A mosaic depicting a Sumerian battle between an opposing force, created around 2000 BCE. You can see the Sumerian king in the top-left corner, in the chariot. Sumerians were the first people to use the form of mosaic art.

This essay explores the differences and similarities between Greco-Roman Byzantine art, and ancient Egyptian paintings, in both their subject matter and rendering. Ancient Egyptian art had a very original look to it. If you see Egyptian art, you’re going toknow what it is. People are shown completely from the side, with the eye full-on towards the viewer. People were also very disproportioned, on purpose, depending on what their social status was. A good example of this is in a painting of workers bringing gold and gifts to a Pharaohs’ resting place, where all of the workers are much, much smaller than the Pharaoh. Religion was very important to Egyptians, who practice polytheism, meaning they worshipped many gods. Anubis, the God of embalming, Osiris, the God of death, Ra, the God of the sun, Geb, the God of the Earth, and other well-known Gods appeared heavily in works of art.

A famous scene to be painted was that of when a soul was examined to see if it was ‘pure’ enough to join Osiris in the Underworld. The feather of Ma’at was weighed against the heart of a human waiting to be with Osiris. If the heart was lighter than the feather, they would be permitted. If the heart was heavy with burden and sin, it would be thrown to a monster that was part lion, part crocodile, and part hippopotamus, to be eaten and to cause the soul to be stuck in ‘limbo’ forever.

The Egyptians did more than just painting, however. Sculptures of Pharaohs can be found deep inside the pyramids where they lay. Hand in hand with the unique proportioning of people in Egyptian art was the fact that the body, too, was simply fiction. Old, frail Pharaohs, years away from death, were depicted as being youthful, muscular, fit, and good-looking, wearing very expensive jewelry, with women at their side, in these statues and sculptures. The Egyptians had lots of ‘freedom’ when creating their art, and when they were ordered to create something for their Pharaoh, using the ‘freedom’ was necessary.

Egyptians also used mosaics long before the Byzantine period popularized them. Setting pieces of glass and stone to make eye-catching tesserae inlays and actual works of art, these could be found decorating pillars in temples or on floors or walls in pictures. There is an example of this, of a picture of people made from shells and mother-of-pearls, against pieces of lapis lazuli, which was a common and popular stone. They were inlaid in ‘bitumen’, a type of sticky, highly viscous mixture made of sulfur and some types of heavy metal, such as lead, nickel, and mercury. This was used as the ‘concrete’ to keep all the pieces together.

Since most art found in Egyptian times has royalty in it, it is very obvious that the Pharaohs, and other people of power were the ones who sponsored, and paid for the pieces to be done. The daily life of an ancient Egyptian was much too busy to be making this art for fun, so those who were skilled would create the pieces, to please their Pharaoh, and more importantly, to get paid.

However, as was stated earlier, the Greco-Roman Byzantine period of art that popularized mosaics. You could find them everywhere, all over the walls in shop stalls, huge, magnificent pieces of work done in courtyards, small pieces done in homes, everywhere. A popular type of mosaic was one found in many places, a picture of a dog with the words ‘cave canem’ underneath an ancient ‘beware of dog’ sign.

The prominent theme in Byzantine art, mosaics, were icons. Focusing on Christianity in their art, Christ, the Virgin Mary, and numerous priests and holy men would appear in almost every piece of work. This is also similar to ancient Egyptian art, as their Gods, too, appeared heavily in art, which has been stated earlier. However, it is much more prominent in Byzantine art than in Egyptian. A very common and important picture was one of The Virgin Mary, carrying Christ as a child.

Another name for The Virgin was Hodegetria, which, in Greek, literally means ‘She who shows the way’.

The mosaics of the Byzantine period used a different type of ‘concrete’ mixture to keep the pieces together. Instead of the ‘bitumen’ that was widely used by the Egyptians, a new type of strong, thick clay was used. When an artist was creating a project, they used gold wiring to form small compartments where the coloured glass was then placed. All of this was on top of the clay, which would then be put in a kiln and fired. In ancient Egypt, however, the ‘bitumen’ was laid down, and the lapis lazuli, stones, glass, whatever they used for the piece, was quickly laid down, and time caused the ‘bitumen’ to strengthen.

However, the Byzantine period of art which was focused solely on Icons, had come to an end in the 8th century. Faced with vigorous debate over art’s role in worship in Christianity, the Byzantine period was faced with its own iconoclasm. Works were sloppily painted over with black paint, destroyed, or thrown away. After over four hundred years of Christian art, it was all over.

Both civilizations implemented religion heavily in their art, with Gods and Holy Icons appearing more often than not. Mosaics, which have been found to exist as early as Mesopotamian times (5000 BCE), were also found in both civilizations, although the Byzantine period of mosaics have become so famous for them, it obviously overshadows  Egyptian works. Both civilizations used a very similar type of rendering for their mosaics. Laying down a bed of a mixture used to keep the pieces together, they then proceeded in placing each piece of glass, stone, or gem, to make their piece.

However, while Egypt focused mainly on paintings, sculptures, and jewelry, Byzantine, as previously stated, was famous for its mosaics. Byzantine art also showed a very different picture, sharing almost nothing in common with Egyptian art in the actual visual representation.

While the similarities and differences between the two are numerous, I believe that there are more differences, mainly because, once the Byzantine period came around, there was a lot of things different in their culture than from Egyptian times, which was reflected in their artwork.

There are some examples of how Egypt impacted their art, of course, but they have created their own individual style, different from Egyptian, which may also have been heavily influenced by their following of Christianity, and not the Egyptians’ style of religion.