Hello everyone and welcome to my second entry. We continue the mini series about Old Egypt. Today's topic is the different uses and meanings of colour that the Egyptians used in their art works.
They used a wide variety of colours for reasons that go beyond simple aesthetics. For their works, the old Egyptians selected colours depending on what they wanted to represent. This is because each colour had a different symbolic and spiritual meaning. This kind of colour coding helped to transmit deep and complex messages in a clear visual way. This was for all people to understand, and for the messages to perpetuate. However, sometimes, colours were also chosen to be realistic. For example, to represent the skin of men, they mixed brown and red. The result is the natural colour of mediterranean people spending a lot of time under the sun. On the other hand, women were painted with a mixture of white and yellow, because they spent more time indoors. Each colour was created mixing natural elements like minerals, shells, earth… But what did the colours mean?
Red symbolized chaos and disorder. For example the god Set who murdered Osiris, was always painted partially or fully in red. Green represented fertility and rebirth. It is the colour of life and regeneration, for example Osiris is sometimes represented with a green skin, because he was brought back to life by Isis. I could see this in the tomb of Ramses I, which preserves pretty well the colours. Yellow/Gold is associated with the sun, eternity and the divine. It is the symbol of gods and immortality. Isis, for example, is always represented with a golden skin. Blue symbolized the sky, water and creation. It was the colour of the god Amun and the heavens where he lives. White represented purity and cleanliness, just like today. Finally black was a symbol of death, the afterlife and resurrection. It is the color of Anubis, who guided the dead into the hall of judgment. However black was not related to evil witch as mentioned, was represented by red.
If you liked this, come back for the final entry of the mini series. Bye!
