Burial Mask of Tutankamun
Artist: Unknown
Gold, Blue glass, and semiprecious stones
Height of 21 inches
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
The Tutankamun display of art is well known all throughout the world. I was fortunate enough to get to see this at the Denver Art Museum over the summer. This particular piece of art depicts that Tutankamun was obviously from royalty. The artist uses a lot of gold. Gold in the ancient world was thought of as the work of the gods. In turn they would use gold all the time. In this mask blue glass is also used to create more features and a more abstract piece. Semiprecious stones are also used. Descriptive color is more used in the mask. The colors are meant to depict anything they are more just for appearance.
The purpose of this art work was to be buried with Tutankamun in his tomb. The social issue I chose that relates to this is religion. The ancient Egyptians believed in the afterlife. That is why they dressed Tutankamun up so nicely. He had other precious artful artifacts placed on him as well. I got to see this artifact in real life and I know how detailed it looked. It was an incredible piece of artwork.
This piece of artwork helped change how people understood the ancient Egyptians in their time. The Tutankamun tomb was discovered in the year 1922. This is when the world began to discover and understand the history of the Egyptians.
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