Temple reliefs provide a rare glimpse into how artists made ancient Egyptian art
Less-experienced artists carved body parts, while master sculptors worked on faces among archaeologist's discoveries at the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut.
An archaeologist documenting painted carvings in Egypt has reconstructed the working methods of the ancient artists who created them.
The research, published in the journal Antiquity, reveals how Egyptian artists organised their work, and that received on the job training from masters.
The Art Newspaper
November 17, 2021
© Maciej Jawornicki
Although archaeologists already understood the production stages of Egyptian art, it is rare to find evidence for it in finished works. The reliefs cover the walls of a chapel within the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut—a female pharaoh who reigned from around 1473-1458 BC—and show a procession of 200 offering bearers, split over three registers across two walls. The temple stands on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor, close to the Valley of the Kings.
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