This present handbook is intended to aid in the understanding of Egyptian art, and the illustrations and descriptions are selected for that purpose only. The history of the art would require a far greater range of examples, in order to illustrate the growth and decay of each of the great periods; whereas here only the most striking works of each period are shown, in order to contrast the different civilisations. The origins and connections of the art in each age are scarcely touched, and the technical details are only such as are needed to see the conditions of the art. The archaeology of the subject would need as wide a treatment as the history, and these subjects can only appear here incidentally. It should be noticed that the divisions of artistic periods are often not the same as those of political history. Politically, the history divides at the XVIIth dynasty with the fall of the Hyksos, and at the XXIInd dynasty with the rise of the Delta government. But artistically the changes are under Tahutmes I, when Syrian influences broke in, and under the XXVIth dynasty, when the classical Greeks began to dominate the art.
I'm writing a story with a main character whose home & culture is inspired by Ancient Egypt, so I've been digging into resources to help me gain a better understanding of that time period (and not rely on our Western trends of Ancient Egyptian portrayal & fetishizing) and I was really surprised that this book was even a thing. Without any reviews, I decided that, for a couple bucks, it would be worth it if it turned out to be a good resource. And it definitely is very interesting!
The text information is thorough and goes into the history of the different materials and... "genres" (?) of art in Ancient Egypt, however, the pictures in the book are hardly helpful- it seems as though the printer back in '96 could NOT handle printing them and most of them are just a mess of muddy, blacked out images (black "and white"). There are some that I can see *enough* to gain a visual, but for the most part, it's pretty disappointing.
But considering that is my only complaint? I'd say overall I'm really pleased with the risk- it was worth it! Art is such an important part of culture, and the fact that I now have a resource to help me build my visual settings and designs is exciting!
I wouldn't recommend this book to just anyone- it reads like a casual academic text. So unless you're doing research for a project, or are an Ancient Egypt nut, there are other books on this site alone that have a much more casual-friendly pace and layout with beautiful, colored illustrations and pictures.
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