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601 | es and the ante-chambers of tombs, colour is so dealt
with as to be soft and discreet. In a word, painting was in Egypt the mere
humble servant of architecture and sculpture. We must not dream of
comparing it with our own, or even with that of the Greeks; but if we take
it simply for what it is, accepting it in the secondary place assigned to
it, we cannot fail to recognise its unusual merits. Egyptian painting
excelled in the sense of monumental decoration, and if we ever revert to
t |
602 | he fashion of colouring the _façades_ of our houses and our public
edifices, we shall lose nothing by studying Egyptian methods or reproducing
Egyptian processes.
[35] The late T. Deveria ingeniously conjectured that "Ba-en-pet" (iron of
heaven) might mean the ferruginous substance of meteoric stones. See
_Mélanges d'Archéologie Egyptienne et Assyrienne_, vol. i.--
A.B.E.
[36] The traces of tools upon the masonry show the use of bronze and
jewel-points.--A.B.E.
|
603 |
[37] Many such trial-pieces were found by Petrie in the ruins of a
sculptor's house at Tell el Amarna.
[38] A similar collection was found by Mr. F. Ll. Griffith at Tell
Gemayemi, in 1886, during his excavations for the Egypt Exploration
Fund. See Mr. Petrie's _Tanis_. Part II., Egypt Exploration
Fund.--A.B.E.
[39] Mr. Loftie's collection contains, however, an interesting piece of
trial-work consisting of the head of a Ptolemaic queen in red
granite.--A |
604 | .B.E.
[40] For pigments used at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty, see Petrie's
_Medum_.
[41] The rose-coloured, or rather crimson, flesh-tints are also to be seen
at El Kab, and in the famous speos at Beit el Wally, both _tempo_
Nineteenth Dynasty.--A.B.E.
3.--WORKS OF SCULPTURE.
[Illustration: Fig. 183.--The Great Sphinx of Gizeh.]
To this day, the most ancient statue known is a colossus--namely, the Great
Sphinx of Gizeh. It was already in existe |
605 | nce in the time of Khûfû (Cheops),
and perhaps we should not be far wrong if we ventured to ascribe it to the
generations before Mena, called in the priestly chronicles "the Servants
of Horus." Hewn in the living rock at the extreme verge of the Libyan
plateau, it seems, as the representative of Horus, to uprear its head in
order to be the first to catch sight of his father, Ra, the rising sun,
across the valley (fig. 183). For centuries the sands have buried it to the
chin, yet witho |
606 | ut protecting it from ruin. Its battered body preserves but
the general form of a lion's body. The paws and breast, restored by the
Ptolemies and the Caesars, retain but a part of the stone facing with which
they were then clothed in order to mask the ravages of time. The lower part
of the head-dress has fallen, and the diminished neck looks too slender to
sustain the enormous weight of the head. The nose and beard have been
broken off by fanatics, and the red hue which formerly enlive |
607 | ned the
features is almost wholly effaced. And yet, notwithstanding its fallen
fortunes, the monster preserves an expression of sovereign strength and
greatness. The eyes gaze out afar with a look of intense and profound
thoughtfulness; the mouth still wears a smile; the whole countenance is
informed with power and repose. The art which conceived and carved this
prodigious statue was a finished art; an art which had attained self-
mastery, and was sure of its effects. How many centuri |
608 | es had it taken to
arrive at this degree of maturity and perfection? In certain pieces
belonging to various museums, such as the statues of Sepa and his wife at
the Louvre, and the bas-reliefs of the tomb of Khabiûsokarî at Gizeh,
critics have mistakenly recognised the faltering first efforts of an
unskilled people. The stiffness of attitude and gesture, the exaggerated
squareness of the shoulders, the line of green paint under the eyes,--in a
word, all those characteristics which are |
609 | quoted as signs of extreme
antiquity, are found in certain monuments of the Fifth and Sixth
Dynasties. The contemporary sculptors of any given period were not all
equally skilful. If some were capable of doing good work, the greater
number were mere craftsmen; and we must be careful not to ascribe awkward
manipulation, or lack of teaching, to the timidity of archaism. The works
of the primitive dynasties yet sleep undiscovered beneath seventy feet of
sand at the foot of the Sphinx; t |
610 | hose of the historic dynasties are daily
exhumed from the depths of the neighbouring tombs. These have not yielded
Egyptian art as a whole; but they have familiarised us with one of its
schools--the school of Memphis. The Delta, Hermopolis, Abydos, the environs
of Thebes and Asûan[42], do not appear upon the stage earlier than towards
the Sixth Dynasty; and even so, we know them through but a small number of
sepulchres long since violated and despoiled. The loss is probably not very
g |
611 | reat. Memphis was the capital; and thither the presence of the Pharaohs
must have attracted all the talent of the vassal principalities. Judging
from the results of our excavations in the Memphite necropolis alone, it is
possible to determine the characteristics of both sculpture and painting in
the time of Seneferû and his successors with as much exactness as if we
were already in possession of all the monuments which the valley of the
Nile yet holds in reserve for future explorers.
|
612 |
[Illustration: Fig. 184.--Panel from tomb of Hesi.]
