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Scribe Of The King Essay

Decent Essays

Haremhab as a Scribe of the King (acc. no. 23.10.1) is an Egyptian sculpture by an anonymous sculptor during the Old Kingdom between the years 1336- 1323 BCE. It was made during the 18th dynasty when Tutankhamun and later Aya ruled as kings. An unknown artist most probably created this three-dimensional life size sculpture in Memphis, Egypt. It is a freestanding sculpture and is 113 centimeters high and 71 centimeters wide, and is made out of grey granite. The piece depicts a Scribe to the king in ancient Egypt. Through analysis of the formal elements and other artistic techniques displayed in this piece, the observer gets an experience of how high the status of Scribes were in Egyptian culture.
A main formal element used in this work is the use of lines. Haremhab is displayed sitting down in Indian style with both his legs bent and crossed over. There are clear horizontal lines all throughout the sculpture. Starting from Haremhab’s head, horizontal lines define his headdress. His clothing is also structured out of horizontal lines. The horizontal lines are also demonstrated on the brick / …show more content…

The piece is also made up of both smooth and rigid textures. His legs, his garment, and the curved lines under his belly demonstrate rigidness. This texture on these areas can imply that the artist wanted to create detail to the sculpture. If the viewer looked at the sculpture from the back, he would notice that the bottom of the figure’s back is also rigid defined by many coarse lines. This rigidness can indicate that this is the skirt Haremhab is wearing. The rest of the figure has a smooth texture. The lighting of Haremhab as a Scribe of the King is crucial to understanding the amount of detail the artist put into this sculpture. The lighting enables the viewer to realize that the sculpture is not shiny and not very

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