Art Deco vs Egyptian Revival
アール・デコ / エジプシャン・リヴァイヴァル
Both sit in Historical Styles, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Art Deco
Stages urban luxury with repeating geometry and a metallic sheen.
Egyptian Revival
A revival style in late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe and the United States that transferred ancient Egyptian architecture and ornament to modern monuments, cemeteries, theatres and furniture. Obelisks, pylon-shaped entrances, papyrus and lotus capitals, and winged sun disks were organized into massive symmetrical compositions to project permanence, exoticism and the authority of discovery.
| Art Deco | Egyptian Revival | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1920s–1930s | late 18th–19th century |
| Family | Historical Styles | Historical Styles |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Symmetry / Radiating lines / Stepped motifs / Gold and black | Tapering obelisks and pylon-shaped entrances with battered walls / Bundled columns with abstracted papyrus or lotus capitals / Bands of winged sun disks, sphinxes, cobras or hieroglyphs / Heavy walls with small openings and a symmetrical monumental front |
| Best used for | Giving an event a sense of occasion · Producing instant classic luxury | Concentrating ideas of excavation, memory and permanence into an architectural front for an exhibition or cultural venue · Using Egyptian references in packaging or displays as a structure of columns, gates and bands rather than a layer of gold ornament |
| Type | Tall, narrow geometric display type | Set a short title in broad capitals. If hieroglyphs are used, verify the actual text and direction with specialist references. |
| Composition | Centered, symmetrical composition | Center a pylon gate within low, heavy symmetry and use only one pair of obelisks or bundled columns. |
| Material | Black, gold, ivory; repeated hairlines | Build from rough sandstone color, dark blue-green and oxidized metal, limiting winged disks and lotus forms to shallow relief. |
| Caution | Too much ornament turns theme-park. Let white space carry the dignity. | Do not confuse ancient Egyptian art with a modern Western revival of it. Do not collect pyramids, sphinxes and invented hieroglyphs without meaning; acknowledge the histories of archaeology, empire and collecting. |