Thursday, September 8, 2016
draw Egyptian princess
They were decoration for banquets and parties, and wives, but mostly decoration. They were the best beauties, daughters of royalty, and they were lavished with the best jewelry, gold, gems and glass (incredibly rare at the time.) They were perfumed, with fragrant wax that melted over their wigs as the night wore on, and they were always seen holding lotus buds and blossoms. Their laughter was music.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Nice picture. I notice that you choose a mid-tan skin tone. I've wondered about the ethnic race of the Egyptians and if your picture is accurate in that way.
Not counting the Ptolemy dynasty who were Greek imports, were the earlier royal families Caucasian? I don't think they were Nubian dark skinned. But I really don't know.
In my neighborhood the (ancient) Egyptian culture is seen as a source of pride for African Americans, even though I think most of the American slave trade was from sub-Saharan Africa. There are many hair braiding shops that advertise with Egyptian princesses much like your drawing.
I guess it is kinda racist of me to even think about it, but was there a two race society- paler ones at the top, and darker ones in the fields?
I'm chatty today- so one last question have you ever read "Death Comes as the End"? It is an Agatha Christie murder mystery set in ancient Egypt and I enjoyed it not only for the whodoneit plot twists, but also for the historical descriptions of life and people.
It was convention, canon during some eras, that males were painted orange and females painted yellow. I did not follow canon here.
There were black pharaohs. There were several intermediate periods when the kingdom was overrun either by invaders from North, Canaanites, the Hyksos, the Libyans, Babylonians, Assyrians and Achaemenid Persians, and from the South, the Nubians, and later Macedonians and Romans. All this is seen in their surviving art, and especially statuary.
The period immediately preceding the dynasty that King Tut belonged had kings of negroid persuasion. (<-- That's a teenage Gary Hennigan joke). It shows very clearly in the exhibit that took several acquaintance to, bribed them with lunch actually, they were not interested (!) One of them a new black friend who actually reached in and touched a statue of negro pharaoh, one of Tut's immediate grandparents, great grandparent I think. Obviously Nubian. The nearby guard allowed it. Black privilege dontcha know. Whereas I am corrected merely for pointing to hieroglyphics and putting my hand beyond the rope. (I guess I still cannot let that effrontery go) At any rate, my new friend marveled, "They had black pharaohs?" It was a profound revelation to him. And here was proof. It IS a matter of pride. And these foreign kings were all disastrous as Obama I must add. Then tended not to last very long. Nonetheless the history and culture and races are mixed very early and this persisted for millennia.
Their paintings tend to depict races quite clearly. Mostly by captives. By the style of their dress, their hair styles and facial hair and and facial features drawn distinctively.
Again, paintings like this, men are orange and women are yellow. The men tanned by the sun and the aristocratic women rarely in sunlight. Also, they are not outlined in black as I did here. Usually red is used for outlining. But I'm just goofing around.
"overrun either by invaders from North, Canaanites, the Hyksos, the Libyans, Babylonians, Assyrians and Achaemenid Persians, and from the South, the Nubians, and later Macedonians and Romans"
It sounds very melting-pot. Very funny about men being orange, women being yellow; maybe the convention started due to the limitations of pigments available? But then it became 'that is just the way we always do it'.
Simpsons precursor.
Very funny about men being orange, women being yellow; maybe the convention started due to the limitations of pigments available?
Iron oxides appear orange in pigments. The alchemical symbol for iron is the ubiquitous male symbol--from ancient times to Jackie Treehorn in "The Big Lebowski."
A more modern Egyptian Princess.
As they used to say along the banks of the Nile - Hubba, Hubba.
"Her beauty was often compared to that of film stars Hedley Lamarr...", or did I misread that?
Post a Comment