Artwork of Egyptian Pottery
The highest art was displayed in the smallest
articles, whether of soft pottery, or of the sandy paste
before described. Images of deities were moulded in fair
style or beautifully carved from steatite, and enamelled
with the brilliant blue or green. The scarabaeus--the
amulet which signified, as some suppose, creation; as
others think, resurrection--was made in pottery as well
as steatite, with different symbolic variations, but
having the same general form. Among our specimens is one
with the head of an asp; another with the head of Isis;
another with the head of a ram, each a work of admirable
art. One is of soft pottery, bearing the cartouche of
Amasis, 570 B.C., and is a specimen of unusually fine
workmanship. The wings are open-work, formed of asps
engraved; the back is the head of Isis; the head a ram's
head. A scarabaeus in the possession of Mr. Charles
Dudley Warner, at Hartford, is skilfully engraved with a
life-like head of a hippopotamus. In our collection are
crocodiles, snakes, hawks, apes, lions, fish, frogs,
cats, a great variety of animal forms, which were made
chiefly for ornaments or amulets. Beads and bugles in
various colors and shapes were common. It was customary
to wrap the dead in shawls composed of net-work, made of
bugles and beads with amulets attached. Bugles are often
ornamented with spiral lines differing from the general
color--black on green, purple on blue, etc. Beads were
made globular, angular, oblong, flat with serrated
edges, and of other shapes--blue, green, red, and yellow
in color.
Enamelled pottery was also used for inlaying purposes
in ornamental work. Small tiles, two inches by one, were
used in the Pyramid of Sakkara, as in modern chimney
decoration. In the Abbott collection (New York
Historical Society) and in the Trumbull-Prime collection
are numerous specimens of pottery which have been thus
used. In the latter collection is an unusually large
plaque, 4 3/4 by 4 inches, the eye of Osiris (as this
design is ordinarily called) being indicated on it in
raised lines, the whole covered with a rich dark-green
enamel.
At Tel-el Yahoudeh are the remains of a temple, built
of crude brick, whose walls were once covered with tiles
of a remarkable character, bearing on them the
hieroglyphic history, with illustrations, of the deeds
of Remeses III., about 1200 B.C. The legends on these
are sometimes impressed in blue tiles and inlaid with
colored glass. Other have yellow grounds, with impressed
legends inlaid in color. Yet others have relief figures
of prisoners captured by the king, their dresses and
hair inlaid in color.
top
Introduction
| History of Egyptian Pottery |
Early Egyptian Pottery |
Types of Pottery | Artwork of Egyptian Pottery |
Users Of Egyptian Pottery | Examples Of Egyptian Pottery
<
about this site > |