The lesser folk of the art-world excelled in the manipulation of brush and
chisel, and that their skill was of a high order is testified by the
thousands of tableaux they have left behind them. The relief is low; the
colour sober; the composition learned. Architecture, trees, vegetation,
irregularities of ground, are summarily indicated, and are introduced only
when necessary to the due interpretation of the scene represented. Men |
613 | and
animals, on the other hand, are rendered with a wealth of detail, a truth
of character, and sometimes a force of treatment, to which the later
schools of Egyptian art rarely attained. Six wooden panels from the tomb of
Hesi in the Gizeh Museum represent perhaps the finest known specimens of
this branch of art. Mariette ascribed them to the Third Dynasty, and he may
perhaps have been right; though for my own part I incline to date them from
the Fifth Dynasty. In these panels there |
614 | is nothing that can be called a
"subject." Hesi either sits or stands (fig. 184), and has four or five
columns of hieroglyphs above his head; but the firmness of line, the
subtlety of modelling, the ease of execution, are unequalled. Never has
wood been cut with a more delicate chisel or a firmer hand.
The variety of attitude and gesture which we so much admire in the Egyptian
bas-relief is lacking to the statues. A mourner weeping, a woman bruising
corn for bread, a baker rolling |
615 | dough, are subjects as rare in the round as
they are common in bas-relief. In sculpture, the figure is generally
represented either standing with the feet side by side and quite still, or
with one leg advanced in the act of walking; or seated upon a chair or a
cube; or kneeling; or, still more frequently, sitting on the ground cross-
legged, as the fellahin are wont to sit to this day. This intentional
monotony of style would be inexplicable if we were ignorant of the purpose
for whic |
616 | h such statues were intended. They represent the dead man for whom
the tomb was made, his family, his servants, his slaves, and his kinsfolk.
The master is always shown sitting or standing, and he could not
consistently be seen in any other attitude. The tomb is, in fact, the house
in which he rests after the labours of life, as once he used to rest in his
earthly home; and the scenes depicted upon the walls represent the work
which he was officially credited with performing. Here he s |
617 | uperintends the
preliminary operations necessary to raise the food by which he is to be
nourished in the form of funerary offerings; namely, seed-sowing,
harvesting, stock-breeding, fishing, hunting, and the like. In short, "he
superintends all the labour which is done for the eternal dwelling." When
thus engaged, he is always standing upright, his head uplifted, his hands
pendent, or holding the staff and baton of command. Elsewhere, the diverse
offerings are brought to him one by on |
618 | e, and then he sits in a chair of
state. These are his two attitudes, whether as a bas-relief subject or a
statue. Standing, he receives the homage of his vassals; sitting, he
partakes of the family repast. The people of his household comport
themselves before him as becomes their business and station. His wife
either stands beside him, sits on the same chair or on a second chair by
his side, or squats beside his feet as during his lifetime. His son, if a
child at the time when the st |
619 | atue was ordered, is represented in the garb
of infancy; or with the bearing and equipment proper to his position, if a
man. The slaves bruise the corn, the cellarers tar the wine jars, the hired
mourners weep and tear their hair. His little social world followed the
Egyptian to his tomb, the duties of his attendants being prescribed for
them after death, just as they had been prescribed for them during life.
And the kind of influence which the religious conception of the soul
exercis |
620 | ed over the art of the sculptor did not end here. From the moment
that the statue is regarded as the support of the Double, it becomes a
condition of primary importance that the statue shall reproduce, at least
in the abstract, the proportions and distinctive peculiarities of the
corporeal body; and this in order that the Double shall more easily adapt
himself to his new body of stone or wood.[43] The head is therefore always
a faithful portrait; but the body, on the contrary, is, as i |
621 | t were, a
medium kind of body, representing the original at his highest development,
and consequently able to exert the fulness of his physical powers when
admitted to the society of the gods. Hence men are always sculptured in the
prime of life, and women with the delicate proportions of early womanhood.
This conventional idea was never departed from, unless in cases of very
marked deformity. The statue of a dwarf reproduced all the ugly
peculiarities of the dwarf's own body; and it |
622 | was important that it should
so reproduce them. If a statue of the ordinary type had been placed in the
tomb of the dead man, his "Ka," accustomed during life to the deformity of
his limbs, would not be able to adapt itself to an upright and shapely
figure, and would therefore be deprived of the conditions necessary to his
future well-being. The artist was free to vary the details and arrange the
accessories according to his fancy; but without missing the point of his
work, he could n |
623 | ot change the attitude, or depart from the general style of
the conventional portrait statue. This persistent monotony of pose and
subject produces a depressing effect upon the spectator,--an effect which
is augmented by the obtrusive character given to the supports. These
statues are mostly backed by a kind of rectangular pediment, which is
either squared off just at the base of the skull, or carried up in a point
and lost in the head-dress, or rounded at the top and showing above the |
624 |
head of the figure. The arms are seldom separated from the body, but are
generally in one piece with the sides and hips. The whole length of the leg
which is placed in advance of the other is very often connected with the
pediment by a band of stone. It has been conjectured that this course was
imposed upon the sculptor by reason of the imperfection of his tools, and
the consequent danger of fracturing the statue when cutting away the
superfluous material--an explanation which may be |
625 | correct as regards the
earliest schools, but which does not hold good for the time of the Fourth
Dynasty. We could point to more than one piece of sculpture of that period,
even in granite, in which all the limbs are free, having been cut away by
means of either the chisel or the drill. If pediment supports were
persisted in to the end, their use must have been due, not to helplessness,
but to routine, or to an exaggerated respect for ancient method.
[Illustration: Fig. 185.--The C |
626 | ross-legged Scribe at the Louvre, Old
Empire.]
