Hellenistic and Coptic Egypt
(3rd c. B.C. - 7th c. A.D.)

Era of Greek Rule

	1. Hawk's head inlay, 3-2nd c. B.C. (Ithaca: Corning Museum of Glass). 6.8 cm.
	2. Tauret (London: British Museum). Late Kemet saw an increase in animal cults and the ability to capture the essence of sacred animals in faience, stone and bronze. Tauret is a female hippopotamus (Thoueris) that represented fertility and helped in childbirth.

Coptic Civilization (5-7th c. A.D.)

	1. Wool on linen looped weave textile of female orante, from Scheek Sajet, 5th c. A.D. (Detroit: Inst. of Arts). 69.9 cm. Perhaps a fragment of a large curtain used for a Christian infant burial. Figure wears a maphorion and stands under a portico. This subject becomes so common in Western art it is called the "orante in portico" theme. Here we see the typical Coptic colors of brownish red (iron oxide red rather than the purple red from the Delta murex associated with the Ancient elite), yellow and green.
	2. Textile roundel from Akhmin showing a hunting saint (London: British Museum). The Persian charging horseman theme spreads into Egypt and Europe through the decorations on silk imports, and was often used to represent saints or Christ. However, the geometic figure on the left appears more Coptic in style.
	3. Wool on linen curtain with two portraits. From Colluthus' tomb, Antinoë (Bruxelles: Mus. d'art et d'histoire). At the top is probably Aurelius Colluthus and his wife Tisoia, 454-456 A.D., while below are lozenges with vine leaves. Stylization of portraits shows transition to the Coptic style. The tendency toward geometic abstraction, seen everywere in the West, including the Sassanid Empire might be understood as artistic genious desperately struggling to inject vitality into traditional forms and thus a manifestation of late Ancient rather than feudal art in the West, for it quickly froze in time rather than become a basis of further development.
	4. Wool on linen textile with portrait of a man with nimbus and heart, Egyptian-Coptic, Akhmin, 5th c. (Paris, Coll. Bérard). Recalls mummy portrait realism, but with popular expressive coloration.
	5. Egyptian wool and linen on linen textile. Portrait fragment of man with nimbus in an oval surround. 5th c. A.D. (Detroit Institute of Art). While this harks back to mummy portraits, the design manifests the new abstract tendencies as Ancient Western woven pattern textiles reach their apogee.
	6. Woolen embroidery of a dancer. Part of a clavis. 5-6th c. A.D. (Boston: Museum of Fine arts).
	7. Relief grave stele of "Rhodia," the Fayum, 6th c. Rhodia stands in a portico, with a shaw that forms a nimbus to indicate her sanctity. Geometic linear body with symptomatic feet. Here is an example of the important "orante in portico" theme. Traditional ankh cross with Alpha-Omega enclose a symbolic rose. The representation of Christ abstractly, transcendentally, in terms of a symbol, probably reflects a hesitancy to admit Christ's imperfect humanity in the Greek speaking world.
	8. Ivory panel of Saint Mena between two camels (Milan: Museo del Castello Sforzesco). Coptic, probably 6th c. A.D. The static severely controlled symmetry of this work and its simple structure make it an outstanding example of ivory carving.
	9. Wool on linen textile decorative rondel with two horsemen, 6th c. A.D. Syrian or Egyptian Coptic. (New York: Copper Union Museum). Above are lions flanking a hom. Design was copied this from a silk textile.
	10. Egyptian wool on linen textile panel from Akhmin with a horseman, 6-7th c. (London: Victoria and Albert Museum). A decorative panel from a brown woolen tunic, with an acanthus border. This represents the last of the rich "purple stuffs" that had long been associated with the top aristocracy in the Ancient Mediterranean world. The acanthus border is so stylized as to be nearly unrecognizable. The backward-shooting horseman is a Sassanid theme.
	11. Wool on linen textile panel with figure pattern, 6-8th c. A.D. (Berlin: Staatl. Mus.) The Moslem occupants of Egypt did not care for figurative art, and here the old orante figures are highly stylized. It is possible that these are Moslem-produced textiles for a growing mass market, in which old themes become abstract decoration. One sees the same thing in Persian tribal carpets.
	12. Wool and linen on linen decorative bands 7-8th c. A.D. (Trier: Stadt. Mus.). Above are three women and below, fantastic animals separated by rosettes. This reflects Moslem influence on the Coptic textile tradition. The three women are almost unrecognizably geometicized; the rosettes are abstract designs; and the animals are fantastic. These frozen forms have a future as popular decoration, but are not the beginnings of a specifically feudal art.