Coptic art is the
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
art of the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
-
Greco-Roman Egypt
The history of Egypt has been long and wealthy, due to the flow of the Nile River with its fertile banks and delta, as well as the accomplishments of Egypt's native inhabitants and outside influence. Much of Egypt's ancient history was a myste ...
and of
Coptic Christian Churches. Coptic art is best known for its wall-paintings, textiles,
illuminated manuscripts, and metalwork, much of which survives in monasteries and churches. The artwork is often functional, as little distinction was drawn between artistry and craftsmanship, and includes tunics and tombstones as well as portraits of saints.
The
Coptic Museum
The Coptic Museum is a museum in Coptic Cairo, Egypt with the largest collection of Coptic Christian artifacts in the world. It was founded by Marcus Simaika in 1908 to house Coptic antiquities. The museum traces the history of Egypt from its b ...
in
Coptic Cairo
Coptic Cairo is a part of Old Cairo which encompasses the Babylon Fortress, the Coptic Museum, the Hanging Church, the Greek Church of St. George and many other Coptic churches and historical sites. It is believed in Christian tradition that t ...
houses some of the world's most important examples of Coptic art.
Origins
Coptic art displays a mix of Egyptian and
Hellenistic influences. Subjects and symbols were taken from both
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and Egyptian mythology, sometimes altered to fit
Christian beliefs
Christianity is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism, monotheistic religion based on the Life of Jesus in the New Testament, life and Teachings of Jesus, teachings of Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth. It is the Major religious groups, world's ...
. Persia and Syria also influenced Coptic and Hellenistic art, though to a lesser extent, leaving images such as the peacock and the griffin.
Icon painting
Coptic
icon
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...
s have their origin in the
Greco-Roman art of Egypt's Late Antiquity, as exemplified by the
Fayum mummy portraits
Mummy portraits or Fayum mummy portraits are a type of naturalistic painted portrait on wooden boards attached to upper class mummies from Roman Egypt. They belong to the tradition of panel painting, one of the most highly regarded forms of ar ...
. The faces of
El Fayum are examples of the Coptic art in the 2nd century AD showing the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Roman influence on the Coptic art but with some distinctive features related to Egyptian art.
The Muslim conquest of Egypt allowed the local Coptic art to influence Egypt's then Islamic art and architecture with many features that are now integral in many Egyptian buildings.
Beginning in the 4th century, churches painted their walls and made icons to reflect an authentic expression of their faith.
The figures of saints display eyes and ears larger in proportion to the rest of the face and a smaller mouth, as well as enlarged heads, signifying a spiritual relationship with God and devotion to prayer. Martyrs' faces were peaceful.
Many Coptic icon painters did not sign their names, but the prominent among them include St.
Luke
People
*Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known as ...
(traditionally believed to be the first icon painter) and two
Coptic Pope
The Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church ( cop, Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ, translit=Papa; ar, البابا, translit=al-Bābā), also known as the Bishop of Alexandria, is the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, with ancient Christian roots in Egypt. The ...
s,
Pope Macarius I and
Pope Gabriel III
Starting mid-18th century icon painting enjoyed a revival in Egypt and once again was popular. One of the most famous artists was
Yuhanna al-Armani
Yuhanna al-Armani al-Qudsi (cca 1720 - 1786, Cairo, Ottoman Empire) was an artist of Armenian origin in Ottoman Egypt. He is most notable for his religious works, especially his Coptic icon
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commo ...
whose works were noted for using more developed techniques and novel construction (e.g. using a set of icons to tell a single story).
Influence
The influence of Coptic art and architecture on
Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture comprises the architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam. It encompasses both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day. The Islamic world encompasses a wide geographic ar ...
and incorporation of some Coptic features in Islamic building started as early as the 7th century AD
As the
Church of Alexandria
The Church of Alexandria in Egypt is the Christian Church headed by the Patriarch of Alexandria. It is one of the original Apostolic Sees of Christianity, alongside Rome, Antioch, Constantinople and Jerusalem.
Tradition holds that the Church of ...
was the first Church of Africa the influence of Coptic art spread to Sudan and Ethiopia. Some forms of the
Coptic cross are known as the
Ethiopian cross
Ethiopian crosses, Abyssinian crosses, or Ethiopian-Eritrean crosses are a grouping of Christian cross variants that are symbols of Christianity in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and among Ethiopians and Eritreans. Their elaborate, stylized design is marked ...
and many Churches in Ethiopia show the influence of the Coptic art.
Menas flask
Abu Mena (also spelled ''Abu Mina'' ; ar, أبو مينا ) was a town, monastery complex and Christian pilgrimage centre in Late Antique Egypt, about southwest of Alexandria, near New Borg El Arab city. Its remains were designated a Wor ...
s are very cheap
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
bottles bought by pilgrims to
Abu Mina
Abu Mena (also spelled ''Abu Mina'' ; ar, أبو مينا ) was a town, monastery complex and Christian pilgrimage centre in Late Antique Egypt, about southwest of Alexandria, near New Borg El Arab city. Its remains were designated a Wor ...
, the shrine of
Saint Menas
Menas of Egypt (also Mina, Minas, Mena, Meena; el, Άγιος Μηνάς, ; 285 – c. 309), a martyr and wonder-worker, is one of the most well-known Coptic saints in the East and the West, due to the many miracles that are attributed to his in ...
