Head Of Anubis Analysis

The Head of Anubis

I chose to travel to the Smith College Art Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. At the museum, they had one large exhibit featuring Ancient Art. The exhibit consisted of many paintings, and different types of pottery from the Roman period. There were about ten sculptures in the Ancient Art exhibit, but the one piece that caught my eye was the Head of Anubis sculpture. This sculpture was the only piece from Egyptian descent and gave the room an ominous feeling. My chosen piece was estimated to be from 16th century BC to 8th century BC and an unknown artist or artisan made it. The entire piece was made of black granite and was mounted on a piece of red marble, which was mounted on an orange stand. The entire exhibit was a
The reason for this is because this sculpture gives off a certain kind of emotion, a feeling combined of intimidation and curiosity. In person the Head of Anubis feels more intense than a simple one-dimensional picture online. When viewed at the museum, the viewer can experience the ridgedness around the jackal’s ears, online the lines are blurred out and you cannot sense the texture of the sculpture. An area that is very pronounced on the Head of Anubis is the muzzle; the length is demonstrated well as if that is one of the trademarks of Anubis. One part of the sculpture that does not change when viewed online or in person is the color because it is completely made of black granite. While viewing this piece, I was very surprised by smooth texture of the sculpture mainly because when this was made the artisans were limited on tools, which is very
Starting from the 16th century, there was the Second Intermediate Period, the New Kingdom, and the Late Dynastic Period. During the end of the second intermediate period, it was an age of pandemonium because of the repeated failure of the Nile River to flood. During this time, since Lower Egypt was frail the Hyksos took control of the area. In 1552, Ahmose I, a Theban King, took over Hyksos’s area, and began the New Kingdom. In 1369, during the New Kingdom, Akhenaten changed the heirarchy of their gods by placing Aten (god of the sun’s disk) above all of the other deities. Akhenaten wanted to change Egypt’s heretical view from polytheism to henotheism, but he ended up failing and much of his name was erased from history. In 1274, The Egyptians and Hittites made a treaty that split Palestine and Syria between the two civilizations. This treaty is actually the world’s oldest international agreement. Egyptians strongly believed in immortality, and in their religion, the afterlife was promised after death. During the age of the New Kingdom, the pyramids of Giza were being turned into funerary temples. Egyptian paintings and sculptures were based around religion, were used to house a person’s spirit, or used to protect a person’s