Egyptian Middle and New Kingdom - Sculpture Activity

Ancient Egypt Unit Study

Lesson 4: My daughter created an Ancient Egyptian sculpture.

During the Middle and New Kingdom periods of Ancient Egyptian history, temple building and sculpture flourished. Pharaohs such as Thutmose III conquered foreign lands including Nubia, Palestine and Persia. Demanding annual tribute from those conquered raised the standard of living for Egyptians. As a result, there was a seemingly unending supply of wealth and resources available for the pharaohs. Much of the resources were used to construct temples full of art and sculpture. 

Like Ancient Egyptian art, Ancient Egyptian sculpture was created according to a strict set of rules.

• People were depicted as youthful.
• Men stood with their left foot forward and their arms by their sides.
• People were seated on thrones with their hands on their knees.

We continued reading the simple book Ancient Egyptian Art (Art In History) to create an Egyptian sculpture as it covers many basic ideas displayed in Egyptian art.

Crayola Model Magic was used to create the sculpture. It's a soft, modeling material, that is light, air drys, brightly colored, and feels a lot like foam.

This seated pharaoh has dark hair because the Egyptian people wore wigs to protect their heads from the sun, red skin because men were typically depicted with reddish skin, a bright necklace typical of those worn by pharaohs, and a skirt because Egyptians typically work light-weight white linen skirts. Finally, he is seated on the throne with his hands on knees because that is one of the basic accepted poses for Ancient Egyptian sculpture.

Please visit Highhill Education again next week for more on our Ancient Egypt Unit Study. For past posts, please visit our history page.

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