Part 1

Chapter 12,810 wordsPublic domain

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EGYPTIAN ART

* * * * * *

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_

New Light on Ancient Egypt.

Translated by ELIZABETH LEE.

Illustrated. Demy 8vo, cloth. =12/6= net. Cheap Edition =6/-= net.

Egypt: Ancient Sites and Modern Scenes.

Translated by ELIZABETH LEE.

With Coloured Frontispiece and 16 other Illustrations. Demy 8vo, cloth. =12/6= net.

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN

* * * * * *

EGYPTIAN ART

Studies

SIR GASTON MASPERO

Hon. K.C.M.G., Hon. D.C.L., and Fellow of Queen’S College, Oxford

Member of the Institute of France, Professor at the Collège de France, Director-General of the Service des Antiquités, Cairo

Translated by Elizabeth Lee

With 107 Illustrations

T. Fisher Unwin London: Adelphi Terrace Leipsic: Inselstrasse 20

First published in 1913

PREFATORY NOTE

The following essays were written during a period of more than thirty years, and published at intervals of varying lengths. The oldest of them appeared in _Les Monuments de l’Art Antique_ of my friend Olivier Rayet, and the others in _La Nature_ at the request of Gaston Tissandier, in the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_, in the _Monuments Piot_, and chiefly in the _Revue de l’Art Ancien et Moderne_, where my friend Jules Comte gave them hospitality. As most of these periodicals do not circulate in purely scientific circles, the essays are almost unknown to experts, and will for the greater part be new to them. Indeed, they were not intended for them. In writing them, I desired to familiarize the general public, who were scarcely aware of their existence, with some of the fine pieces of Egyptian sculpture and goldsmiths’ work, and to point out how to approach them in order to appreciate their worth. Some, after various vicissitudes, had found a home in the Museums of Paris or of Cairo, and I wrote the notices in my study, deducing at leisure the reasons for my criticisms. Others I caught as they emerged from the ground, the very day of or the day after their discovery, and I described them on the spot, as it were, under the influence of my first encounter with them: they themselves dictated to me what I said of them.

Some persons will perhaps be surprised to find the same ideas developed at length in several parts of the book. If they will carry their thoughts back to the date at which I wrote, they will recognize the necessity of such repetitions. Egyptologists, absorbed in the task of deciphering, had eyes for scarcely anything except the historical or religious literary texts; and so amateurs or inquirers, finding nothing in the works of experts to help them to any sound interpretation of the characteristic manifestations of Egyptian art, were reduced to register them without always understanding them, for lack of knowledge of the concepts that had imposed their forms on them. It is now admitted that such objects of art are above all utilitarian, and that they were originally commissioned with the fixed purpose of assuring the well-being of human survival in an existence beyond the grave. Thirty years ago, few were aware of this, and to convince the rest, it was necessary to insist continually on the proofs and to multiply examples. I might of course have suppressed a portion of them here, but had I done so, should I not have been reproached, and quite rightly, with misrepresenting and almost falsifying a passage in the history of the Egyptian arts? The ideas which govern our present conception did not at once reach the point where they now are. They came into being one after the other, and spread themselves by successive waves of unequal intensity, welcomed with favour by some, rejected by others. I had to begin over again a dozen times and in a dozen different ways before I obtained their almost universal acceptation. I was at first laughed at when I put forward the opinion that there was not one unique art in Egypt, identical from one extremity of the valley to the other except for almost imperceptible nuances of execution, but that there were at least half a dozen local schools, each with its own traditions and its own principles, often divided into several studios, the technique of which I tried to determine. In the end the incredulous rallied to my side, and it would have been bad grace on my part to leave out of the articles which helped to convert them, at least I hope so, the repetitions which led to their being convinced.

Besides, I am sure that they will render my readers of to-day the same service that they rendered formerly to my colleagues in Egyptology. When they have thoroughly entered into the spirit of the Egyptian ideas concerning existence in this world and the next, they will understand what Egyptian art is, and why it is above everything realistic. The question for Egyptian art was not to create a type of independent beauty in the person of the individuals who furnish the principal elements of it, but to express truthfully the features which constituted that person and which must be preserved identical as long as anything of him persisted among the living and the dead. But why should I epitomize here in a necessarily incomplete way ideas which are amply set forth in the book itself? I shall do better in using the small space left me in thanking the publishers who have kindly authorized me to reproduce the illustrations which accompanied my articles, Jules Comte, the directors of _La Nature_, and my old friends of the firm of Hachette. They have thus collaborated in this book, and it will owe a large part of its success to their kindness.

