Why did Egyptians choose to represent the god Amun in a static and balanced pose?
Statue of Amun
, Provenance unknown, possibly Thebes, Late Dynasty 18 - early Dynasty 19 (ca. 1332-1292 b.c.), Graywacke, h. 45.2 cm., Purchased from Spink and Co., 1926Theme: Measurers of Life
Goal: To understand how composition can be used to represent or reflect
ideas important to the culture.
Grade Levels: 6-8
Curriculum Areas: Visual Arts, Mathematics, and Writing
Materials:
Transparency of Statue of Amun
Copies of the image for the students
Graph overlay
Graph paper for students
Diamonte poem handout
The God Amun was the great state god of Thebes. This statue shows him with many of his attributes: the false beard of a god, an elaborate beaded collar, a pleated kilt with a tyet amulet. In his hands he holds two ankh signs, which denote life. Perhaps the most important attribute of Amun is not what he holds, but how he is posed. He stands absolutely straight and looks ahead. The carved lines are simple and elegant, only emphasizing detail in selected places. Every aspect of the statue is in complete balance.
Balance (ma’at) was an important element to Amun. He was believed to be a creator god, one who made order out of chaos in both the heavenly and earthly realms. Amun managed elements of the physical universe such as time and weather. He is often associated with the sun god, Ra, and in later kingdoms is called Amun-Ra. His power is so great in his role as a creator that Amun is said to transcend all other deities. This sort of awesome power was a great mystery to the Egyptians. In fact his true name was not known; Amun is best translated as the one who conceals himself.
Amun’s association with Thebes contributed to its growth as a major religious capital. Amun’s power to create order, therefore, also influenced the daily world of Theban politics and social order. He was seen as the "King of Gods," and Egyptian pharaohs would worship Amun and build magnificent temples in his honor. These temples were so impressive that rumors of Thebes’ splendors spread all the way to Greece. The temples themselves reflect the importance of balance and order that Amun embodied.
Objective
1Students will observe, analyze, and identify the elements of order and balance as seen in the Statue of Amun.
Procedure |
|
What Teacher Does |
What Students Do |
| Show the students the overhead of the Statue of Amun. Allow them time to look at it carefully. At this point, do not tell the students the title of the work or whom the statue represents. | Students closely observe and analyze what they see. |
| Ask the students to write down as many adjectives as they can that describe this statue. | Students apply knowledge of vocabulary to a description of this image (answers may include straight, stone, dark, shiny, balance, proportioned, large). |
| Have students compare their list to a partner’s list and then brainstorm together more words to describe this figure. | Students work collaboratively and decide with a partner their final list. |
| Ask students to share their lists with the class. As they list the words, have them point to the particular part of the statue that they are describing. Write on the board the vocabulary words, noting which words are mentioned repeatedly. | Students justify their choice of words by pointing to evidence within the image. |
| Explain to the students that the words listed help describe the balanced and orderly composition (how the pieces are put together) of the work of art. | Students transfer their understanding of these terms as applied to the statue to their knowledge of other objects or images (buildings, other sculpture, and monuments). |
Assessment Strategies
Objective
2Students will explore the principles of balance and order and their importance in Egyptian life.
Procedure |
|
What Teacher Does |
What Students Do |
| Ask the students: "From the descriptive words listed, what kind of person do you think this is?" | Students infer from what they see and describe whom the statue represents (a king, an important person, a god). |
| Explain that the statue
represents the god Amun. He was an Egyptian god who created an orderly world out of chaos,
so it was important to the Egyptians to represent Amun in a balanced and orderly way. Amun
was responsible for both balance and order in daily life, such as assuring there was a
good government, and in the cosmic world, ordering time and seasons. In Egypt the
principals of balance and order were called ma’at. The ancient Egyptians
established a graphing system for measuring the ideal proportions of the human body,
according to their canon of proportions nearly 4,000 years ago, and adhered to it for
centuries. Hand out graph paper to the students. Ask the students to place the graph paper over their copy of the Statue of Amun image. Place the graph overlay on top of the overhead to model for the students. |
Students measure lines and number graph points. |
| Ask the students to draw an x- and y-axis on their graph paper and to number every other block, starting with zero at the cross point of the two axes.(continued next page) | Students identify the coordinates for each section on the image and determine the balance based on the relative coordinates. |
What Teacher Does |
What Students Do |
| (continued from last page) The students may want to draw a heavy outline on their copies of the image before putting the graph paper over the image. With the graph paper on the image, have students find the coordinate for the ears, shoulders, and hands. (You may point to exactly which points on the overhead.) Have the students figure out whether these points are balanced. In other words, are the coordinates on the right the same numbers, but negative, as the coordinates on the left? |
|
| Discuss that when a composition is balanced equally on each side this is also called symmetrical. Asymmetrical means unbalanced. | Students understand appropriate terms for describing the principles of balance when applied to a work of art. |
| Besides the left and right sides of the statue being balanced, are there other parts that are proportionate? Have students compare the dimensions of different sections. For example, how many blocks of the graph paper comprise Amun’s upper torso as compared to his lower torso? What is the relationship of the size of his head to the rest of his body? | Students measure and compare different components of the statue and calculate the mathematical relationship between the parts (ratios). |
Assessment Strategies
Objective
3Students will relate their understanding of the importance of balance and order in Egyptian life to the places where we find balance and order today.
