King Khafre Research Paper

Carlito Luiz Ramos

Art 105

Prof. Karen Patterson

May 07, 2017

King Khafre Statue, Spiritual and religious belief

Art has been a part of our life for as long as humanity has existed. For thousands of years people have been creating, looking at, criticizing, and enjoying art. Art is an expression of life, which means it expresses emotions. Creation that allows for interpretation of any kind is art. I have read somewhere that art is a human skill as opposed to nature, a skill applied to music, painting, poetry etc. I believe that nature is art as well. If something is made a certain way, then it's unique in its own way. And one of the most unique art that I have seen is created during the Egyptian era. Egyptian art was an important part of their

The construction is made of anorthosite gneiss, a valuable, extremely hard, and dark stone brought 400 miles down the Nile River from royal quarries. This highlights Khafre’s importance and power as a ruler. The statue was carved for the Pharaoh’s valley temple near the Great Sphinx, a part of the necropolis a funerary city in that era the sculpture is used in funeral rituals. This Old Kingdom statue has an important function in Egyptian tombs as substitute abodes for the Pharaoh’s ka the life force that accompanied a person with a kind of other self. After death, the ka leaves the body into the afterlife, but still needs a place to

This specific artist carved out of dark greywacke to capture the naturalistic, yet idealized, form of King Khafre, and in doing so showcased his own expertise as a craftsman. The artist captured the royalty of the king by dressing this nearly life-size replica in the traditional kilt, fake beard, and linen headdress. Another identifying feature of the pharaoh can be found on the unusually backless throne that the Khafre figure sits on. It is decorated with the seam tawa, an emblem of unification that combines the hieroglyph seam or union with the symbols for the two lands of Egypt the papyrus for the north and a flower for the south. Other hieroglyphs are displayed on the front of the throne, by the figures legs, perhaps representing Khafre's name or his dynasty. One other engraving that sticks out to me is the engraving of a bird, and I believe that this specific engraving represents the sun god