Veteran Egyptologists Kanawati and Woods help dispel the convention that ancient Egyptian artists worked as anonymous members of workshops and showed no individual creativity in their work. Leaving statuary and relief to other volumes or perhaps other scholars, they focus on art as it appears in wall scenes, and on the position of the artist in the Old Kingdom. They cover artists in the Old Kingdom; principles, materials, and techniques; selected Old Kingdom tombs; and commentary on the selected wall scenes. However accurate, they say, neither photographs nor line drawings can capture the skill and artistry of the paintings; still they include 260 photographs and many drawings throughout the text. There is no index. Distributed in the U.S. by International Publishers Marketing (IPM). Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)