Egyptian Art vs Renaissance Art Essay

The ancient Egyptians have had a huge impact on the world today. From Cleopatra, to The Mummy movies, the theme that is Egyptian is something that is very easily recognized. Egyptian art is very flat with exaggerated body parts. These figures have very long arms and legs with pointy eyes. Pointy eyes are a vanity thing that is still sought after and many women achieve this look with liquid eyeliner. Another factor that makes Egyptian art special is their color pallet. The Egyptians used many warm colors such as various shades of brown, red, yellow, and orange. The frescos done by the Egyptians were done with egg and vinegar. One thing I found that was very interesting is that the Egyptians painted males with a dark reddish skin tone, and they painted the women a lighter yellow color. This shows that men were very active outdoors and they women were mainly indoors. This shows how important detail was to Egyptians and that their paintings were very accurate to how they were living. Renaissance style art is classical and most known for their religious pieces. A characteristic Renaissance art had that Egyptian did not was mannerism. Mannerism in Renaissance art included unusual poses of figures and the body language. Compared to the Egyptian’s stiff style, Renaissance art contained much movement and was very soft to look at. Below is a mannerist painting. As you can see the poses seem strange to few, but regardless the painting contains bold colors with the focal point being the woman and her pale skin. One of the things that differentiate Egyptian art to Renaissance art is that Renaissance art uses realism. Their paintings include drawing of people in a realistic way. The people in Egyptian art do not exactly look how a real person would look today. Below, is a renaissance style portrait of Raphael Sanzio compared to an Egyptian painting of the pharaoh. What they both have in common is that they are both of males, they are both wearing head pieces, and both seem to be inspired by the human body. Their differences include color, dimensions perspective, makeup, props, and clothing to name a few. Comparing Egyptian art to Renaissance art is like comparing pizza to sushi. Both very different but amazing in their own way. Both types of art had a huge impact on art today and are considered timeless. As an artist in my spare time, I look up to both styles as my inspiration.