at the hands of Italian and French
artists and they were very influenced by European schools. The portraits
produced by the first generation of graduates resembled paintings of European
salons but the experience of those artists and their influence by the national
sense of the 1919 revolution in addition to the discovery of the Tutankhamun
treasures caused them to change course, returning to their genuine roots.
