Monday, September 23, 2013
Anubis the Jackal
Ancient Egypt has fascinated me ever since I was a child, especially with movies like The Mummy. One of their gods that I have always loved was Anubis which is the Egyptian god associated with mummification and the afterlife. Anubis attends the weighing scale to weigh the soul's heart in the afterlife. Anubis has the body of a human and the head of a Jackal. In this photo you can see Anubis finishing mummification.
Anubis carries a flail in one hand and an ankh in the other. In this painting you can see Anubis finishing the mummification of Sennedjem which is located in his tomb.
These two paintings are very similar even though they are located in different areas and from different times. I like them because they show Anubis actually involved in finishing the mummification process. The contrast between details is very cool. In the first painting you can actually see the hands reach around the sarcophagus. The face and ears of the Jackal are ornately colored and very precise. The second piece has more ornately detailed patterns on the wall, clothing, and sarcophagus.
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I'm interested in how he's depicted in these portrayals, since he's active, which usually is something associated with the lower classes in Egyptian art. It certainly raises some questions at the very least.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, I had no idea that if he was active it was associated with lower classes. Sadly there wasn't much information to go on with these pictures, the descriptions for each were very vague. I'm very curious as to what the hieroglyphs on the wall translate to.
DeleteI think these pieces are really cool. I wish our Ancient Egypt chapter was longer! :( But, I do see the similarities between the two. I like the first piece is more detailed and I notice the hieroglyphs in the background compared to the second one that does not have any hieroglyphs on the back wall. On the second piece the colors are a little darker and dim compared to the first one which has more golds.
ReplyDeleteIt is worth noting that because the mummification process led the Egyptians to examining the body in a more scientific fashion, they became of the first of the civilizations to really practice medicine as we know it (though their methods were very crude). Since gods were thought to cause disease, it is somewhat ironic that their priests were the ones to be the first healers.
ReplyDeleteIt also intrigues me that they were also one of the first cultures to introduce lead into their make-up. I find it very ironic that for thousands of years lead continued to stay in make-up, before people finally learned of how poisonous it was.
DeleteI've always liked Anubis and all the art from Egypt. I think its really interesting how little he actualy changed through a gap of distance and time, even his postion and the activitiy he is doing is pretty identical. i think that shows how much they respect the gods and their beliefs, and how much they are a part of their life.
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