Some 180 examples of the very earliest works of Egyptian art —created in the Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods, around 4400 B.C.–2649 B.C. (the end of Dynasty 2) from throughout Egypt— are featured in the exhibition The Dawn of Egyptian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA). Examples of sculpture, painting, and relief from the collections of the Metropolitan and 12 other museums in the United States and Europe have been gathered for this presentation.
The exhibition includes depictions of landscapes painted on vessels, objects in the form of different animals —grouped by habitat (river, air, or desert)— and humans. Certain groupings will also reflect the important themes of fertility and renewal, and chaos versus order.
Animals occur frequently in early Egyptian art, and the exhibition is particularly rich in images of hippos and crocodiles, turtles, and fish; antelopes, cattle, elephants, baboons, lions, and canids (jackals and dogs); ostriches, ducks, and falcons; and scorpions and snakes.
Depictions of humans are of two types: realistic figurines in bone or ivory that depict the entire human body; and abstracted forms in clay, mud, ivory, or stone in which the figures often lack arms, have missing or poorly formed legs, or have beak-like faces that emphasize the nose. All figurines have attributes that identify their gender clearly. Evidence indicates that some figurines were made to represent a specific activity and that their position in tombs was not arbitrary.
Date: until August 5.
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028. USA
Opening hours: from Tuesday to Thursday from 9.30am to 5.30pm. Fridays and Saturdays from 9.30am to 9pm. Sundays from 9.30am to 5.30pm.
See more Egyptian art here
Enjoy some artworks of the exhibition in the following slideshow:
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