CONTENTS

PAGE PREFATORY NOTE 5

EGYPTIAN STATUARY AND ITS SCHOOLS 17

SOME PORTRAITS OF MYCERINUS 36

III

A SCRIBE’S HEAD OF THE IVTH OR VTH DYNASTY 49

SKHEMKA, HIS WIFE AND SON: A GROUP FOUND AT MEMPHIS 55

THE CROUCHING SCRIBE: VTH DYNASTY 60

THE NEW SCRIBE OF THE GIZEH MUSEUM 66

VII

THE KNEELING SCRIBE: VTH DYNASTY 74

VIII

PEHOURNOWRI: STATUETTE IN PAINTED LIMESTONE FOUND AT MEMPHIS 79

THE DWARF KHNOUMHOTPOU: VTH OR VITH DYNASTY 85

THE “FAVISSA” OF KARNAK, AND THE THEBAN SCHOOL OF SCULPTURE 90

THE COW OF DEÎR-EL-BAHARÎ 106

XII

THE STATUETTE OF AMENÔPHIS IV 120

XIII

FOUR CANOPIC HEADS FOUND IN THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS AT THEBES 126

XIV

A HEAD OF THE PHARAOH HARMHABI 135

THE COLOSSUS OF RAMSES II AT BEDRECHEÎN 140

XVI

EGYPTIAN JEWELLERY IN THE LOUVRE 145

XVII

THE TREASURE OF ZAGAZIG 154

XVIII

THREE STATUETTES IN WOOD 172

XIX

A FRAGMENT OF A THEBAN STATUETTE 178

THE LADY TOUÎ OF THE LOUVRE AND EGYPTIAN INDUSTRIAL SCULPTURE IN WOOD 183

XXI

SOME PERFUME LADLES OF THE XVIIITH DYNASTY 190

XXII

SOME GREEN BASALT STATUETTES OF THE SAÏTE PERIOD 195

XXIII

A FIND OF SAÏTE JEWELS AT SAQQARAH 201

XXIV

A BRONZE EGYPTIAN CAT BELONGING TO M. BARRÈRE 208

XXV

A FIND OF CATS IN EGYPT 214

INDEX 217

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE THE MYCERINUS OF MÎT-RAHINEH 38

