New Kingdom

also: Egyptian Empire

movement c. 1550-1070 BC Egypt North Africa

The New Kingdom - Egypt's imperial age, spanning the Eighteenth to Twentieth dynasties - is the period that supplies the popular image of pharaonic art. Reunified Egypt of the sixteenth century BC became an empire, and its wealth funded workshops and building on an unmatched scale: temple complexes with pylon gates and columned halls at Karnak and Luxor, rock-cut facades at Abu Simbel, and the painted royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings. Two centuries of convention were interrupted by the Amarna revolution under Akhenaten, whose art loosened the canon toward naturalism, movement, and domestic intimacy before the Ramesside pharaohs restored a monumental classicism. The period's minor arts - gold, faience, and hard stone, above all the gold of Tutankhamun's burial - reached their technical peak.

Abu Simbel Temple of Ramesses II. Taken by myself. May 30, 2007
Abu Simbel Temple of Ramesses II. Taken by myself. May 30, 2007Public domain (credit: Than217 at English Wikipedia) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Monumental temple architecture: pylon gates, obelisks, and vast columned halls
  • Sunk relief on exterior walls; painted relief and fresco inside tombs
  • Flattened registers and composite-view figures in saturated mineral colour
  • Colossal royal statuary and rock-cut facades (Abu Simbel, the Ramesseum)
  • Amarna interlude: elongated bodies, naturalistic movement, domestic scenes
  • Lavish minor arts in gold, faience, and hard stone

Key figures

  • Hatshepsut (c. 1507-1458 BC) — Pharaoh who built the terraced temple of Deir el-Bahari and opened trade to Punt
  • Thutmose III (r. c. 1479-1425 BC) — Warrior-pharaoh who expanded the empire and built extensively at Karnak
  • Akhenaten (r. c. 1353-1336 BC) — Founder of the Amarna style, who broke the artistic canon toward naturalism
  • Ramesses II (c. 1303-1213 BC) — Greatest builder of the Ramesside age (Abu Simbel, the Ramesseum)
  • Thutmose (fl. c. 1345 BC) — Court sculptor whose workshop produced the Nefertiti bust

Example works

Sources

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