Art School In Egypt 2000 B.C. -- By: Gene Fackler

Journal: Bible and Spade (Second Run)
Volume: BSPADE 04:1 (Winter 1991)
Article: Art School In Egypt 2000 B.C.
Author: Gene Fackler


Art School In Egypt 2000 B.C.

Gene Fackler

Ancient Egyptian art is one of the oldest and most magnificent of mankind. These artists, (3000–2000 BC), created sculptures, paintings, reliefs and built architectural wonders on a mammoth scale. The pyramids and the sphinx are just two examples.

How did the artisan of that day paint and sculpture a human figure on a scale fifty to one-hundred times greater than the original size, yet get the proportions correct? They used a method which is still in common use today and has been throughout the ages. Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci used this same method. The method is known as a network of squaring lines (see figure). This method can be used either to enlarge or to reduce a work of art.

    First
, a preliminary sketch was made of the object.
    Secondly
, a network of grid lines was drawn over the sketch, creating one inch (or any other size) squares.
    Thirdly
, the same network of grid lines were drawn on the surface to be painted. This second set of grid lines were spaced one foot (or more) apart. Now the artist was ready to transfer his six-inch preliminary sketch to a six foot wall or canvas.

According to the scale used, the small preliminary sketch could be enlarged as much as one hundred times or even larger. Try it yourself. Take your favorite landscape snapshot and transfer it as a mural to your recreation room wall.

Solomon said, in Ecclesiastes 1:10, “Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new?’ It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.”

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