Ancient Egyptians loved 2D painting, the style has many similarities with modern comics

In 1986, the band The Bangles sang about "all the old paintings at the tomb", where the figures depicted were "walking like an Egyptian". Although not an art historian or Egyptologist, musician Liam Sternberg is referring to one of the most striking features of ancient Egyptian visual art - depictions of people, animals, and objects. object on a two-dimensional plane.

Why did the ancient Egyptians do that? And is ancient Egypt the only culture that created art in this style?

Drawing any object in 3-D visualization requires a specific point of view to create the illusion of perspective on a flat surface. Drawing an object in 2 dimensions (height and width) requires the artist to depict only one plane of the object. Highlighting just 1 plane, it turns out, has its own advantages.

John Baines, emeritus professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford in the UK, told Live Science: "In painting, lines carry the most information. Things are easier to see if they are positioned. clear in brushstrokes".

Ancient Egyptian paintings are mostly depicted in 2D style.

That is, when painting on a 2D surface, the drawing line is the most important content, although many ancient Egyptian drawings still have many multi-faceted details of the object. According to Baines, they are very focused on sharpness and intelligibility.

In short, rendering on 2D allows for simpler and easier-to-understand images that are easier to grasp.

According to Baines, in many artistic traditions, "size equals importance". In mural art, royalty and tomb owners are often depicted as much larger than the objects around them. If an artist uses 3D perspective to show the proportions of people in reality with the foreground and background, it goes against this principle.

The art of storytelling with 2D pictures has similarities with modern comic books.

Another reason for depicting multiple objects on a two-dimensional plane is that it aids visual storytelling.

The art of painting by the ancient Egyptians can be compared to modern comics, Baines explains. There were some principles that were common at the time, such as that letters were written and read in vertical columns, and pictures were presented horizontally. The caption for this form of "comic" is pictograms. He also noted that the content of the paintings is not about real events but often generalized or idealized ideas about life.

However, not all forms of painting in ancient Egypt were entirely 2-dimensional. According to Baines, "Most paintings are placed in an architectural context". Some of the works on the tomb walls include a relief model, or a type of carving.

In the tomb of Akhethotep, a court official who lived during the 5th Dynasty around 2400 BC, we can see two scribes (pictured below) whose bodies were sculpted on the flat surface of the stone. wall.

As Baines explains, "The relief also simulates the surface of the body so you can't say it's just flat strokes" because "they have texture and surface detail beyond the outline".

The bas-relief of the two men mentioned above has a three-dimensional depiction.

This type of 2D drawing was not only popular in ancient Egypt but also spread to Syria, Mesopotamia, Maya, or even later medieval European painting. Although ancient Greek and Roman painting was the exception, Professor Baines said the tradition of 2D drawing was very popular, effective and did not need to change much.