The iconography of the Egypt 3101-ZMIKO
Development of the state of researches on the Egyptian iconography, principles of presenting three-dimensional reality on flat surfaces - both formal ones, resulting from the canon of proportions, and ideological ones reflecting the different mode of perception of the world, through most of the ancient cultures (the "aspective") and resulting from different evaluation on the informative level and sometimes consciously differing from objectivity - as well as the problems of the religious symbolism in the iconographic compositions, shall be presented during the course, accompanied with the proper terminology of the particular scenes, motives and parts of these.
The optional classes consist in training proper way of description and interpretation of the chosen scenes, in recognizing characteristic motifs, and reconstructing the complete scenes from preserved fragments, as well as in the use of the iconographic details to date objects decorated with these.
Type of course
Learning outcomes
It is assumed that in result of the attendance at the course the student - while having a well-ordered knowledge of the ancient Egyptian culture and society, and while appreciating the unique value of the presented sources for the reconstruction of the history of the mankind - should master a deepen knowledge of the ancient Egyptian way of the pictorial presentation of the elements of the three-dimensional reality on flat surfaces; he or she should master the principles of a specific adaptation of the ancient Egyptian artists to the historically formed conditions in which they were living and working; the student should get, too, a deepen mastery of self-reliuant interpretation of the Egyptian iconographic sources, combined with mastery of reconstructing the complettness of a scene preserved, fragmentarily, as well as of concluding the date of the motif or scene under analysis.
Assessment criteria
To permit student to take the final test is conditioned on a high attendance at the classes. It is expected that the student would shaw the understanding of the problems presented during the course, and the mastery of the suggested literature.
Bibliography
H. Schäfer, Principles of Egyptian Art., Oxford 1974;
A. Niwiński, Mity I symbole starożytnego Egiptu, Warszawa 1992;
A. Niwiński, „Towards the religious iconography of the 21st Dynasty”, [w:]
Göttinger Miszellen 49 (1981), str. 47-59;
A. Niwiński, “Iconography of the 21st Dynasty: its main features, levels of
Attestation, the media and their diffusion”, [w:] Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis
175, Fribourg 2000, str. 21-43;
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: