Ancient Egyptian painting

The Egyptian painters did not paint as they actually saw things but as they imagined them to be. The result is a highly ‘stylized’ picture which can be ‘read’ like pages in a book.

Each animal and human figure in a painting is usually there for a reason, not just for decoration. The massive buildings, still standing to-day in ruins, were built as the dwelling-places of kings or the sanctuaries of gods. The towers symbolized deity, the sculptures and paintings recited the functional duties of presiding spirits, or the Pharaoh's looks and acts.

Almost everything about the public buildings in painting and sculpture was symbolic illustration, picture-written history—written with a chisel and brush, written large that all might read.

In one form or another it was all record of Egyptian life, but this was not the only motive of their painting. The temples and palaces, designed to shut out light and heat, were long squares of heavy stone, gloomy as the cave from which their plan may have originated. Carving and color were used to brighten and enliven the interior.

Egyptian panting from a tomb at Thebes

The battles, the judgement scenes, the Pharaoh playing at draughts with his wives, the religious rites and ceremonies, were all given with brilliant arbitrary color, surrounded oftentimes by bordering bands of green, yellow, and blue.

There must have been thousands and thousands of painters in ancient Egypt. A small panting was made on a squared background. This was copied square by square on to bigger squares on, the wall of a tomb. Then it was colored in with paints made from pigments.

Red, yellow and brown were made form ocre, black came from soot, white from limestone, green from copper ore and blue from powdered quartz.

Before stone was painted, the surface had to be smoothed and any holes in the stone or joins between blocks filled on with plaster. Theban tombs, the rock-cut walls were covered with a layer of mud then plastered before painting.

Similarly in mudbrick buildings, such as houses and places, surfaces were prepared for decoration with a layer of plaster.

The ancient Egyptian paintings are not oil paintings, but tempera paintings. Although linseed oil was probably known in Egypt from very early date it was not used for painting until late, probably not until about sixth century AD or after.
Ancient Egyptian painting