Most museums are poor in statues of the Memphite school; France and Egypt
possess, however, some twenty specimens which suffice to ensure it an
honourable place in the history of art. At the Louvre we have the "Cross-
legged Scribe,"[44] and the statues of Skemka and Pahûrnefer; at Gizeh
there are the "Sheikh el Beled"[45] and his wife, Khafra[46], Ranefer, the
Prince and General Rahotep, and his wife, Nefert, a "Kneeling Scribe," and
|
627 | a "Cross-legged Scribe." The original of the "Cross-legged Scribe" of the
Louvre was not a handsome man (fig. 185), but the vigour and fidelity of
his portrait amply compensate for the absence of ideal beauty. His legs are
crossed and laid flat to the ground in one of those attitudes common among
Orientals, yet all but impossible to Europeans. The bust is upright, and
well balanced upon the hips. The head is uplifted. The right hand holds the
reed pen, which pauses in its place on the |
628 | open papyrus scroll. Thus, for
six thousand years he has waited for his master to go on with the long-
interrupted dictation. The face is square-cut, and the strongly-marked
features indicate a man in the prime of life. The mouth, wide and thin-
lipped, rises slightly towards the corners, which are lost in the
projecting muscles by which it is framed in. The cheeks are bony and lank;
the ears are thick and heavy, and stand out well from the head; the thick,
coarse hair is cut close ab |
629 | ove the brow. The eyes, which are large and well
open, owe their lifelike vivacity to an ingenious contrivance of the
ancient artist. The orbit has been cut out from the stone, the hollow being
filled with an eye composed of enamel, white and black. The edges of the
eyelids are of bronze, and a small silver nail inserted behind the iris
receives and reflects the light in such wise as to imitate the light of
life. The contours of the flesh are somewhat full and wanting in firmness,
as |
630 | would be the case in middle life, if the man's occupation debarred him
from active exercise. The forms of the arm and back are in good relief; the
hands are hard and bony, with fingers of somewhat unusual length; and the
knees are sculptured with a minute attention to anatomical details. The
whole body is, as it were, informed by the expression of the face, and is
dominated by the attentive suspense which breathes in every feature. The
muscles of the arm, of the bust, and of the should |
631 | er are caught in half
repose, and are ready to return at once to work. This careful observance of
the professional attitude, or the characteristic gesture, is equally marked
in the Gizeh Cross-legged Scribe, and in all the Ancient Empire statues
which I have had an opportunity of studying.
The Cross-legged Scribe of Gizeh (fig. 186) was discovered by M. de Morgan
at Sakkarah in the beginning of 1893. This statue exhibits a no less
surprising vigour and certainty of intention and exe |
632 | cution on the part of
the sculptor than does its fellow of the Louvre, while representing a
younger man of full, firm, and supple figure.
[Illustration: Fig. 186.--The Cross-legged Scribe of Gizeh, from Sakkarah.]
Khafra is a king (fig. 187). He sits squarely upon his chair of state, his
hands upon his knees, his chest thrown forward, his head erect, his gaze
confident. Had the emblems of his rank been destroyed, and the inscription
effaced which tells his name, his bearing alone |
633 | would have revealed the
Pharaoh. Every trait is characteristic of the man who from childhood
upwards has known himself to be invested with sovereign authority. Ranefer
belonged to one of the great feudal families of his time. He stands
upright, his arms down, his left leg forward, in the attitude of a prince
inspecting a march-past of his vassals. The countenance is haughty, the
attitude bold; but Ranefer does not impress us with the almost superhuman
calm and decision of Khafra.
[ |
634 | Illustration: Fig. 187.--King Khafra, Fourth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 188.--Sheikh el Beled, Old Empire.]
[Illustration: Fig. 189.--Rahotep, Ancient Empire.]
General Rahotep[47] (fig. 189), despite his title and his high military
rank, looks as if he were of inferior birth. Stalwart and square-cut, he
has somewhat of the rustic in his physiognomy. Nefert, on the contrary
(fig. 190), was a princess of the blood royal; and her whole person is, as
it were, informed with a cert |
635 | ain air of resolution and command, which the
sculptor has expressed very happily. She wears a close-fitting garment,
opening to a point in front. The shoulders, bosom, and bodily contours are
modelled under the drapery with a grace and reserve which it is impossible
to praise too highly. Her face, round and plump, is framed in masses of
fine black hair, confined by a richly-ornamented bandeau. This wedded pair
are in limestone, painted; the husband being coloured of a reddish brown
hu |
636 | e, and the wife of a tawny buff.
[Illustration: Fig. 190.--Nefert, wife of Rahotep, Ancient Empire.]
[Illustration: Fig. 191.--Head of the Sheikh el Beled.]
[Illustration: Fig. 192.--Wife of the Sheikh el Beled, Old Empire.]
[Illustration: Fig. 193.--The Kneeling Scribe, Old Empire.]
[Illustration: Fig. 194.--A Bread-maker, Old Empire.]
Turning to the "Sheikh el Beled" (figs. 188, 191), we descend several
degrees in the social scale. Raemka was a "superintendent of works," |
637 | which
probably means that he was an overseer of corvée labour at the time of
building the great pyramids. He belonged to the middle class; and his whole
person expresses vulgar contentment and self-satisfaction. We seem to see
him in the act of watching his workmen, his staff of acacia wood in his
hand. The feet of the statue had perished, but have been restored. The body
is stout and heavy, and the neck thick. The head (fig. 191), despite its
vulgarity, does not lack energy. The eye |
638 | s are inserted, like those of the
"Cross-legged Scribe." By a curious coincidence, the statue, which was
found at Sakkarah, happened to be strikingly like the local Sheikh el
Beled, or head-man, of the village. Always quick to seize upon the amusing
side of an incident, the Arab diggers at once called it the "Sheikh el
Beled," and it has retained the name ever since. The statue of his wife,
interred beside his own, is unfortunately mutilated. It is a mere trunk,
without legs or arms ( |
639 | fig. 192); yet enough remains to show that the figure
represented a good type of the Egyptian middle-class matron, commonplace in
appearance and somewhat acid of temper. The "Kneeling Scribe" of the Gizeh
collection (fig. 193) belongs to the lowest middle-class rank, such as it
is at the present day. Had he not been dead more than six thousand years, I
could protest that I had not long ago met him face to face, in one of the
little towns of Upper Egypt. He has just brought a roll of pa |
640 | pyrus, or a
tablet covered with writing, for his master's approval. Kneeling in the
prescribed attitude of an inferior, his hands crossed, his shoulders
rounded, his head slightly bent forward, he waits till the great man shall
have read it through. Of what is he thinking? A scribe might feel some not
unreasonable apprehensions, when summoned thus into the presence of his
superior. The stick played a prominent part in official life, and an error
of addition, a fault in orthography, or |
641 | an order misunderstood, would be
enough to bring down a shower of blows. The sculptor has, with inimitable
skill, seized that expression of resigned uncertainty and passive
gentleness which is the result of a whole life of servitude. There is a
smile upon his lips, but it is the smile of etiquette, in which there is no
gladness. The nose and cheeks are puckered up in harmony with the forced
grimace upon the mouth. His large eyes (again in enamel) have the fixed
look of one who waits |
642 | vacantly, without making any effort to concentrate
his sight or his thoughts upon a definite object. The face lacks both
intelligence and vivacity; but his work, after all, called for no special
nimbleness of wit. Khafra is in diorite; Raemka and his wife are carved in
wood; the other statues named are of limestone; yet, whatever the material
employed, the play of the chisel is alike free, subtle, and delicate. The
head of the scribe and the bas-relief portrait of Pharaoh Menkaûhor, in |
643 | the
Louvre, the dwarf Nemhotep (fig. 195), and the slaves who prepare food-
offerings at Gizeh, are in no wise inferior to the "Cross-legged Scribe" or
the "Sheikh el Beled." The baker kneading his dough (fig. 194) is
thoroughly in his work. His half-stooping attitude, and the way in which he
leans upon the kneading-trough, are admirably natural. The dwarf has a
big, elongated head, balanced by two enormous ears (fig. 195). He has a
foolish face, an ill-shapen mouth, and narrow slits |
644 | of eyes, inclining
upwards to the temples. The bust is well developed, but the trunk is out of
proportion with the rest of his person. The artist has done his best to
disguise the lower limbs under a fine white tunic; but one feels that it is
too long for the little man's arms and legs.
[Illustration: Fig. 195.--The dwarf Nemhotep, Old Empire.]
[Illustration: Fig. 196.--One of the Tanis Sphinxes.]
The thighs could have existed only in a rudimentary form, and Nemhotep,
standing |
645 | as best he can upon his misshapen feet, seems to be off his
balance, and ready to fall forward upon his face. It would be difficult to
find another work of art in which the characteristics of dwarfdom are more
cleverly reproduced.
The sculpture of the first Theban empire is in close connection with that
of Memphis. Methods, materials, design, composition, all are borrowed from
the elder school; the only new departure being in the proportions assigned
to the human figure. From the t |
646 | ime of the Eleventh Dynasty, the legs become
longer and slighter, the hips smaller, the body and the neck more slender.
Works of this period are not to be compared with the best productions of
the earlier centuries. The wall-paintings of Siût, of Bersheh, of Beni
Hasan, and of Asûan, are not equal to those in the mastabas of Sakkarah and
Gizeh; nor are the most carefully-executed contemporary statues worthy to
take a place beside the "Sheikh el Beled" or the "Cross-legged Scribe."
Por |
647 | trait statues of private persons, especially those found at Thebes, are,
so far as I have seen, decidedly bad, the execution being rude and the
expression vulgar. The royal statues of this period, which are nearly all
in black or grey granite, have been for the most part usurped by kings of
later date. Ûsertesen III., whose head and feet are in the Louvre, was
appropriated by Amenhotep III., as the sphinx of the Louvre and the colossi
of Gizeh were appropriated by Rameses II. Many muse |
648 | ums possess specimens of
supposed Ramesside Pharaohs which, upon more careful inspection, we are
compelled to ascribe to the Thirteenth or Fourteenth Dynasty. Those of
undisputed identity, such as the Sebekhotep III. of the Louvre, the
Mermashiû of Tanis, the Sebekemsaf of Gizeh, and the colossi of the Isle of
Argo, though very skilfully executed, are wanting in originality and
vigour. One would say, indeed, that the sculptors had purposely endeavoured
to turn them all out after the o |
649 | ne smiling and commonplace pattern. Great
is the contrast when we turn from these giant dolls to the black granite
sphinxes discovered by Mariette at Tanis in 1861, and by him ascribed to
the Hyksos period. Here energy, at all events, is not lacking. Wiry and
compact, the lion body is shorter than in sphinxes of the usual type. The
head, instead of wearing the customary "klaft," or head-gear of folded
linen, is clothed with an ample mane, which also surrounds the face. The
eyes are sm |
650 | all; the nose is aquiline and depressed at the tip; the
cheekbones are prominent; the lower lip slightly protrudes. The general
effect of the face is, in short, so unlike the types we are accustomed to
find in Egypt, that it has been accepted in proof of an Asiatic origin
(fig. 196). These sphinxes are unquestionably anterior to the Eighteenth
Dynasty, because one of the kings of Avaris, named Apepi, has cut his name
upon the shoulder of each. Arguing from this fact, it was, however, t |
651 | oo
hastily concluded that they are works of the time of that prince. On a
closer examination, we see that they had already been dedicated to some
Pharaoh of a yet earlier period, and that Apepi had merely usurped them;
and M. Golenischeff has shown that they were made for Amenemhat III., of
the Twelfth Dynasty, and with his features. Those so-called Hyksos
monuments may be the products of a local school, the origin of which may
have been independent, and its traditions quite different |
652 | from the
traditions of the Memphite workshops. But except at Abydos, El Kab, Asûan,
and some two or three other places, the provincial art of ancient Egypt is
so little known to us that I dare not lay too much stress upon this
hypothesis. Whatever the origin of the Tanite School, it continued to exist
long after the expulsion of the Hyksos invaders, since one of its best
examples, a group representing the Nile of the North and the Nile of the
South, bearing trays laden with flowers a |
653 | nd fish, was consecrated by
Pisebkhanû of the Twenty-first Dynasty.
