Hamlet & Egypt - In colours - Concept art [EN]

autor | Lukáš Janák, 2.ročník mag.s. vedoucí | akad. mal. Milada Gabrielová

Fertile lower Egypt of Usir Painting representing the rage of Seth, destroy ing lower Egypt, which belongs to Usir.

Infertile upper Egypt of Seth

STORY Usir was acording to Egyptian mythology associated with apperiance of a king as well as king Hamlet in Shakespeare story.

Simultaniously he was god of lower Egypt and fertility. Usir and his wife queen Isis (Gertrude) had a son called Horus (prince Hamlet).

Likewise in Hamlet tale, he had a brother called Seth (Claudius) - god of the upper Egypt, also thunder, desert, evil, pain and suffering. Seth envied Horus his title and beautiful fertile land, so he decided to became the king of the whole Egypt alongside with Isis.

Isis tried to revive her husband, but Usir became the god of the underworld and death which can be related to the first scene of Hamlet where prince saw his father as a ghost from another world who is telling him the name of his murderer. From this point on all dead souls travel to Usir and weight their hearts against the feather of truth.

Meanwhile, Horus wants revenge. He challanges Seth for the throne, loosing his eye in the batlle, which later became the symbol of protection of the whole Egypt.

Also Hamlet is facing certain loss when he killed Laertes, a father of his love, who had died by his hand after he had killed Laertes behind the curtains, because he confused him with Claudius. In Egyptian mythology we can observe a certain analogy to this in coalesce of gods Usir and Re, as two souls finaly meeting in the underworld.

However the end of both stories are slightly different. Horus had overhelmed Seth and became the king, Hamlet, on the other hand, dies right after he had killed Claudius in battle.

GREEN = WADJ

BLUE = IRTYU

Fertily gods were often pictured wuth a green skin, indicating their power to encourage the growth of vegetation. However, the ancient egyptians recognised the cycle of growth and decay, so its associated also with death and the power of resurrection. Malachite represented joyfulness and was closely associated with the goddess Hathor.

Blue colour was a symbol of the heavens, therefore it also represented the universe. A lots of structures and temples have a simillar motive of deep blue roof covered with small yellow stars. fertility, rebirth, and the power of creation and also jewelry.

RED = DESHER with power and blood, in particular the protective power of the (also known as the “girdle tie of isis”) which was placed at the throat of the mummy was often made out of a red stone.

YELLOW (KHENET) In Ancient Egypt yellow (khenet or kenit) represented that which was eternal and indestructible, and was closely associated with gold and the sun. Gold was thought to be the substance which formed the skin of the gods and numerous statues of the gods were either made of gold or covered god was often painted gold in two dimensional images.

INTERIORS with the idea of studying Egyptian Gods by Shakespeare´s characters, partly because they might represented their own ancestors, so they are trying to learn from their mistakes to prevent the tragic end of the story.

Drawings of costumes contain a Character´s features expressed by antique symbolic of atributes, hieroglyphs, colours, etc. which is where the play takes place.