1. Ancient Art
Art Appreciation IP2
Name
Class
Date
Professor
Art Appreciation IP2
Part One
· Ancient Art piece one: Mahakala, Date: (1100 to 1001bc) New
York Museum of Art
· Ancient art piece two: Seated Scribe Ancient Egyptian art
(2620–2500 BC) Louvre
Part Two

2. Mahakala is an ancient statue from India created in the Pala
period during the 11th Century BC. The statue is three
dimensional and was carved out of black stone. The statue
represents a manifestation of the Buddhist God Shiva Bhairava.
The statue is carved entirely in black stone giving it a black
color. The status is carved with the most intricate detail.
Mahakala sits on a lotus cushion with a smaller lotus cushion
supporting his left foot. He is covered with decoration designed
to show his importance. The statue has four hands with one
hand holding a sword, another hand holding a trident, and in the
third a skull cap. The last hand is missing but should have
wielded flaying knife.
The statue displays a deity with great wealth and power.
Mahakala has a crown on his head that is radiating flames and is
covered with little skulls. A rope covered in skulls is wrapped
around his waist and jewels around his wrists and ankles. The
deity is also adorned by the traditional piercings with chins
running from his nose to his belly button and on his left foot a
snake is wrapped around his ankle. Mahakala wears armband on
his upper arms made of snakes with snake heads reaching up
towards his face.
It is clear the statue is a God because he has worshippers on
both sides of his head and at his fee worshipping him,
displaying deference, and making an offering. The art is a
religious symbol and a representative of the God Shiva from the
Buddhist religion. When the art was created in the 11th Century
it was created as a symbol of the wrathful manifestation of the
God worshipped by Buddhists. The statue represents the
protector of Dharma. He is a wrathful God deity but he has an
important job in stopping followers from becoming corrupt or
impure.
The art was created in honor of Mahakala to show respect
and deference. By creating the religious symbol the Buddhist
followers can worship the deity and be used as a reminder never
to become impure in their actions and in their thoughts.
Religious symbols are an important part of many religious

3. ceremonies especially to Buddhist religion. Mahakala is a
traditional and ritual part of the religious beliefs of the
Buddhist. This representation is an important image in the
Buddhist faith.
The Seated Scribe is an ancient piece of Egyptian art created
between 2620–2500 BC. The Seated Scribe depicts a middle age
Egyptian man sitting up right with his legs crossed in front of
him. The only clothing he wears is a while kilt. The sculpture is
3D and made of limestone and looks incredibly life like. The
statue of the Egyptian man has a very alert look around the eyes
and every feature of the face and body is finely carved. The face
is chiseled and thin but the body of the middle aged man is
more plump and beginning to sag in the back. When creating
the art beautiful colors were used. Red ocher was used for the
skin tones of the sculpture and black is used for the hair.
The art piece, the Seated Scribe, is holding a scribe in one
hand and is right hand appears to be holding something but the
writing instrument is no longer with the art piece. A partially
unrolled scroll lies across his lap but his attention appears to be
drawn to something in the distant. The Seated Scribe has an
intense gaze and broad shoulders but his arms are not muscular
and his legs are thick. The feet peep out from under the kilt and
his folded legs but on both feet show only three toes.
The subject matter of the art is of a scribe. It was excavated
at Saqqara, an ancient burial ground southwest of Cairo, which
served as the necropolis for Memphis, the Egyptian capital
during the Old Kingdom 2686–2181 BC (Louvre, 2014). Scribes
were responsible for recording history. Only the elite could be
scribes because only people from the upper classes could read
or write the ancient language. Another indication of the wealth
of the scribe is the fat around the body. Only people with wealth
could afford to eat enough food to gain any weight.
Part Three
Mahakala is a wrathful deity in the Buddhist religion whose
job is to protect dharma. Dharma is cosmic order. Mahakala, a
wrathful deity, is considered to be the fierce and powerful

4. emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion
(Thang, 2012). In the 11th Century BC India Buddhism was an
important religion as well as Hinduism. In the 11th Century was
Ghurid conquest of 1192 -1205bc where any Buddhist was
destroyed but it did not destroy the religion but in fact had a
counter effect. The Buddhist religion continued to spread across
the region and fixed Buddhist symbols began to appear.
The deity Mahakala is carved all in black in order to show
the wrathful nature of the God. The four armed Buddha
represented in this work of art emerged from the Sambhogakaya
Buddha. Each representation includes a skull cap and crown of
flames and one or two worshippers at the feet of the deity but
some depictions are in black and white in later Buddhist sects.
Displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art this ancient statue
still represents and important part of the Buddhist religion.
Buddhism is a complex religion with more than one deity as
well as more than one representation of the same deity. The
deity Mahakala is an important of the religion as the protector
of dharma which is pivotal to the religion. Just as Jesus is the
protector of the soul in Christianity, Mahakala is the protector
of all that is good and for keeping balance in the cosmos. In
current Buddhist religion the deity plays the same role and still
has the same importance. Buddhist firmly believes in karma so
if the follower does adhere to the rule of dharma they will be
cosmically punished.
The Seated Scribe fits into the context of the time period.
Scribes were important in Egyptian society in ancient ties. The
scribe was responsible for keeping records and passing
knowledge down to future generations but only a few select
boys will be trained in society to become scribes. Scribes would
record important information n papyrus paper using a reed. The
scribe would be responsible for keeping account for the
government and the Egyptian army or they would be responsible
for all the communications for the citizens in a village. The
Ancient Scribe was an important part of Egyptian society.
Without the scribe embers of Egyptian society could not keep

5. recorded accounts or send messages to family members or
business associates.
The Seated Scribe represents an important official in
society. When it was evacuated by French archaeologist it
provided information about the important of the scribe in
Ancient Egyptian society. The rendering is an amazing image of
a scribe during this time period. The boys selected to grow up to
become scribes were able to live a privileged life. These boys
would have been selected from members of the elite classes.
The sculpture was found in an ancient burial grown which also
empathized the importance of the sculpture and this scribe in
ancient Egyptian society.
References
Anonymous: Seated Scribe (2620–2500 BC); Louvre Museum,
Paris
Anonymous. Mahakala. (1100 to 1001bc). Metropolitan Museum
of Art
Thang, K. (2012). Dharma Protector : Mahakala. Retrieved
April 2, 2014 from
http://www.thranguhk.org/buddhism/en_mahakala.html