history of ancient egyptian art
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The History of the Importance of Art in Ancient Egypt
In ancient Egypt, art evolved into one of the most important aspects of the culture. It was so important that the Egyptian artwork was eventually considered to be a part of ancient Egypt's spiritual culture. Art even made up the Egyptian written language which we know as hieroglyphics. The importance of Egyptian art began because the Egyptians believed that the preservation of the body (mummification) was not enough, they wanted also to preserve the soul. Because of this, they believed that when a powerful man died, they should let his servants and slaves accompany him to the grave, which usually meant that they would be sacrificed. When this practice was considered to be too cruel, they decided that artwork could take the place of the sacrificed slaves. Instead of real servants accompanying them to the grave, they were replaced with images of the servants. The Egyptian word for "sculptor" means 'He-who-keeps-alive,' therefore showing how seriously they took this idea.
Because the purpose of the images was to serve the dead, the images main goal was completeness, not prettiness. Each part of the body was drawn from a characteristic angle: head in profile; eye facing front; legs facing to the side, in motion; shoulders and chest facing front...