[Illustration: Fig. 197.--Bas-relief head of Seti I.]
[Illustration: Fig. 198.--The god Amen, and Horemheb.]
[Illustration: Fig. 199.--Head of a Queen, Eighteenth Dynasty.]
The first three dynasties of the New Empire[48] have bequeathed us more
monuments than all the others put together. Painted bas-reliefs, statues of
kings and private persons, colossi, sphinxes, may be counted by hundreds
between the mouths |
654 | of the Nile and the fourth cataract. The old sacerdotal
cities, Memphis, Thebes, Abydos, are naturally the richest; but so great
was the impetus given to art, that even remote provincial towns, such as
Abû Simbel, Redesîyeh, and Mesheikh, have their _chefs-d'oeuvre_, like the
great cities. The official portraits of Amenhotep I. at Turin, of Thothmes
I. and Thothmes III. at the British Museum, at Karnak, at Turin, and at
Gizeh, are conceived in the style of the Twelfth and Thirteenth D |
655 | ynasties,
and are deficient in originality; but the bas-reliefs in temples and tombs
show a marked advance upon those of the earlier ages. The modelling is
finer; the figures are more numerous and better grouped; the relief is
higher; the effects of perspective are more carefully worked out. The wall-
subjects of Deir el Baharî, the tableaux in the tombs of Hûi, of Rekhmara,
of Anna, of Khamha, and of twenty more at Thebes, are surprisingly rich,
brilliant, and varied. Awakening to a |
656 | sense of the picturesque, artists
introduced into their compositions all those details of architecture, of
uneven ground, of foreign plants, and the like, which formerly they
neglected, or barely indicated. The taste for the colossal, which had
fallen somewhat into abeyance since the time of the Great Sphinx, came once
again to the surface, and was developed anew. Amenhotep III. was not
content with statues of twenty-five or thirty feet in height, such as were
in favour among his ance |
657 | stors. Those which he erected in advance of his
memorial chapel on the left bank of the Nile in Western Thebes, one of
which is the Vocal Memnon of the classic writers, sit fifty feet high. Each
was carved from a single block of sandstone, and they are as elaborately
finished as though they were of ordinary size. The avenues of sphinxes
which this Pharaoh marshalled before the temples of Luxor and Karnak do not
come to an end at fifty or a hundred yards from the gateway, but are
prolo |
658 | nged for great distances. In one avenue, they have the human head upon
the lion's body; in another, they are fashioned in the semblance of
kneeling rams. Khûenaten, the revolutionary successor of Amenhotep III.,
far from discouraging this movement, did what he could to promote it.
Never, perhaps, were Egyptian sculptors more unrestricted than by him at
Tell el Amarna. Military reviews, chariot-driving, popular festivals, state
receptions, the distribution of honours and rewards by the |
659 | king in person,
representations of palaces, villas, and gardens, were among the subjects
which they were permitted to treat; and these subjects differed in so many
respects from traditional routine that they could give free play to their
fancy and to their natural genius. The spirit and gusto with which they
took advantage of their opportunities would scarcely be believed by one who
had not seen their works at Tell el Amarna. Some of their bas-reliefs are
designed in almost correct pe |
660 | rspective; and in all, the life and stir of
large crowds are rendered with irreproachable truth. The political and
religious reaction which followed this reign arrested the evolution of art,
and condemned sculptors and painters to return to the observance of
traditional rules. Their personal influence and their teaching continued,
however, to make themselves felt under Horemheb, under Seti I., and even
under Rameses II. If, during more than a century, Egyptian art remained
free, grace |
661 | ful, and refined, that improvement was due to the school of Tell
el Amarna. In no instance perhaps did it produce work more perfect than the
bas-reliefs of the temple of Abydos, or those of the tomb of Seti I. The
head of the conqueror (fig. 197), always studied _con amore_, is a marvel
of reserved and sensitive grace. Rameses II. charging the enemy at Abû
Simbel is as fine as the portraits of Seti I., though in another style. The
action of the arm which brandishes the lance is somewha |
662 | t angular, but the
expression of strength and triumph which animates the whole person of the
warrior king, and the despairing resignation of the vanquished, compensate
for this one defect. The group of Horemheb and the god Amen (fig. 198), in
the Museum of Turin, is a little dry in treatment. The faces of both god
and king lack expression, and their bodies are heavy and ill-balanced. The
fine colossi in red granite which Horemheb placed against the uprights of
the inner door of his fi |
663 | rst pylon at Karnak, the bas-reliefs on the walls
of his speos at Silsilis, his own portrait and that of one of the ladies of
his family now in the museum of Gizeh, are, so to say, spotless and
faultless. The queen's face (fig. 199) is animated and intelligent; the
eyes are large and prominent; the mouth is wide, but well shaped. This head
is carved in hard limestone of a creamy tint which seems to soften the
somewhat satirical expression of her eyes and smile. The king (fig. 200) is
|
664 | in black granite; and the sombre hue of the stone at once produces a
mournful impression upon the spectator. His youthful face is pervaded by an
air of melancholy, such as we rarely see depicted in portraits of Pharaohs
of the great period. The nose is straight and delicate, the eyes are long,
the lips are large, full, somewhat contracted at the corners, and strongly
defined at the edges. The chin is overweighted by the traditional false
beard. Every detail is treated with as much skil |
665 | l as if the sculptor were
dealing with a soft stone instead of with a material which resisted the
chisel. Such, indeed, is the mastery of the execution, that one forgets the
difficulties of the task in the excellence of the results.
