ARTH 351 Studies in the History of Sculpture: Origins and Afterlife of Egyptian Architectural Sculpture

• Thursdays, 9:00-11:30
• EV-1-605
• Instructor: Braden Scott

On the recognisable similarity of a vast range of Egyptian sculpture, Whitney Davis writes: “the fundamental feature of ancient Egyptian art is its sameness: one work is very much like another.” This course is a survey of ancient Egyptian sculpture, from prehistory to the twenty-first century, where the qualities of sameness will be mined for their polyvalence. Our main questions include: why do so many Egyptian sculptures look the same? Were there any variables—works of art that broke from the mould—and how were they received? What did it mean when foreign rulers sculpted themselves as Egyptian pharaohs? How can a study of Egyptian sculpture affect the way we understand global art history that takes place over five thousand years? To answer these as a class, we will study both the sculpture of ancient Egypt, and the reception/recreation/spoliation of Egyptian sculpture over the last two millennia.

In the first half of the semester, students will study key works from the Naqada periods of Egyptian prehistory (4th millennium BCE) to the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty (30 BCE). Beginning with the Narmer Palette, we will analyse the pivotal moment when the culmination of prehistoric representations unknowingly set the standard of core motifs that would be mined and serialised as a canon for royal sculpture. We will then analyse the architectural sculpture—wall reliefs and free-standing statues that engage with spaces of death, worship, and politics—in the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. In the second half of the semester, we will move into the annexation of Egypt as a Roman province and the subsequent infrastructural development of the transport of material wealth, particularly monolithic granite obelisks and columns. Egyptian revivals, renascences, and so-called “mania” will be discussed in key studies, moving chronologically to include spolia in the late Roman Empire, Islamic architectural incorporation of ancient artefacts, Renaissance studies of Egyptian antiquities that led to superstition regarding demons inside the Vatican obelisk, Neoclassical architecture and the modern use of Egyptian relief sculpture, spaces of cinema, and the inclusion of Egyptian sculpture in the Carters’ music video APES**T. From Narmer to the Carters, we will cover a little more than five thousand years of a history of Egyptian sculpture. This will develop into critical discussions in class where students will be encouraged to activate political, social, and cultural contexts around case studies and consider the role of the contemporary art historian in rewriting these histories.