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The aspective as a way to display optics on realities.
Some aesthetic resources displayed on paintings and low-relieves from Ancient Egypt help us to decode the Egyptian's worldview, their representations of reality without the contamination of linear perspectives. The system creating their bidimensional arts' aesthetics is known as aspective, a mix of projections in which what is represented partially shows up from a frontal or lateral point of view, like elements seeming to crush or defy the laws of physics.
Six resources are mentioned here although they can be combined. They allowto transcend the optical perception of the visual experience by clearing out what is real beyond the physical and sensorial, perceiving the most subtle sensations and the most invisible facets of acts. They show what certainly exists although beyond our physical perception, making the occult real and notorious, integrating what is believed to exist, and even including in the representation entities like ba or the intangible moment in which an illumination reactivates the existence.
False transparencies or fake sections
They create the sensation that something is visible even if it's behind some other element, which in fact is not transparent.
A herd crossing a flooded area. The legs of the animals can be seen as well as those of the leading men.
Mastaba in Ti. Saqqara. V Dynasty. Ancient Empire.
Photo: Víctor Rivas.
With pleated clothes, different degrees of skin can be seen.
Ramses III. New Empire.
Photo: Susana Alegre.
A priest wears a ritual animal mask indicating he's not a divinity (as they used to represent), so it allows perceiving the authentic reality.
Temple in Dendera. Ptolemaic Age.
The internal level of the construction is visible, with halls, passages, areas for food storage, furniture, containers and people walking through.
Pepi II mortician temple. Mastaba in Qar. Gizeh. VU Dynasty.
Part of a funeral's procession: the crying widow, the ceremony Opening of the Mouth, the well taking to the mortician chamber where the mummy rests, its trousseau and the ba of the deceased, of human head and body of a bird, flying into the depth of the cavity.
Nebqued's scene in The Book of the Dead. XVIII Dynasty.
Bringing outside what is hidden, and putting it over it
Narration of the expedition to Punt nation showing wealth while transferred to Egypt: a coffer remains closed but the representation allows us to know the contents in detail.
Hatshepsut's million years temple. Deir el-Bahari. XVIII Dynasty.
Showing in the front what could remain half-hidden if overlapped
Three prayers. In the linear perspective, it could seem they're strangely placed one over the other, as performing a kind of a circus practice. In the adequate language of the height's perspective, the person below is the closest one, and the one upon him is further away. The subtle overlapping suggests a very mild distance between them, what we can interpret tridimensionally as if the men were placed one next to the other and aligned in the floor, occupying different planes at distance.
Nebamon's tomb. XVIII Dynasty.
Mourners. In the linear perspective, it could seem they're strangely floating, resting upon a magical flying rug. In the height's perspective, it's understood they're further away, while the ones on the main registry, occupying the scene below, are the closest ones; the last ones are on a theoretical first plane and the other three remain on a seemingly second plane although, in fact, had been brought to the first one.
Minnakht's tomb.
Representation of a donkey carrying saddlebags.
Ptahhotep's tomb. Saqqara. V Dynasty.
Creating "globes" similar to those of comics
Although without using words or any other kind of delimitation (there's no shape to frame them), they indicate, extend and complement the narration, allowing a better understanding of what happens and alluding to what's not directly represented.
A carpenter is at work and, around him, there's floating objects related to his task.
Mastaba in Ti. Saqqara. V Dynasty.
Vibration or stroboscopic effect
It suggests the sensation of being in motion or, at least, of an imminent move. It allows perceiving an alive, active and dynamic world, showing different processes or times inside of the same action, in the same image, as if the instants or gestures of the event were fragmented, multiplied or decomposed in different phases and, at the same time, remaining at sight.
Tutankhamon on a chariot with horses is throwing arrows: as the horses gallop and pull the chariot forwards, the animal on the first plane practically and usually hiddens the one on the second plane but, in the representation of the legs, it's frequently more visible the presence of the second animal.
Coffer in Tutankhamon's tomb. Kings' Valley. XVIII Dynasty.
Nebamon is on a hunt and balances over a boat as he grabs some herons with his hand. The herons are flapping, shaking, trying to escape, agitated or "vibrating" in some despair.
Nebamon's tomb. XVIII Dynasty.
Bullet point of the mortician ritual Opening of the Mouth, with a man holding a container for libations, with one side of his face repeated in several occasions, which remarks the detail that the container was being moved from up to down or down to up, as the arms made a balancing move.
Hunefer papyrus. XIX Dynasty.
Three figures overlapped while whoreshipping: it's the same character repeated in three instants during the action of praying, elevating arms and kneeling, then mildly throwing the body ahead until resting the chin on the floor, or maybe the other way around.
Rekhmire's tomb. XVIII Dynasty.
Making times converge
Deciding what time to capture, whether by narrating a long process with different episodes of an activity, whether by capturing an instant or an anecdotic event. They could dissect time passing by or capture the past, present and future in a single moment.
In some representations of the Supreme Judgement, the prosecuted is represented on two occasions. It was the Judgement the people should submit to, for accesssing the other side, by weighing their hearts and a feather or Maat's figurine in a balance (psicostasia). It shows the deceased when accessing and greeting those who are going to judge him but, next to his own figure, his image is repeated although at another time, at the moment in which the balance had already shown a positive result.
Khonsume's scene in The Book of the Dead. XXI Dynasty.
Representations of what could happen to people if they pay or not their taxes: if they pay, they could be entertained in front of the image of a high dignitary but, if they don't pay, they'll be punished or hardly beaten. Thus they're represented in two chronological parallel lines, showing if the action has been performed or not.
Mena's tomb. XVIII Dynasty.
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