Egyptian and Buddhist

Egyptian Art (Painting)

Although the ancient Egyptians had no word for the "art" they revered beauty and produced architecture, paintings, murals, statues, decorative arts and variety of crafts. Much of the ancient Egyptian art that has made to us today was oriented towards death, the dead and the quest of the afterlife.

They (Egyptians) believed that artistic renderings of images placed in tombs would become real and accompany the deceased to the afterlife. Some of them belief in the afterlife is what helped ancient Egypt survive even after the empire had died.

How were they made?

The Egyptians painted on papyrus rolls, tomb walls , coffin lids and other surfaces. They used a variety of materials for pigments. They made yellow and orange pigments from soil and produces blue and red from imported indigo and madder and combined them to make flesh color. By 1000 B.C , they developed paints and varnishes using the gum of the acacia tree ( gum Arabic) as their base.

Ancient Egyptian Tomb Paintings

Tombs typically contained the images of the deceased performing tasks from everyday life or doing some great deed or achievement. Other than that the images are also about the deceased making sacrifices to Gods such as Anabus, Isis and Orissis.

The images of cobras, Gods with weapons or scorpions on their head intended to keep evil spirits from entering the tomb and protect deceased. The images of the deceased at the gates of the Nether World asking for permission to enter. They believe to pass through each gate the deceased had to say the name of the gate and the god that guards it.

1) The rules of paintings

Egyptian civilization was highly religious. The Egyptian respect for order and conservative values led to the establishment of complex rules for how both Gods and human could be represented by artists.
For example, in figure painting , the sizes of figures were calculated based on the people's social status. The same formula was used for ages. Head and legs always in profile as eyes and upper body viewed from the front.

2) Use of Pigments

The use of color in Egyptian paintings was regulated and used symbolically. The artists used six colors in their paintings such as red, yellow, white and black. Red being the color of power, symbolized life and victory as well as anger and fire. Green symbolized of new life, growth and fertility while blue symbolized creation and rebirth yet yellow symbolized the eternal such as the qualities of the sun and gold.

Yellow could also be the color of Ra and of all the pharaohs which is why the sarcophagi and funeral masks were made of gold to symbolize the everlasting and eternal pharaoh who was now a god. White was the color of purity, symbolizing all the things sacred and was typically used in religious objects and tools used by the priests. Black was the color of death and represented the underworld and the night.

Amenhotep I tomb painting

Amenhotep III tomb painting

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Buddhist Art (Architecture)

Siddhartha the prince who was to become the Buddha was born into the royal family of Kapilavastu, India. His was a divine conception and miraculous birth at which sages predicted that he would become a universal conqueror, either of the physical world or of men's minds. Giving up the pleasures of the palace to seek the true purpose of life, Siddhartha first tried the path of severe asceticism, only to abandon it after six years as a futile exercise. He then sat down in yogic meditation beneath a bodhi tree until he achieved enlightenment. He was known henceforth as the Buddha or Enlightened One.

Stupa

A stupa refers to a mound-like structure that contains some relic of Buddha or Buddhist monks. The origin of Stupas is considered to be from Shramana tradition in which the monks were buried in seated position. When Buddha died, his remains were cremated and the ashes were divided and buried in eight mounds. The foundation of Buddhist stupas was mainly laid by Asoka. The best examples of Buddhist stupas are found at Amaravati, Sanchi , Barhut and Gaya.

The Symbolism of The Stupa

The Seed of the Highest Enlightenment also depicted as a Tongue of Flame (Bindu) to be realized above the double symbol crowning Chorten.

The double symbol (Surya Chandra) of Sun and Rising Moon is an emblem of the Twin-unity of the Absolute Truth (of the sphere beyond normal comprehension) and the Relative Truth (of the wordly sphere).

The stylized Parasol (Chattra) symbolically giving protection from all evil.

The thirteen Steps of Enlightenment i.e. the first ten Steps of Enlightenment (Dasha-Bhumi) and the three higher levels of supraconsciousness (Avenika-smrityupashthana).

The dome corresponding to the primevel mound as Receptacle of Relics or offerings (Dhatu-Garbha) ; the dome-line edifices of Old Indian Stupas were also called egg or water-bubble (Budbuda).

The base (Parishada) is square and four-stepped, its sides facing the four directions. Analogous to the underworld.