How beauty worked within the general context of classical Greek life. Then
beauty was deemed a gift of the gods and was often prized
accordingly in religious ritual. Perhaps the most striking example
of this is the phenomenon of the beauty competition (kallisteion),
which figures in many myths and is often adopted and adapted in
literature. The most popular role for the myth of the beauty contest
is aetiological.
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By the New Kingdom, the quality of Egyptian “furniture” (ḫtwt) was renowned throughout the ancient world. It was often sent as tribute to the rulers of neighboring countries. Its origins can be found in the early Predynastic period. Then, poorly constructed furniture was made from roughly cut branches that were simply lashed together with rope; the timber was cut and formed with stone and flint tools. Flint knives have been found from that period with serrated teeth along their cutting edge, which enabled the woodworker to use them like a simple saw.
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Items of personal adornment from the Nile Valley are an important part of the history of jewelry. More than mere body ornament, jewelry in ancient Egypt was used to display rank, proclaim wealth, and designate social status. It was also fashioned into powerful amulets, objects of barter and trade, accouterments of daily attire, diplomatic gifts, military honors, and propagandistic tools.
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The Turkish word harim (Arab., “forbidden, inviolable”) refers to the part of a palace where the women and their resident personnel lived in seclusion. They were under the authority of the ruler, but within the harem existed a hierarchical order, the top of which was the sultan’s mother. A woman treasurer was responsible for the management of the harem.
At the next rank are the sultan’s favorite, then his sisters and daughters. The favorite who bore the first son to the sultan became his first spouse; he could have four. Women slaves assumed higher rank if they bore the sultan’s children. Women enjoying privileged status had their own household and income; the highest in rank owned palaces within the domain of the harem. Within the harem itself, the crown prince had his own harem. The work was done by numerous ordinary slaves and servants, watched over by eunuchs. The struggle for position was carried out through intrigue, and succession was often linked to murder.
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Abu Simbel, site south of Aswan, on the western bank of the Nile River in what was Nubia (now near Egypt’s border with Sudan). It has two rock-cut temples from the nineteenth dynasty reign of Ramesses II. First noted in European literature by Johann Burckhardt in 1819, Abu Simbel has since become one of the most famous of monuments in the Nile Valley. Following the decision to build a new High Dam at Aswan in the early 1960s, the temples were dismantled and relocated in 1968 on the desert plateau 64 meters (about 200 feet) above and 180 meters (600 feet) west of their original site.
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Egyptian temples existed from the middle of the fourth millennium bce at the latest. According to tradition, the earliest were in the shape of reed huts. The last Egyptian temple built was a complex of buildings on Philae which ceased to be used in the mid-sixth century ce. After this, the existing structures were used as residences, vandalized or destroyed as pagan reminders, or exploited as quarries. However, the razing of temples for the last reason was already common in pharaonic times—to make room for a new building, to remodel a temple facility, or merely to reuse the materials on another site. Thus, out of the thousands of temples that once existed, only a fraction have been preserved for us.
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The public buildings in a Roman city were the most prominent features that would have been noted by a visitor to the city. For example, when Pausanias described Panopeus, he did not wish to describe the settlement as a polls, because it lacked public buildings. Therefore, public buildings were considered to be important: more than that, they created an identity for the inhabitants. Above all, they reflected the needs of the population with respect to the gods. Most public buildings were associated with a religious aspect, whether they were temples, theatres, amphitheatres, basilicas or macella (markets). However, there is also a secular dimension to these buildings. Their construction by an individual enhanced that person’s prestige and position in society. Their name was clearly displayed upon the structure. The public buildings, as monuments, offered each inhabitant of Pompeii an image of their position in relationship to the power of others, the state and the gods . For example, a temple would have exalted a god and the builder of the temple, and emphasised the social distance and divisions of the community. This makes monuments very different from domestic structures.
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The brilliance of gold, its intrinsic value and connotations of immortality,
made gold, and to a certain extent silver a treasured material for
portraiture. Literary sources inform us that different emperors rejected
the erection of their images in gold because it implied divine honours.
In his Res Gestae Augustus records that he had 80 statues of himself in
silver melted down for better purposes. These examples demonstrate that
gold and silver were materials which had connotations of immortality
and extravagance and which the emperor used or accepted only cautiously.
Some of the images in gold representing the emperor were
certainly life-size or even colossal but most may have been of small scale or in the bust format.
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The traditional local building materials of the Roman Republic, travertine, tufa and limestone were also employed for portraits in Rome and
in Italic cities during the Republican period. They seem, however, to have gone out of fashion for portraiture by the end of the Republic when
they were replaced by either marble or by the more dense limestone.
Limestone of varying quality was quarried throughout the Mediterranean
often on or very close to the habitation or cult site itself and it was used
extensively for portraiture, particularly in rural sanctuaries and tombs.
Unlike marble and bronze, limestone is not mentioned in inscriptions
as a material for honorific statues set up by the public. The silence in
the inscriptional evidence, however, may be because it was so prevalent
that it was considered ‘not worth mentioning’. However, there is evidence
that limestone was even used for representing the emperor in areas with
no marble resources. As different limestones have their own specific
character, local sculptors developed special skills and styles in carving
the stone, or they continued working in a tradition developed generations
before.
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These two very different materials are treated together here because they
were the most important, most common, and most competitive materials
used for both the honorific statue and portrait displayed in a private
context. In the current context, any white stone, marble or (technically
more correct) limestone, which takes a polish is understood as
marble. Marble is by far the dominant surviving material for portraits.
However, although it was quarried around most of the Mediterranean,
the high quality marble which was desired for statuary was only supplied
by a relatively limited number of quarries in Italy, Greece and Asia
Minor.
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By the New Kingdom, the quality of Egyptian “furniture” (ḫtwt) was renowned throughout the ancient world. It was often sent as tribute to the rulers of neighboring countries. Its origins can be found in the early Predynastic period. Then, poorly constructed furniture was made from roughly cut branches that were simply lashed together with rope; the timber was cut and formed with stone and flint tools. Flint knives have been found from that period with serrated teeth along their cutting edge, which enabled the woodworker to use them like a simple saw.