MYCERINUS (REISNER HEAD) 38

ALABASTER STATUE OF MYCERINUS 40

MYCERINUS, HATHOR, AND THE NOME OXYRRHINCHUS 42

MYCERINUS, HATHOR, AND THE NOME CYNOPOLITE 42

MYCERINUS AND HIS WIFE 44

MYCERINUS, HATHOR, AND THE NOME OF THE SISTRUM 46

MYCERINUS AND HIS WIFE (DETAIL) 46

MYCERINUS AND HIS WIFE (DETAIL) 48

SCRIBE’S HEAD 50

SKHEMKA WITH HIS WIFE AND SON 56

CROUCHING SCRIBE 60

THE NEW SCRIBE OF THE GIZEH MUSEUM 66

STATUE OF RÂNOFIR 72

KNEELING SCRIBE 74

PEHOURNOWRI 80

THE DWARF KHNOUMHOTPOU 86

THE WORKS AT KARNAK IN JANUARY, 1906 92

MONTOUHOTPOU V 94

HEAD OF A COLOSSUS OF SANOUOSRÎT 94

SANOUOSRÎT AND THE GOD PHTAH 94

BUST OF THOUTMÔSIS III 96

ISIS, MOTHER OF THOUTMÔSIS III 96

SANMAOUT AND THE PRINCESS NAFÊROURIYA 98

STATUETTE IN PETRIFIED WOOD 100

THEBAN KHONSOU 100

STATUE OF TOUTÂNOUKHAMANOU 100

THE SO-CALLED TAIA 100

RAMSES II 100

RAMSES IV LEADING A LIBYAN CAPTIVE 100

THE PRIEST WITH THE MONKEY 102

OSORKON II OFFERING A BOAT TO THE GOD AMON 104

QUEEN ANKHNASNOFIRIABRÊ 104

MANTIMEHÊ 104

NSIPHTAH, SON OF MANTIMEHÊ 104

HEAD (SAÏTE PERIOD) 104

THE COW OF DEÎR-EL-BAHARÎ IN HER CHAPEL 104

AMENÔTHES II AND THE COW HATHOR 106

THE COW HATHOR 108

AN UNKNOWN FIGURE AND THE COW HATHOR 112

PETESOMTOUS AND THE COW HATHOR 114

PSAMMETICHUS AND THE COW HATHOR 116

PSAMMETICHUS AND THE COW HATHOR 118

AMENÔPHIS IV 120

KING KHOUNIATONOU 126

KING KHOUNIATONOU 128

KING KHOUNIATONOU 130

QUEEN TÎYI (FULL FACE) 130

QUEEN TÎYI (PROFILE) 130

PRINCESS OF THE FAMILY OF TÎYI (PROFILE) 132

PRINCESS OF THE FAMILY OF TÎYI (FULL FACE) 132

KING KHOUNIATONOU 132

KING KHOUNIATONOU 134

HEAD OF THE PHARAOH HARMHABI 136

THE HALF-BURIED COLOSSUS OF RAMSES II 140

THE COLOSSUS OF RAMSES II EMERGING FROM THE EARTH 140

EGYPTIAN JEWELLERY OF THE XIXTH DYNASTY 146

GOLD PECTORAL INLAID WITH ENAMEL 146

PECTORAL OF RAMSES II 148

PECTORAL IN SHAPE OF A HAWK WITH A RAM’S HEAD 148

SILVER BRACELETS AND EARRINGS 156

GOLD EARRING FROM THE TREASURE OF ZAGAZIG 156

ONE OF RAMSES II’S BRACELETS (OPEN) 158

ONE OF RAMSES II’s BRACELETS (CLOSED) 158

GOLD CUP OF QUEEN TAOUASRÎT 160

SMALLER OF THE TWO GOLD VASES (FRONT VIEW) 160

SMALLER OF THE TWO GOLD VASES (BACK VIEW) 162

MASS OF SILVER VASES SOLDERED TOGETHER BY OXIDE 162

LARGER OF THE TWO GOLD VASES (FRONT VIEW) 164

LARGER OF THE TWO GOLD VASES (BACK VIEW) 164

THE VASE WITH THE KID 164

ONE OF THE SILVER PATERÆ OF ZAGAZIG (SIDE VIEW) 166

SILVER STRAINER 166

THE BOTTOM OF ONE OF THE ZAGAZIG SILVER PATERÆ 168

STATUETTES IN WOOD 172

THE MOND STATUETTE (FRONT VIEW) 178

THE MOND STATUETTE (PROFILE) 180

THE LADY TOUÎ, STATUETTE IN WOOD 184

STATUETTE IN WOOD 186

PERFUME LADLE 190

PERFUME LADLE 192

PERFUME LADLE 194

GREEN BASALT STATUETTES OF THE SAÏTE PERIOD 196

NECKLACE AMULET 202

VULTURE AMULET 202

GOLD PALM-TREE 202

BOAT OF SOKARIS 202

RAM’S HEAD 202

GOLD HAWK 202

HAWK WITH HUMAN HEAD 202

HAWK WITH RAM’S HEAD 202

VULTURE 202

ISIS WITH THE CHILD 202

CROUCHING NEÎTH 202

MONKEYS WORSHIPPING THE EMBLEM OF OSIRIS 204

VULTURE WITH EXTENDED WINGS 204

HAWK WITH EXTENDED WINGS 204

THE SOUL (FRONT VIEW) 204

THE SOUL (BACK VIEW) 204

BRONZE CAT OF THE SAÏTE PERIOD 208

BRONZE CAT 214

EGYPTIAN ART

EGYPTIAN STATUARY AND ITS SCHOOLS[1]

I opened F.W. von Bissing’s work[2] with a certain feeling of melancholy, for it was a thing that I had hoped to do myself. Ebers had suggested to Bruckmann, the publisher, that he should entrust the task to me, and I was on the point of arranging with him when the preparations for an Orientalist Congress to meet at Paris in 1897 deprived me of the leisure left me by my lectures and the printing of my “History,” and I was forced to give up the project. Herr von Bissing, who was less occupied then than I was, consented to hazard the adventure, and no one could have been better equipped than he was to carry it through. The seeking of materials, the execution of typographical _clichés_, the composition of the text and its careful setting forth exacted eight years of travelling and continuous labour. Bissing issued the first part at the end of 1905, and five other parts have quickly followed, forming almost the half of the work, seventy-two plates folio, and the portions of the explanatory text belonging to the plates.

