Hi there! I couldn't find this in your FAQ - could you recommend any posts on the symbolism of color in Egyptian painting, especially as it related to skin color? Thanks so much!
Thanks for being so patient while I got to this ask. I don’t think we’ve written anything on colour symbolism specifically yet, though if you wanted to know more about the subject than I can fit easily into a post, you could consider picking up Heinrich Schäfer’s “Principles of Egyptian Art”. It’s an absolutely excellent book, though I do have to point out it’s not necessarily coffee table material. Personally I had no trouble getting through the subject matter, but full disclosure: I did read it in my third year at uni.
So, colour symbolism. Based on your phrasing, I’m going to assume you already know a few things, but for the benefit of others reading it: ancient Egyptians definitely used colour symbolism, especially when it came to funerary rites. However, as with everything in Dynastic Egyptian history, sometimes exactly what a specific colour might symbolise, or how it was used, was subject to change throughout the years.
@thatlittleegyptologist answered an ask about colour and paint pigments a while ago, so I’ll quote from that for an overall explanation of the most important colour symbolism:
It’s an integral part of an item or person’s ‘essence’ in Ancient Egypt. Colours had meanings (red - desert/evil/bad, black - fertile/new life/good) and it was important to have these colours correctly displayed. Colours also display the the duality of everything, and thus were used complimentary. Gold and silver (the colour of the skin and bones of the gods), red and white (upper and lower Egypt), black and green (fertile land and death).
Sometimes the symbolism or use of colour is so specific that we can use it to date e.g. coffins. In the 21st/22nd Dynasty for example, the yellow type coffin was in fashion. This coffin had a yellow background, solar symbolism. This is part of what we call the “decoration program”; a set of artistic conventions that were the norm of that particular dynasty/king. It is rare that only a colour can give us an inkling of when something should be dated, but the yellow type coffins are a good example of that.
As the use of decoration programs implies, Egyptian art was heavily formulaic. The same goes for skin colours. Egyptians were borderline stereotypical in their portrayal of humans of different nationalities, including themselves.
An Egyptian man would be portrayed with a reddish brown skin colour. Egyptian women, on the other hand, were portrayed with a pinkish yellow skin tone. This was to indicate that the wife was the Mistress of the House, and the husband came outside in order to do business/work.
Nubians, on the other hand, were depicted with dark skin and wearing animal hides with their clothing, while Libyan tribes were fair-skinned, with long beards and feathers in their hair.
As Lottie pointed out in the ask I linked/quoted above, colour symbolism in terms of skin tones also extended to the reallm of the divine. Osiris, for example, is portrayed with green skin to indicate that he is not among the living.
