Egyptian decoration art and ornament are an abstract to what their eyes saw, what their hearts believed.
Iteration denying arbitrariness, emphasizing that form followed philosophy and mirrored environment
if you can read our decoration, you can read our minds.
Of the four Art of decoration which was listed by Petrie in his book Egyptian Decorative Art, is the natural ornament the favorite for my eyes and heart, as -in my opinion -it speaks also for the mindset of the Egyptian architect where the architect tries to depict the Egyptian landscape in the ornaments as well as in the architectureInsbesondere können wir in den religiösen Architekturen sehen, wo als Beispiel die Farben Blau und Grün die ägyptische Landschaft widerspiegeln
Egyptian Ornament in the language
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MXTB an Ornament of Gold
Forms of Egyptian Decoration
Neteru Medu as Art
Neteru Medu -the hieroglyphs- were not only a writing system, but they were also a decoration In themselves. Their position was ruled by their effect as a frieze, like the beautiful tile borders of Cufic inscription on Arab architecture; and we never see in Egypt the barbarous cutting of an inscription across figure sculptures as is so common in Assyria.
Signs were often transposed in order to group them more harmoniously together in a graceful scheme
Geometrical
Geometric decoration is the abstract image of Egyptian Nature and the deduction of egyptian natural decoration. After that, the geometric shapes are varied, and the egyptian artist is creative in their varations . This happened either through a systematic study of nature and its nature reduction, or at the very least it happened unconsciously after working on many natural shapes, which affected his reductions and preferences. We find, for example, that at the bottom of the wall is the following geometric shape
Which can be deduced from the Lotus (natural decoration) that are usually drawn at the bottom of the walls
Ceiling as an abstract for Nut
The picture above shows a possible origin of the cross decoration in the Egyptian ceiling. It is a recent image from the restoration of a temple in Esna. In the picture, we see Nut, the goddess of the sky, giving birth to the sun god Ra. Ra's journey is surrounded by cross shapes that may have inspired the ceiling decoration. The ceiling represents Nut's body and her dress. The ceiling is our personal sky where our divine grandmother watches over us.
The hypothesis that the cross shapes are not mere details of the dress, but rather another variation of the star symbols, requires further investigation and exploration
Natural
Among animals a favorite in decoration was the ibex, but it was not introduced till the XVIIIth dynasty. It often appears on the finger-rings of Akhenaten's time,
The natural ceiling pattern adopted from the early days of Egyptian art. These are always five-pointed stars, with a circular spot, usually of red, in the center. It is noticeable that the Egyptian views a star as surrounded by long streamers of light ; because to a long-sighted person, or anyone with proper spectacles, the stars appear as points of light without radiation. Hence it seems as if the Egyptians were short-sighted people from the early ages.
The ceiling decoration of the tomb depicts fruit and leaves, most likely mimicking the ceiling of Egyptian gardens
The plain flower was also used very early, as we see on the head-band of Nefert at the beginning of the IVth dynasty.
Structural
Egyptian cornice Origin
in the villages of the Fellahin today palm cornices may be seen in course of development. A fence is formed of palm-sticks, placed upright, and stripped of leaves for some way up. The tops are left bushy, and serve to prevent men or animals climbing over the courtyard wall.
Khaker
The clue to the real nature of this decoration is given in a tomb of the IVth dynasty (Ptah-Hotep, L.D. ii. loi. b.), where we see the khaker ornament not as a mere painting, but represented as standing up solid around the tops of the cabins of boats. Yet we have not found it as decoration on a flat surface until the Xllth. Then it is very common; but its meaning became confused in the XVIIIth dynasty, and in Ptolemaic times it is seen in absurd positions, as on a base, and on architraves above an empty space, where no stems below it were possible.
The Architecture of Egypt has this peculiarity over all other styles, that the more ancient the monument the more perfect is the art. All the remains with which we are acquainted exhibit Egyptian Art in a state of decline. - Owen Jones
Symbolic
Revival of Egyptian art and decoration
Unfortunately, I am not aware of any governmental organization which dedicates its work to the revival of Egyptian decoration/architecture with its different types, however individual trials come to the surface every now and then,but it is always a question of consistency and how sustainability the trail is.
Individual endavoures
Notes on Egyptian Decoration guidebook There are steps and a certain pattern followed harmoniously in the designs of the Egyptian decoration. Mostly followed in the palace and the house and on the wooden coffin alike.
A specific pattern: It means that the beginning has a decoration that matches it, and the bottom or the end has a set of known patterns.
The first time that I started to realize that there is a rules to follow when using the Egyptia decoration was as the base of a wooden coffin in Museum of fine Arts in Budapest 2023, the decoration of the rectangles lined beside eachother were not only on the bas of that coffine, they was repeatdly seen on other bases like wall bases.
In the picture below we see a use of the base rectagular decoration in modern Egypt. unfourtantly I had no chance to see the place personally. the picture is copied from a Facebook group with link below the picture.
This pattern is also used in door of the gilt shrine from the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun.
Egyptian decorative art : a course of lectures delivered at the Royal Institution /by W.M. Flinders Petrie
Page 3-6 The grammar of ornament
Scenes from some Theban tombs (no. 38, 66, 162, with excerpts from 81)
The decoration of the tomb of Per-nēb, the technique and the color conventions
"Neo-Pharaonism and National Revival: The Controversy Surrounding the Saad Zaghloul Mausoleum", in Laura Hindelang & Nadia Radwan (eds.), "Nostalgia and Belonging in Art and Architecture from the MENA Region. A Collection of Essays", Manazir: Swiss Platform for the Study of Visual Arts, Architecture and Heritage in the MENA Region, 18 October 2021, https://manazir.art/blog/nostalgia-and-belonging-art-and-architecture-mena-region/neo-pharaonism-and-national-revival-magnin
The Politics of the Funereal: The Tomb of Saad Zaghlul, Ralph M. Coury Gerschoni and Jankowski have remarked that the style of Zaghlul's tomb is exceptional in that all other Egyptian leaders have been buried in mosques or in Arab/Islamic structures and therse authors believe that the pharaonic nature of Zaghlul's tomb is a reflection of the unique era in which he led the nation. If Pharonism was ao strong in the 1920s, and if its strengths derived from some of the ideological functions. I have sketch
Isreal Gershoni and James P. Jankows, Egypt, Islam and the Arab: The search for Egyptian Nationhood, 1900-1930 (New York, 1986). 185-89
https://uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet/aktuelles-und-publikationen/pressemitteilungen/newsfullview-pressemitteilungen/article/restaurierung-der-tempeldecke-im-aegyptischen-esna-abgeschlossen/?fbclid=IwAR2ick5veVObm1TkqIESCYjHzn39EjlgmjN8noca1kb96IR2owvPrUGnmpo
Now we can see a source for most of our familiar elements of design in the decoration which was used in Egypt long before any example that is known to us outside of that land. And it is to Egypt then that we are logically bound to look at the origin of these motives. If then, we seek the source of most of the various elements of the decoration which covers our walls, our floors, our dishes, our book covers, and even our railway stations, we must begin by studying Egypt.
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