Art of Caricature during Pharaohs Era ... By Dr. Hawass

The Pharaohs knew the art of caricature for more than 5000 years. The artist was drawing caricatures and could not display it to the public, but rather was drawing and leaving it in his studio to express the social concerns, and drawing pictures that Egyptians did not like at that time, Dr. Zahi Hawass wrote.

There are wonderful and beautiful views that show an ancient Egyptian artist trying to criticize the wrong policies in ancient society, and this happened when he found that foreigners had entered the country.

The foreigners became more powerful than the Egyptian citizens themselves. This may have happened in the era when the country was experiencing weakness; the foreigners entered in abundance and penetrated into the Delta, even in Upper Egypt.

The artist witnessed the excesses that occur in society.

So he is seen portraying an old mouse from foreigners sitting on a chair and wearing luxurious clothes. Another scene was portraying a mouse sipping wine in a pot presented to it by a cat representing here the Egyptian, and this indicates the domination of foreigners over the country who later became masters of the Egyptians.

In another comic scene of the artist's portrayals of his criticism of society, he is seen restoring the previous idea itself, so he depicts an old and foreign "mouse" that puts flowers on her head and wears a dress; it sat on a comfortable bench while eating something and drinking milk or wine in a small container.

On the other hand, another artist depicts a foreign mouse, and it appears that the artist was symbolizing here foreigners in rats, to depict that the mouse, in general at any time and place was weak and had no strength. This weakness was an opportunity for the intruders who later became a force and took control over society.

In another scene, the artist is seen depicting an Egyptian cat feeding him a branch of a plant as if he was feeding a sheep.

One of the most interesting comic scenes was- a donkey that was acting as a judge and has an owner in the form of a bull, while the accused here was a servile cat.

All the above shows that caricature always mirror any society.

Contributed by Ahmad Yasser