[Illustration: Fig. 200.--Head of Horemheb.]
[Illustration: Fig. 201.--Colossal statue of Rameses II., Luxor.]
It is unfortunate that Egyptian artists never signed their works; for the
sculptor of this portrait of Horemheb deserves to be remembered. |
666 | Like the
Eighteenth Dynasty, the Nineteenth Dynasty delighted in colossi. Those of
Rameses II. at Luxor measured from eighteen to twenty feet in height (fig.
201); the colossal Rameses of the Ramesseum sat sixty feet high; and that
of Tanis about seventy.[49] The colossi of Abû Simbel, without being of
quite such formidable proportions, face the river in imposing array. To say
that the decline of Egyptian art began with Rameses II. is a commonplace of
contemporary criticism; yet nothi |
667 | ng is less true than an axiom of this
kind. Many statues and bas-reliefs executed during his reign are no doubt
inconceivably rude and ugly; but these are chiefly found in provincial
towns where the schools were indifferent, and where the artists had no
fine examples before them. At Thebes, at Memphis, at Abydos, at Tanis, in
those towns of the Delta where the court habitually resided, and even at
Abû Simbel and Beit el Wally, the sculptors of Rameses II. yield nothing in
point of exc |
668 | ellence to those of Seti I. and Horemheb. The decadence did not
begin till after the reign of Merenptah. When civil war and foreign
invasion brought Egypt to the brink of destruction, the arts, like all
else, suffered and rapidly declined. It is sad to follow their downward
progress under the later Ramessides, whether in the wall-subjects of the
royal tombs, or in the bas-reliefs of the temple of Khonsû, or on the
columns of the hypostyle hall at Karnak. Wood carving maintained its lev |
669 | el
during a somewhat longer period. The admirable statuettes of priests and
children at Turin date from the Twentieth Dynasty. The advent of Sheshonk
and the internecine strife of the provinces at length completed the ruin of
Thebes, and the school which had produced so many masterpieces perished
miserably.
[Illustration Fig. 202.--Queen Ameniritis.]
[Illustration: Fig. 203.--The goddess Thûeris. Saïte work.]
The Renaissance did not dawn till near the end of the Ethiopian Dynas |
670 | ty,
some three hundred years later. The over-praised statue of Queen
Ameniritis[50] (fig. 202) already manifests some noteworthy qualities. The
limbs, somewhat long and fragile, are delicately treated; but the head is
heavy, being over-weighted by the wig peculiar to goddesses. Psammetichus
I., when his victories had established him upon the throne, busied himself
in the restoration of the temples. Under his auspices, the valley of the
Nile became one vast studio of painting and sculp |
671 | ture. The art of engraving
hieroglyphs attained a high degree of excellence, fine statues and bas-
reliefs were everywhere multiplied, and a new school arose. A marvellous
command of material, a profound knowledge of detail, and a certain elegance
tempered by severity, are the leading characteristics of this new school.
The Memphites preferred limestone; the Thebans selected red or grey
granite; but the Saïtes especially attacked basalt, breccia, and
serpentine, and with these fine-gr |
672 | ained and almost homogeneous substances,
they achieved extraordinary results. They seem to have sought difficulties
for the mere pleasure of triumphing over them; and we have proof of the way
in which artists of real merit bestowed years and years on the chasing of
sarcophagus lids and the carving of statues in blocks of the hardest
material. The Thûeris, and the four monuments from the tomb of
Psammetichus[51] in the Gizeh Museum, are the most remarkable objects
hitherto discovered i |
673 | n this class of work. Thûeris[52] (fig. 203) was the
especial protectress of maternity, and presided over childbirth. Her
portrait was discovered by some native sebakh diggers[53] in the midst of
the mounds of the ancient city of Thebes. She was found standing upright in
a little chapel of white limestone which had been dedicated to her by one
Pibesa, a priest, in the name of Queen Nitocris, daughter of Psammetichus
I. This charming hippopotamus, whose figure is perhaps more plump than |
674 |
graceful, is a fine example of difficulties overcome; but I do not know
that she has any other merit. The group belonging to Psammetichus has at
all events some artistic value. It consists of four pieces of green basalt;
namely, a table of offerings, a statue of Osiris, a statue of Nephthys, and
a Hathor-cow supporting a statuette of the deceased (fig. 204). All four
are somewhat flaccid, somewhat artificial; but the faces of the divinities
and the deceased are not wanting in sweetne |
675 | ss; the action of the cow is
good; and the little figure under her protection falls naturally into its
place. Certain other pieces, less known than these, are however far
superior. The Saïte style is easy of recognition. It lacks the breadth and
learning of the first Memphite school; it also lacks the grand, and
sometimes rude, manner of the great Theban school. The proportions of the
human body are reduced and elongated, and the limbs lose in vigour what
they gain in elegance. A note |
676 | worthy change in the choice of attitudes will
also be remarked. Orientals find repose in postures which would be
inexpressibly fatiguing to ourselves. For hours together they will kneel;
or sit tailor-wise, with the legs crossed and laid down flat to the ground;
or squat, sitting upon their heels, with no other support than is afforded
by that part of the sole of the foot which rests upon the ground; or they
will sit upon the floor with their legs close together, and their arms
crosse |
677 | d upon their knees. These four attitudes were customary among the
people from the time of the ancient empire.
