Principles of Egyptian Art

by Heinrich Schäfer

This classic work discusses representations in Egyptian painting, sculpture and reliefs, assessing how objects and figures are represented in two dimensions, introducing the idea of "conceptual" and "perceptual" art. Translated from the German by John Baines, who has revised the text and illustrations to take account of recent research.

Genres: Egyptology, History, Egypt, Nonfiction

498 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 1974

Reviews

[Katja · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing book with more than 300 B/W illustrations. It is by no means an introduction to Egyptian art, don't expect to learn, e.g., how Amarna art is different from the more conventional art styles or how those styles developed throughout the Old or New Kingdoms. Instead, it fulfills the promise of the title and teaches you to understand the principles of Egyptian art, and here Schäfer is impressively scrupulous. He goes through a multitude of examples to bring your attention to every detail: overlapping of figures, figures juxtaposed without overlapping, bees, trees, earth and sky, two-dimensional depiction of heads, shoulders, hands, feet, etc. As a side note, something bad happened with the formatting -- the text is left- but not justified aligned.