So, my darlings, if you're still with me after my absence for the Internet over winter break, I have a present for you. An assignment from my "Episodes in Western Art" class in which we investigated The Palette of Narmer, this Ancient Egyptian...thingy. We were looking at what makes sense to us and why we understand it and then what doesn't make sense and why. Simple, straightforward, and it looks like it's going to be a wonderful course!
A)
1) I understand which of the figures
is the Pharaoh. He is the largest, and
wears the crown. On the first image the
Pharaoh is defeating some enemy, and on the second image he appears to be
involved in some sort of procession.
Also on the second image, there
appear to be stacks of decapitated bodies, with their head lying between their
feet. Therefore, I’m guessing that this
piece commemorates the Pharaoh’s military victory and consequent celebration.
I think I’m able to
“read” this because the events depicted here are cross-cultural events. I don’t have to know anything about Egyptian
culture to understand that a bunch of decapitated bodies probably has something
to do with war.
I’m able to understand
the depiction of the Pharaoh, because that concept is not exclusively Egyptian
either. There are always leaders, with crowns
on their heads in many, many cultures.
2)
Therefore, the things I have difficulty “reading” are things that are strange
to me, that I have no reference point for.
For
example, the long-necked cat-like creatures on the second image, who are being
ridden or controlled by humans. I have
no idea what they are—some terribly inaccurate representation of giraffes? Are they some sort of mythological
monster? I have no idea.
The
bottommost row of the second image is an ox standing over a man, and both of
them are beside something that resembles some sort of stone-work construction
going on. There are a few bricks, and
some sort of wall. But I have no clue as
to how these elements are interacting with each other.
B) In order to understand what the giraffe-cats
are, first I’ll go try and find out if there were giraffes in Egypt in 3,000 BCE. If not, I’ll go look for a catalogue of
Ancient Egyptian monsters to see if giraffe-cats exist in there. If that doesn’t work, I’d see what an expert
Egyptologist has to say about that piece, hoping he will mention the creatures.
As
far as the scene on the bottom row of the second image, with the man and the
ox, I’d probably just go straight to the expert. Maybe also looking up what oxen symbolized in
Ancient Egyptian beliefs, it may have symbolic meaning that I’m not catching.
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