[Illustration: Fig. 204.--Hathor-cow in green basalt. Saïte work.]
This we know from the bas-reliefs. But the Memphite sculptors, deeming the
two last ungraceful, excluded them from the domain of art, and rarely, if
ever, reproduced them. The "Cross-legged Scribe" of the Louvre and the
"Kneeling Scribe" of Gizeh show with what success they could employ the two
first. The t |
678 | hird was neglected (doubtless for the same reason) by the
Theban sculptors. The fourth began to be currently adopted about the time
of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
[Illustration: Fig. 205.--Squatting statue of Pedishashi. Saïte work.]
It may be that this position was not in fashion among the moneyed classes,
which alone could afford to order statues; or it may be that the artists
themselves objected to an attitude which caused their sitters to look like
square parcels with a human head |
679 | on the top. The sculptors of the Saïte
period did not inherit that repugnance. They have at all events combined
the action of the limbs in such wise as may least offend the eye, and the
position almost ceases to be ungraceful. The heads also are modelled to
such perfection that they make up for many shortcomings. That of Pedishashi
(fig. 205) has an expression of youth and intelligent gentleness such as we
seldom meet with from an Egyptian hand. Other heads, on the contrary, are
rema |
680 | rkable for their almost brutal frankness of treatment. In the small
head of a scribe (fig. 206), lately purchased for the Louvre, and in
another belonging to Prince Ibrahim at Cairo, the wrinkled brow, the
crow's-feet at the corners of the eyes, the hard lines about the mouth,
and the knobs upon the skull, are brought out with scrupulous fidelity. The
Saïte school was, in fact, divided into two parties. One sought inspiration
in the past, and, by a return to the methods of the old Mem |
681 | phite school,
endeavoured to put fresh life into the effeminate style of the day. This it
accomplished, and so successfully, that its works are sometimes mistaken
for the best productions of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties. The other,
without too openly departing from established tradition, preferred to study
from the life, and thus drew nearer to nature than in any previous age.
This school would, perhaps, have prevailed, had Egyptian art not been
directed into a new channel by the Ma |
682 | cedonian conquest, and by centuries of
intercourse with the Greeks.
[Illustration: Fig. 206.--Head of a scribe. Saïte work.]
[Illustration: Fig. 207.--Colossus of Alexander II.]
The new departure was of slow development. Sculptors began by clothing the
successors of Alexander in Egyptian garb and transforming them into
Pharaohs, just as they had in olden time transformed the Hyksos and the
Persians. Works dating from the reigns of the first Ptolemies scarcely
differ from those |
683 | of the best Saïte period, and it is only here and there
that we detect traces of Greek influence. Thus, the colossus of Alexander
II., at Gizeh (fig. 207), wears a flowing head-dress, from beneath which
his crisp curls have found their way. Soon, however, the sight of Greek
masterpieces led the Egyptians of Alexandria, of Memphis, and of the cities
of the Delta to modify their artistic methods. Then arose a mixed school,
which combined certain elements of the national art with certain |
684 | other
elements borrowed from Hellenic art. The Alexandrian Isis of the Gizeh
Museum is clad as the Isis of Pharaonic times; but she has lost the old
slender shape and straitened bearing. A mutilated effigy of a Prince of
Siût, also at Gizeh, would almost pass for an indifferent Greek statue.
[Illustration: Fig. 208.--Statue of Hor, Graeco-Egyptian.]
[Illustration: Fig. 209.--Group from Naga.]
The most forcible work of this hybrid class which has come down to us is
the portrait- |
685 | statue of one Hor (fig. 208), discovered in 1881 at the foot
of Kom ed Damas, the site of the tomb of Alexander. The head is good,
though in a somewhat dry style. The long, pinched nose, the close-set eyes,
the small mouth with drawn-in corners, the square chin,--every feature, in
short, contributes to give a hard and obstinate character to the face. The
hair is closely cropped, yet not so closely as to prevent it from dividing
naturally into thick, short curls. The body, clothed in th |
686 | e chlamys, is
awkwardly shapen, and too narrow for the head. One arm hangs pendent; the
other is brought round to the front; the feet are lost. All these monuments
are the results of few excavations; and I do not doubt that the soil of
Alexandria would yield many such, if it could be methodically explored. The
school which produced them continued to draw nearer and nearer to the
schools of Greece, and the stiff manner, which it never wholly lost, was
scarcely regarded as a defect at a |
687 | n epoch when certain sculptors in the
service of Rome especially affected the archaic style. I should not be
surprised if those statues of priests and priestesses wearing divine
insignia, with which Hadrian adorned the Egyptian rooms of his villa at
Tibur, might not be attributed to the artists of this hybrid school. In
those parts which were remote from the Delta, native art, being left to its
own resources, languished, and slowly perished. Nor was this because Greek
models, or even |
688 | Greek artists, were lacking. In the Thebaid, in the Fayûm,
at Syene, I have both discovered and purchased statuettes and statues of
Hellenic style, and of correct and careful execution. One of these, from
Coptos, is apparently a miniature replica of a Venus analogous to the Venus
of Milo. But the provincial sculptors were too dull, or too ignorant, to
take such advantage of these models as was taken by their Alexandrian
brethren. When they sought to render the Greek suppleness of figur |
689 | e and
