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So the skin color of the Egyptians in art is symbolic
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ish Gebor: [QB] [QUOTE]Originally posted by real expert: [qb] It depends I would say. The ancient Egyptians used color for their complexion in a symbolic way but not completely. Men were almost always depicted reddish- brown while females lighter- yellowish and often like the Asiatics. The difference colorization of men and females was about reflecting the distinct gender roles. Saying that in reality there were probably privileged Egyptian males that stayed indoors, avoided the sun thus were lighter than the female peasants that worked outdoors. So in that sense, you can say that the depicted different skin tones between males and females somehow were symbolic but without being totally unrealistic. There is, of course, the use of color that was strictly symbolic for example in cases where ancient Egyptians painted themselves as green, chalk-white or jet/coal black. Besides the reddish-brown skin tone of ancient Egyptians in their art can be observed on any Middle Eastern people who are overexposed to the sun, in real life. Furthermore the Minoans, Etruscans depicted males darker and deeply tanned and females pale. Dark skin on males was considered attractive while fair skin was the beauty standard for women. Hence paleness was the symbol of femininity and deeply tanned skin a sign of masculinity that was underlined in paintings too. So there is also an aesthetic reason to depict genders in different skin tones in ancient art. However, in real life paleness or darkness wasn‘t based on the gender of course. The black colorization in the attic vase, black-figure pottery, for instance, was definitely not reflecting real skin color at all but was totally symbolic. The attic vase created strong contrasts between the white background and the black figures for an aesthetic and artistic reason. Only females were usually depicted in chalk white color in the black figure to reflect the gender roles and for highlighting the contrast between men and women. [/qb][/QUOTE][i]"Saying that in reality there were probably privileged Egyptian males that stayed indoors, avoided the sun thus were lighter than the female peasants that worked outdoors."[/i] From where did you get that theory? How do you explain the tropical adopted body portions and limb ratio in ancient Egyptians. It's not found in the groups you've mentioned. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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