Sunday, March 6, 2011

The Revered



The pencils and inks for an Art Nouveau-esque poster on which I am working. The imagery is all about ancient Egyptian myth and allegory.
Bastet was and ancient Egyptian goddess represented by a womans body and a cats head (cats were revered in ancient Egypt). The protector of pregnant women she also defended men from illness and demons. She was considered "...the personification of the warming rays of the sun on the Nile". (M. Bunson, The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. Pg. 43)
Frequently depicted with a sistrum (a musical instrument) and an ankh (a symbol of eternal life), I included the position of her arms to be a loose representation of the Ka, "[an] ancient Egyptian term for the spiritual essence, which existed alongside human form and yet maintained individuality".(M. Bunson, The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. Pg. 130)

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