...
Post A Reply
my profile
|
directory
login
|
register
|
search
|
faq
|
forum home
»
EgyptSearch Forums
»
Egyptology
»
Colour in ancient Egypt
» Post A Reply
Post A Reply
Login Name:
Password:
Message Icon:
Message:
HTML is not enabled.
UBB Code is enabled.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Alive: [QB] Colors in ancient Egypt [b]'Iwen'[/b] was considered an integral part of an item's or person's nature in Ancient Egypt, and the term could interchangeably mean color, appearance, character, being, or nature. Items with similar color were believed to have similar properties. Purity of colour was important to Ancient Egyptians and the artist would usually complete everything in one color before moving on to the next. Paintings would be finished off with fine brushwork to outline the work and add limited interior detail. Colors were often paired. [b]Black[/b] (Ancient Egyptian name 'kem') was the Ancient Egyptian name for the country: 'kemet' (possibly pronounced "keme"/"kemmay"). It was the colour of the life-giving silt left by the Nile inundation. Black symbolized completion (both as in an end and as in fullness), fertility, life, new life, and resurrection as seen through the yearly agricultural cycle. It was also the color of the Osiris (also known as 'Kem Wer', or Great/Original/Mighty black), resurrected god of the afterlife, who, according to one tradition is the founder of Thebes. Black was often used on statues and coffins to invoke the process of regeneration ascribed to the god Osiris. Black was also used to represent the skin colour of people from the south. [IMG]http://www.nilevalleyherbs.com/agri1.jpg[/IMG] (The fertile dark colored ground of the Nile Valley pictured above played a vital role in the developement of Dynastic Egypt.) [b]White[/b] (Ancient Egyptian name 'hedj') was the color of purity, cleanliness, and simplicity. Tools, sacred objects, and even priest's sandals were white for this reason. Sacred animals were also depicted as white. Clothing, which was often just undyed linen, was usually depicted as white. [b]Silver[/b] (also 'hedj', but written with the determinative for precious metal) represented the color of the sun at dawn, and the moon, and stars. Silver was a rarer metal than gold in Ancient Egypt and held a greater value. [b]Blue[/b] (Ancient Egyptian name 'irtyu') was the color of the heavens, the dominion of the gods, as well as the color of water, the yearly inundation, and the primeval flood. Although Ancient Egyptians favored semi-precious stones such as azurite (Ancient Egyptian name 'tefer') and lapis lazuli (Ancient Egyptian name 'khesbedj', imported at great cost across the Sinai Desert) for jewelery and inlay, technology was advanced enough to produce the world's first synthetic pigment, known since medieval times as Egyptian blue. Depending on the degree to which the pigment Egyptian blue was ground, the color could vary from a rich, dark blue (coarse) to a pale, ethereal blue (very fine). Blue was used for the hair of gods (specifically lapis lazuli, or the darkest of Egyptian blues) and for the face of the god Amun a practice which was extended to those Pharaohs associated with him. [b]Green[/b] (Ancient Egyptian name 'wahdj') was the color of fresh growth, vegetation, life, vitality and resurrection (the latter along with the color black). The hieroglyph for green is a papyrus stem and frond. Green was the color of the 'Eye of Horus', or 'Wedjat', which had healing and protective powers, and so the color also represented well-being. To do 'green things' was to behave in a positive, life affirming manner. When written with the determinative for minerals (three grains of sand) 'wahdj' becomes the word for malachite, a color which represented joy. [b]Turquoise[/b] (Ancient Egyptian name 'mefkhat'), a particularly valued green-blue stone from the Sinai, also represented joy, as well as the color of the sun's rays at dawn. Through the deity Hathor, the Lady of Turquoise, who controlled the destiny of new-born babies, it can be considered a color of promise and foretelling. [b]Yellow[/b] (Ancient Egyptian name 'khenet') was the color of women's skin, the color of some who lived around the mediterranean, the color of the sun and, along with gold, could represent perfection. As with blue and green, the Ancient Egyptians produced a synthetic yellow lead antimonite its Ancient Egyptian name, however, is unknown. When looking at Ancient Egyptian art today it can be difficult to distinguish between lead antimonite, (which is a pale yellow), lead white (which is very slightly yellow but can darken over time) and orpiment (a relatively strong yellow which fades in direct sunlight). This has lead some art historians to believe white and yellow were interchangeable. Realgar, which we consider to be an orange color today, would have been classed as yellow. (The term orange didn't come into European use until the fruit arrived in Europe from China in medieval times even Cennini writing in the 15th century describes it as a yellow!) [b]Gold[/b] (Ancient Egyptian name 'newb', from which 'nubian' derives) represented the flesh of the gods and was used for anything which was considered eternal or indestructible. (Gold was used on a sarcophagus, for example, because the pharaoh had become a god.) Whilst gold leaf could be used on sculpture, yellow or reddish-yellows were used in paintings for the skin of gods. (There were gods that were painted with blue, green, and black skin.) [b]Red[/b] (Ancient Egyptian name 'deshr') was primarily the color of chaos and disorder the color of the desert (Ancient Egyptian name 'deshret') which was considered the opposite of the fertile black ('kemet') inundated soil of the Nile Valley. One of the principal red pigments, red ochre, was obtained from the desert. [IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3049/3000231216_fb227ab84a.jpg?v=0[/IMG] (The hieroglyph for red is the hermit ibis, a bird which, unlike the other ibis of Egypt, lives in dry areas and eats insects and small creatures.) Red was also the color of destructive fire and fury, and was used to represent something dangerous. Through its relation to the desert, red became the color of the god Seth, the traditional god of chaos, and was associated with death the desert was a place where people were exiled or sent to work in mines. The desert was also regarded as the entrance to the underworld where the sun disappeared each night. However, this most potent of all colors in Ancient Egypt, was also a color of life and protection derived from the color of blood and the life-supporting power of fire. It was therefore commonly used for protective amulets. [/QB][/QUOTE]
Instant Graemlins
Instant UBB Code™
What is UBB Code™?
Options
Disable Graemlins in this post.
*** Click here to review this topic. ***
Contact Us
|
EgyptSearch!
(c) 2015 EgyptSearch.com
Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3