The title is not, at least as yet, exactly accurate. Egyptian sculpture includes, in fact, besides statues and groups in alto-relievo, bas-reliefs often of very large dimensions which adorn the tombs or the walls of temples. Now Bissing has only admitted statues and groups to the honours of publication: the few specimens of the bas-reliefs that he gives are not taken from the ruins themselves, but have been selected from pieces in the museums, stelæ, or fragments of ruined buildings. It is then the monuments of Egyptian statuary that he presents to us rather than those of Egyptian sculpture as a whole.

Having made that statement and thus defined the extent of the field of action, it must be frankly admitted that he has always made a happy selection of pieces to be reproduced. Doubtless we may regret the absence of some famous pieces, such as the Crouching Scribe of the Louvre or the Cow of Deîr el-Baharî. The fault is not his, and perhaps he will succeed in overcoming the obstacles which forced him to deprive us of them. The omissions, at any rate, are not numerous. When the list printed on the covers of the first part is exhausted, amateurs and experts will have at their disposal nearly everything required to follow the evolution of Egyptian statuary from its earliest beginnings to the advent of Christianity. The schools of the Greek and Roman epochs, unjustly contemned by archæologists who have written on these subjects, are not wanting, and for the first time the ordinary reader can decide for himself if all the artists of the decadence equally deserve contempt or oblivion. Bissing has attempted a complete picture, not a sketch restricted to the principal events in art between the IVth Dynasty and the XXXth. No serious attempt of the kind had before been made, and on many points he had to open out the roads he traversed. For the moment he has stopped at the beginning of the Saïte period; thus we have as yet no means of judging if the plan he has imposed on himself is carried out to the end with a rigour and firmness everywhere equal: but a rapid examination of the parts that have appeared will show that it has been executed with fullness and fidelity.

Four plates are devoted to Archaic Egypt: the two first are facsimiles of the bas-reliefs that decorate the stele of the Horus Qa-âou, and the so-called _palette_ of the king we designate Nâr-mer, since we have not deciphered his name. It is in truth very little, but the excavations have rendered such poor accounts of those distant ages that it is almost all that could be given of them; it might, however, have been worth while to add the statuettes of the Pharaoh Khâsakhmouî. Notwithstanding the omission, the objects that appear give a sufficient idea of the degree of skill attained by the sculptors of those days. The stele of Qa-âou does not, of course, equal that of the _King-Serpent_[3] which is in the Louvre; it is, however, of a fairly good style, and the hawk of Horus is nearer to the real animal than those of the protocol were later. Similarly the scenes engraved on the _palette_ of Nâr-mer testify to an indisputable virtuosity in the manner of attacking the stone. The drawing of the persons is less schematic and their bearing freer than in the compositions of classical art, but it is evident that the craftsman had as yet no very clear idea of the way in which to compose a picture and group its elements. Let us confess, nevertheless, that the bas-reliefs are far superior to the statues yet known. We possess about half a dozen of them scattered over the world. Bissing studied one to the exclusion of the others, the one in the Naples Museum, and it may be thought to be sufficient if only æsthetic impressions are desired, for nothing could be rougher or more awkward. The head and face might perhaps pass, but the rest is ill-proportioned, the neck is too short, the shoulders and chest are massive, the legs lack slenderness under a heavy petticoat, the feet and hands are enormous. The defects cannot be ascribed to the hardness of the material, for the Scribe of the Cairo Museum, which is in limestone, displays them as flagrantly as the good people in granite at Naples, Munich, or Leyden. I must not therefore conclude, however, that they are constant faults with the Thinites: the statuettes of Khâsakhmouî are of a less heavy workmanship and more nearly approach that of later studios. That the ruins have rendered only a few that possess worth does not prove that there may not have been excellent ones: we must have patience and wait till some happy chance belies the mediocrity.