fulness of limb, they only succeeded in missing the rigid but learned
precision of their former masters. In place of the fine, delicate, low
relief of the old school, they adopted a relief which, though very
prominent, was soft, round, and feebly modelled. The eyes of their
personages have a foolish leer; the nostrils slant upwards; the corners of
the mouth, the chin, and indeed all the features, are drawn up as if
converging towards a central point, which is stationed in the mi |
690 | ddle of the
ear. Two schools, each independent of the other, have bequeathed their
works to us. The least known flourished in Ethiopia, at the court of the
half-civilised kings who resided at Meroë. A group brought from Naga in
1882, and now in the Gizeh collection, shows the work of this school during
the first century of our era (fig. 209). A god and a queen, standing side
by side, are roughly cut in a block of grey granite. The work is coarse and
heavy, but not without energy. Isol |
691 | ated and lost in the midst of savage
tribes, the school which produced it sank rapidly into barbarism, and
expired towards the end of the age of the Antonines. The Egyptian school,
sheltered by the power of Rome, survived a little longer. As sagacious as
the Ptolemies, the Caesars knew that by flattering the religious prejudices
of their Egyptian subjects they consolidated their own rule in the valley
of the Nile. At an enormous cost, they restored and rebuilt the temples of
the natio |
692 | nal gods, working after the old plans and in the old spirit of
Pharaonic times. The great earthquake of B.C. 22 had destroyed Thebes,
which now became a mere place of pilgrimage, whither devotees repaired to
listen to the voice of Memnon at the rising of Aurora. But at Denderah and
Ombos, Tiberius and Claudius finished the decoration of the great temples.
Caligula worked at Coptos, and the Antonines enriched Esneh and Philae. The
gangs of workmen employed in their names were still comp |
693 | etent to cut
thousands of bas-reliefs according to the rules of the olden time. Their
work was feeble, ungraceful, absurd, inspired solely by routine; yet it was
founded on antique tradition--tradition enfeebled and degenerate, but still
alive. The troubles which convulsed the third century of our era, the
incursions of barbarians, the progress and triumph of Christianity, caused
the suspension of the latest works and the dispersion of the last
craftsmen. With them died all that yet s |
694 | urvived of the national art.[54]
[42] The classic Syene, from all time the southernmost portion of Egypt
proper. The Sixth Dynasty is called the Elephantine, from the island
immediately facing Syene which was the traditional seat of the
Dynasty, and on which the temples stood. The tombs of Elephantine were
discovered by General Sir F. Grenfell, K.C.B., in 1885, in the
neighbouring cliffs of the Libyan Desert: see foot-note p. 149.--
A.B.E.
[43] For an ex |
695 | planation of the nature of the Double, see Chapter III., pp.
111-112, 121 _et seq._
[44] Known as the "Scribe accroupi," literally the "Squatting Scribe"; but
in English, squatting, as applied to Egyptian art, is taken to mean
the attitude of sitting with the knees nearly touching the chin.
--A.B.E.
[45] "The Sheikh of the Village." This statue was best known in England as
the "Wooden Man of Bûlak."--A.B.E.
[46] The Greek Chephren.
[47] I venture to think |
696 | that the heads of Rahotep and Nefert, engraved from
a brilliant photograph in _A Thousand Miles up the Nile_, give a
truer and more spirited idea of the originals than the present
illustrations,--A.B.E.
[48] That is, the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties.
--A.B.E.
[49] According to the measurements given by Mr. Petrie, who discovered the
remains of the Tanite colossus, it must have stood ninety feet high
without, and one hundred and twenty f |
697 | eet high with, its pedestal. See
_Tanis_, Part I., by W.M.F. Petrie, published by the Egypt
Exploration Fund, 1885.--A.B.E.
[50] Ameniritis, daughter of an Ethiopian king named Kashta, was the sister
and successor of her brother Shabaka, and wife of Piankhi II., Twenty-
fifth Dynasty. The statue is in alabaster.--A.B.E.
[51] A Memphite scribe of the Thirtieth Dynasty.--A.B.E.
[52] In Egyptian _Ta-ûrt_, or "the Great;" also called _Apet_.
This goddess is alwa |
698 | ys represented as a hippopotamus walking. She
carries in each hand the emblem of protection, called "_Sa_." The
statuette of the illustration is in green serpentine.--A.B.E.
[53] _Sebakh_, signifying "salt," or "saltpetre," is the general
term for that saline dust which accumulates wherever there are mounds
of brick or limestone ruins. This dust is much valued as a manure, or
"top-dressing," and is so constantly dug out and carried away by the
natives, that t |
699 | he mounds of ancient towns and villages are rapidly
undergoing destruction in all parts of Egypt.--A.B.E.
[54] For an example of Graeco-Egyptian portrait painting, _tempo_
Hadrian, see p. 291.
CHAPTER V.
_THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS._
I have treated briefly of the Noble Arts; it remains to say something of
the Industrial Arts. All classes of society in Egypt were, from an early
period, imbued with the love of luxury, and with a taste for the beautiful.
Living or dead |
700 | , the Egyptian desired to have jewels and costly amulets upon
his person, and to be surrounded by choice furniture and elegant utensils.
The objects of his daily use must be distinguished, if not by richness of
material, at least by grace of form; and in order to satisfy his
requirements, the clay, the stone, the metals, the woods, and other
products of distant lands were laid under contribution.
I.--STONE, CLAY, AND GLASS.
[Illustration: Fig. 210.--The _Ta_, or girdle-buckle of |
Subsets and Splits
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