Mary’s Landscape Art Info

In Egypt, the landscape paintings were architectural: the Sphinx, the pyramids of the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. The fascination of Ancient Egypt still captivates modern man although the civilization existed between about 3100 B.C. and 332 B.C. and is one of the longest in history.

The Egyptians believed the Pharaoh to be immortal and indeed, he spent much of his time preparing for death. The first thing a new ruler did was to build his own tomb and stock it with every kind of delight he would need in the hereafter including clothes, jewelry, beds, food, weapons, and even chariots. Paintings of fruit adorned the walls of the pyramid so that if the dead ruler wanted fruit, it magically appeared on the table. King Tut’s tomb contained not only 4 golden chariots, but also a golden throne, precious jewels, statues of gold and ebony, and much more.

In addition to all the delights a Pharaoh might need in the hereafter, his tomb also contained a statue of the Pharaoh, because it was believed to house his soul. The statue was carved to show a very rigid figure and had to look like him, else the magic wouldn’t work. It was placed in the tomb in case the mummy was stolen or became decayed.

Much of what we know about the ancient Egyptians came after Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1799. He brought back a huge number of relics including the Rosetta Stone, which was dated about 196 B.C. . It is a slab of black basalt with the same inscription written in both Egyptian and Greek. The Egyptian language was expressed in two different scripts, hieroglyphics, the writing of the priests, and demotic, the language of the common people. Greek was the language of the foreigners who governed the country. When the common ground between the languages was finally found and the Rosetta Stone translated, we were able to learn much more about the lives of the ancient Egyptians.