Masking the blow

"The meaning of late prehistoric Egyptian images has until now been tantalizingly mysterious and as little understood as the circumstances of their production. Analyses of these images, as a result, have been merely general and often incorrectly illustrated. Whitney Davis's Masking the Blow: The Scene of Representation in Late Prehistoric Egyptian Art provides a welcome remedy in its detailed reinterpretation of images carved on ivory knife handles and schist cosmetic palettes, including the Narmer Palette, often considered the very inception of ancient Egyptian canonical image making in the dynastic pharaonic tradition. Davis deciphers the intriguing pictorial narratives and complex metaphors of images that are concerned with "masking the blow" of the ruler. "Masking the blow" refers to the many ways in which the late prehistoric Egyptian images represent, elide, or suppress the depiction of a ruler's decisive violent act of conquering an enemy, whether a hunted animal or a human antagonist; although this act is the central theme of late prehistoric Egyptian representation - the basic concern of pictorial narrative - it is partly disguised within images themselves. The book examines the pictorial mechanics of this "masking" and interprets the "scene of representation," the context of image making, in which it transpires." "Examining late prehistoric Egyptian images in light of contemporary visual theory and illustrating his analyses with excellent reproductions of the works of art, Davis goes beyond the usual concern beyond the usual concern for stylistic development and iconographic meanings that characterizes prior studies."--Jacket.