, in the 4th and 5th centuries. The clay was impressed before firing with blocks with images of the saint. They have been found nearly all over the Christian world, and many scholars trace influence from their fairly crude images in the emerging
iconography of Western
medieval art, among other Coptic influences.
Textiles
A remarkable number of Coptic
textile
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
s survive today, due to the Coptic custom of burying them with the dead, and to the aridity of Egyptian graves. The textiles are commonly linen or wool and use the colors red, blue, yellow, green, purple, black and brown. The dyes were derived from madder, indigo, woad, saffron, the murex shell, and the kermes insect. The first looms used were horizontal low-warp; vertical high-warp looms were introduced later. The basic garment was the
tunic
A tunic is a garment for the body, usually simple in style, reaching from the shoulders to a length somewhere between the hips and the knees. The name derives from the Latin ''tunica'', the basic garment worn by both men and women in Ancient Rome ...
, which would become the dalmatic. Some tunics were woven in one piece. They were decorated by clavi, a stylistic import from Rome.
Some fine examples of the Coptic textile are shown in museums all over the world and a large collection is in the
Coptic Museum
The Coptic Museum is a museum in Coptic Cairo, Egypt with the largest collection of Coptic Christian artifacts in the world. It was founded by Marcus Simaika in 1908 to house Coptic antiquities. The museum traces the history of Egypt from its b ...
in
Coptic Cairo
Coptic Cairo is a part of Old Cairo which encompasses the Babylon Fortress, the Coptic Museum, the Hanging Church, the Greek Church of St. George and many other Coptic churches and historical sites. It is believed in Christian tradition that t ...
Tens of thousands of coloured fragments found their way into the museums of the world, especially after 1889 when the French archaeologist
Albert Gayet published a catalogue of Coptic art and, in the
Bulaq Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...
, staged the first exhibition of Coptic monuments.
A tapestry of Coptic history
. ''Al-Ahram Weekly''. Weekly.ahram.org.eg, Issue No. 796 (2006-05-31). Retrieved on 2013-08-23. The early Coptic textiles still produced pictures and decoration incorporating Egyptian and Greek motifs. Shrouds, for example, might incorporate classical elements were painted in the form of an Egyptian sarcophagus and include representations of Egyptian gods to protect the dead. Later coptic textiles showed the influence of Byzantium and later, Islamic art.
Modern Coptic art
Modern Coptic art is also known as the Neo-Coptic school. In recent centuries icons have been the main means of expression, keeping most traditional aspects. Coptic icons are more concerned religious truth and beauty than with realism, the depiction of depth, or perspective. As in the Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
and related traditions, the figures are depicted frontally, looking straight at the viewer. Today, Coptic icons are found not only in churches, but also in homes and praying altars. They may also be purchased from Coptic gift shops throughout Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
and the Coptic diaspora.
During the papacy of Pope Cyril VI
''This article uses dates and years written in the Coptic calendar, using the A.M. (Anno Martyrum) calendar era, in addition to the Gregorian calendar, using the A.D. (Anno Domini) calendar era.''
Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria also called Abba Ky ...
, the emergence of Coptic painters like Isaac Fanous Youssef, along with the revival of Coptic art, brought about the creation of the Contemporary or Neo-Coptic school of iconography.
In 1952, architect and coptic Christian Ramses Wissa Wassef
Ramses Wissa Wassef (1911–1974) was an Egyptians, Egyptian Copts, Coptic architect and professor of art and architecture at the College of Fine Arts in Cairo and founder of the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre.
Biography
Ramses Wissa Wassef was b ...
founded the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center in Giza, Egypt. He asked 14 children, mostly Copts, to develop a new artform by reviving the ancient coptic weaving method. The coptic weaver Maryam Hermina (born 1932) taught the children the technique. The Art Centre has a significant museum of the 20th century tapestries.
Gallery
See also
* Coptic Museum
The Coptic Museum is a museum in Coptic Cairo, Egypt with the largest collection of Coptic Christian artifacts in the world. It was founded by Marcus Simaika in 1908 to house Coptic antiquities. The museum traces the history of Egypt from its b ...
* Isaac Fanous
Isaac Fanous (; December 19, 1919 – January 15, 2007) was an Egyptian Copt artist and scholar, who specialized in Coptic art and founded its contemporary school.
Early life and teaching
Fanous was born in Al-Minya and moved to Cairo to gai ...
* Coptic Alphabet
The Coptic alphabet is the script used for writing the Coptic language. The repertoire of glyphs is based on the Greek alphabet augmented by letters borrowed from the Egyptian Demotic and is the first alphabetic script used for the Egyptian la ...
* Coptic Orthodox Church
* Coptology
Coptology is the science of Coptic studies, the study of the Coptic language and Coptic literature.[What is C ...](_blank)
* Adel Nassief
* Institute of Coptic Studies
The Institute of Coptic Studies (معهد الدراسات القبطية) was founded in 1954 by the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. It is based in Cairo.
Description
The institute is the Egyptian church's main research centre in subjects ...
Coptic Christian Art by Evangelos Andreou
References
External links
{{Commons category, Coptic art
Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia
Coptic Icons
Introduction to Coptic art, from Coptic-net
The Coptic Art Studio
Coptic textiles from Moscow Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art
Online gallery of rare Coptic icons
* ttp://wissawassef.com/ Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center
Coptic Orthodox Church
Byzantine Egypt
Roman Egypt
Egyptian art