Most of the images below come from the
Metropolitan Museum of Art (either photos that I took in the museum or I downloaded from their website). Ostraca are limestone fragments that were used for writing or sketching. Sometimes the sketch was for a master to demonstrate the proportions of a given figure, architectural element, animal or plant. The grid that you see superimposed on many of the images is used for proportion (either with regards to canons of established beauty or so that the drawing can be recreated accurately at a much larger size). Some ostraca seem to be unrelated to a workshop and seem to be humorous doodles done for personal pleasure. Within the context of this blog I am presenting each ostracon to show that the overall process of drawing is still remarkably familiar to us. As we might find in the notebooks of any given artist from the Renaissance, the drawing is started with an energetic but loose gesture in red or black chalk and then a more decisive and refined mark is used to delineate the underlying sketch. If the drawing is done directly on the wall (not as an ostracon but still as in an unfinished work) the same applies but a third phase of highly refined carving begins. I love the similarity between the emphasis of the initial underdrawing in Egypt and the
sinopia that are found in Renaissance churches. Besides canons of proportion and rules of composition the fascinating difference is that one culture paints on top of the underdrawing, the other culture carves into the underdrawing. More on ostraca here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracon
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