Funerary Stele Of Amenemhat Analysis

Throughout history, people have used art not only as decorations but also to tell stories. And each culture through time had a different story to tell and a way of telling it. In Egyptian works we see stories of the celebrations of life and death. For example, in the Funerary Stele of Amenemhat from around 2000 BCE, we see a picture of the family of four in a celebration where the father and son are in a moment of intimacy embracing each other. As I examine Funerary Stele of Amenemhat, I see the story of family bonding. The painting on sandstone depicts the father and son, Antef, sitting on a bed embracing each other. Behind the son is the wife seated on the same bed with her hands on her son. Next to the bed is a table covered with food offerings. …show more content…
Flight in Egypt, from the Infancy of Christ Window depicts a moment in time during the journey of Joseph, Mary and Jesus on their way to Egypt. This artist chose to stained glass window as their canvas which was done quite a bit during this time. This window has both dark and bright colors and I can only imagine the beauty as the sun illuminates the window and shines into the church. The dark red background forces your eyes to focus on the brighter colors of the items in the picture like the characters, the trees, and the donkey. The smooth lines and thick bold colors stand out. The eyes of the donkey are pointed down and depict being tired and the donkey’s tail is tight to its back end and almost appears to be between the donkey’s legs. The back end of the donkey appears to be slouched down. Mary’s eyes are pointed downward, and there are no smiles on any of the characters in this image. These are all small details that give the story …show more content…
The father embraces his son with both arms. Behind the son is the wife who also has her hands on her son. The daughter is off to the side showing solidarity by placing a hand on her heart. There is a table full of offerings next to the father which is for the deceased. This is a story of love that will be continued on into the afterlife which was painted on sandstone using simple but bright colors. In the “Flight into Egypt, from the Infancy of Christ Window” we see the legend surrounding the story of the flight into Egypt. According to Pseudo-Matthew, this legend depicts how during the journey Mary became fatigued and hungry so Jesus ordered a fig tree to bend down so Mary could pick a fig from the tree. (GLENCAIRN) This shows the power of Jesus and his love for others displayed in a church as a beautiful stained glass