Sunday, October 06, 2013

The magnificent scale of Abu Simbel.



The Great temple of Abu simbel" damage minimized" 2013 Painted by Yasser Kamel.



The overwhelming impression that Abu Simbel cause once to be viewed has no match , just a single glimpse on its stunning façade which exceeds 40.M high and spotting the four colossal statutes of the great Ramses which are about 20.M high is a mind boggling moment! Such remote and complete temple that goes back to 1200 B.C and left with intact colours for the interior and minimal damage for the exterior ,then its engineering based astronomy which allowed its architects to align the statue of Ramses II in its innermost room to the sun rise on two certain and special days for the king. One of the days is supposed to be his birthday and the other is supposed to be his coronation day!  Originally the dates were the 21st of February and the 21st of October which were missed by UNECCO saving project of Abu Simbel between the years 1964-1968 and the phenomenal sun shine on Ramses II face became a day forward for each date. However the great efforts exerted by the rescue team to make a perfect a transfer and reconstruction into a safe spot from the growing man-made lake Naser with a cost exceeded 50 million USD, it failed to re-angle the great Abu Simbel in the right position to keep its aligning with sun accomplished ! The other great challenge and obstacle from an artistic and architectural perspective, is to reveal the method that possibly followed by the artist in order to stereotype such four identical and gigantic statues of the pharaoh . 


Abu-Simbel-Francois-Gau-1819



The possible scope that the artist could have on the narrow Nile bank for Abu Simbel  would be too much vertical in vision than it is required to  make a good judge on the statues proportions which make his task rather impossible.


An imaginary   stone print created by a metal stencil. Painted and designed by Yasser Kamel.



The  scope of the giant  Abu Simbel which naked eyes never can comprehend or realize would force the artist to count on different tools, implements and methods to help him to carry out his plan. The ancient Egyptians were familiar with moulds and stencils methods which enabled to create such stereotyped carvings and specifically the repetitive   Hieroglyphic characters. Ideally two dimensional-metal stencils are suggested for the use in order to accomplish accuracy and the identicalness.  Based on my experience of sketching a part of the Great Abu Simbel on very small scale I believe that such enormous statues would never become identical without following such method!. Written and painted by Yasser kamel for Museumegypt.2006@.All rights reserved.





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Art in ancient Egypt ! My T.V talk today! I hope you find it enjoyable!💙💙💙

Art in ancient Egypt ! My T.V talk today! I hope you find it enjoyable!