Procedure |
|
What Teacher Does |
What Students Do |
| Return to the students’ responses to the earlier question:"What else could you identify using the description words for the Statue of Amun?" | Students recall their earlier responses. |
What Teacher Does |
What Students Do |
| Based on their responses, have a class discussion about why balance and order are important principles in our society. Of the other things they could describe using the adjectives for Amun, how are they important to our society (buildings, monuments, and statues)? | Students refer to their understanding of significance of balance and order in the Statue of Amun. They compare their understanding to what they know about the purpose of balance and order in their lives. |
| Ask the students to write a diamonte poem, a form of poetry with a balanced structure (see Supplemental Materials) that compares and contrasts the Statue of Amun to something in our world that is balanced and ordered. It could be a government building, a statue of a local hero, etc. | Students will apply the vocabulary they developed earlier in the lesson to writing a poem. They will practice the very principles about which they have been learning—balance and order—to the creation of their poem. They will express succinctly and creatively a comparison between the Statue of Amun and something in their lives that represents balance and order. |
Assessment Strategies
Extension Activities
Have students create viewfinders by drawing a graph with x- and y-axis onto a transparency sheet. Make a frame with a handle from sturdy shirt cardboard. Take a field trip to view buildings or other sculpture in the neighborhood, and determine whether they are balanced and how that relates to their purpose.
Build a paper structure on a fulcrum point, such as a piece of cardboard balanced on a pencil or ruler. Have students experiment with balance by adjusting the height and weight of the building on each side of the fulcrum.
Social Studies: Break students into groups focusing on certain topics related to Egyptian culture, such as religion, politics, agriculture, and communication. Ask them to research and find ways in which balance and order are important in each of those areas.
Supplemental Materials
Diamante Poem
Diamante is a poem that is diamond shaped, does not have to rhyme, and contains subject (which is the title), adjectives, participles (-ing, -ed), nouns related to the subject, participles (-ing, -ed), adjectives, and nouns (opposite of the subject).
Steps
Begin with the two things you want to compare and contrast. Put these two words at the top and the bottom of the poem.
The second line should contain two adjectives that describe the subject (the word at the top of the poem).
The third line needs three participles that also directly relate to the subject.
The fourth line contains four nouns that compare or contrast the words at the top and the bottom of the poem.
The fifth line is three more participles that describe the fourth line.
The sixth line is two adjectives that describe the last line.
The seventh line is the bottom line of the poem, which contrasts with the top of the poem.
For this exercise you may want to start with a poem like the one below:
Statue
________________
______________________________
_______________________________________
______________________________
_________________
Building
Although not in the Diamante format, you may also want to share with your students an actual poem written in Amun’s honor:
"Lord of Thrones of the Two Lands,
King of eternity, lord of everlastingness,
May they give you a thousand of bread, beer, beef and fowl,
A thousand of food offerings,
A thousand of drink offerings,
A thousand of all things good and pure,
You are clothed in the robe of finest linen,
The garments that clad the flesh of the god,
You are anointed with pure oil,
by
The Scribe Paheri, the justified,
The loyal trusty of his lord."
[From Prayers of Paheri, a scribe of the treasury, from the back wall of his tomb, during the reign of Thutmose I.]