Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture of Ancient Egypt

There are few people in the Western world who know nothing of the Great Pyramids of Giza & the treasures of Tutankhamon's tomb, but, for most, that is the full scope of their knowledge of Egyptian art. It is extraordinary how little general awareness there is of the fantastic wealth of this best-preserved art of all the ancient civilizations, so overshadowed has it been by the later and–for the West–more influential achievements of Greece and Rome. Professor Westendorf, the distinguished German Egyptologist, here brings together an outstanding collection of illustrations ranging from pre-historic figurines of the 4th millennium B. C. to Christian ritual objects of Coptic times. However, the major emphasis is naturally on the Pharaonic period, those 3,000 years during which the Egyptian's desire for immortality produced an art whose richness and variety are truly astonishing.

Monumental architecture on a staggering and unprecedented scale; paintings that have been almost miraculously preserved in all their freshness by the dry Egyptian climate; sculpture in the round and carved & painted reliefs; tomb furnishings whose function was to provide the deceased with every necessity of the afterlife–all these are shown here in reproductions of the highest quality, accompanied by a lucid explanation of the role of each within the total context of Egyptian religious belief. Like the daily rising and setting of the sun & the annual flooding and drying up of the Nile, man's earthly existence was seen as only part of a continuous cycle that would be constantly renewed. Thus it is that, while the everyday mud-brick dwellings of the people have long since vanished, the stone-built temples & rock-cut tombs, literally constructed as dwellings for eternity, have survived as constant reminders not only of the grandeur of the ancient Egyptian Empire but also of the incomparable skill of her artists. 247 plates, 183 in full color, a map & a chronological table are included.