Royal and private sculpture and wall paintings and reliefs reflected the concepts of art that served the cult of the gods, the kings, and the dead.

In royal statuary, traditional poses are combined with romantic features. The sculpture was designed to depict royalty as physically strong with softened features, sometimes with touches of realism.

This can be traced in the sculpture of King Djoser, the only surviving statuette of King Khufu, the figure of King Khafra in different stones, the schist triads of King Menkaure, and the head of King Userkaf.

The private statuary followed the same concepts but had more freedom in movement and more varieties of poses.

Artists created seated scribe statues or figures standing, kneeling, praying, and others busy in domestic works.

Examples are the statues of Prince Ra-Hotep and his wife Nofret, which look like real humans because of the colours and the inlays of the eyes.

The wooden statue of Ka-aper, with realistic modelling of the features and the body, his other bust, and that of his wife, are additional examples of private statuary.

Wall spaces in the tombs and temples began to use reliefs and paintings to depict daily activities in homes, estates, and workshops.

There were also scenes of entertainment as well as offerings.

Such reliefs and paintings were sometimes executed to depict the activities of working groups, animals, and birds.

Sunken or raised relief and paintings were well proportioned and composed with fine details, especially in the Saqqara tombs.

With the beginning of the Old Kingdom, centred at Memphis (2680–2258 B.C.), there was a rapid development of the stylistic conventions that characterized Egyptian art throughout its history. In relief sculpture and painting, the human figure was usually represented with the head in profile, the eye and shoulders in front view, and the pelvis, legs, and feet in profile (the law of frontality). There was little attempt at plastic or spatial illusionism. The reliefs were very low; relief and shallow intaglio are often found in the same piece. Colour was applied in flat tones, and there was no attempt at linear perspective. A relief masterpiece from the I dynasty is the palette of Namer (Cairo). It represents animal and human forms in scenes of battle with the ground divided into registers, emphasizing the silhouette in the carving.

In sculpture in the various round, standing and seated types were developed. Still, there was strict adherence to the law of frontality and a tendency to emphasize symmetry and minimize movement suggestion. Outstanding Old Kingdom examples of sculpture in the round are the Great Chephren, in diorite, the Prince Ra-hetep and Princess Neferet, in painted limestone, the Sheik-el-Beled (mayor of the village), in painted wood (all: Cairo), and the Seated Scribe, in painted limestone (Louvre). Probably because of its relative impermanence, the painting was little used as a medium of representation; it appears to have served principally as an accessory to sculpture. A rare example is the geese painting from a tomb at Miadoom (Cairo).

Religious beliefs of the period held that the happy posthumous existence of the dead depended on the continuation of all phases of their earthly life. Therefore, the artist’s task was to produce a statement of reality in the most durable materials at his command. Tombs were decorated with domestic, military, hunting, and ceremonial scenes. Entombed with the deceased were statues of him and his servants and attendants, often shown at characteristic occupations.