Egyptian Art (Kegan Paul Library of Ancient Egypt) 071030899X, 9780710308993

Citation preview

E g y p t ia n A

rt

The leading expert on Egyptian art, Gaston Maspero writes here with authentic­ ity and style on a very significant aspect of ancient Egypt. Written for the expert and the interetested generalist, the author is keen to convey to people's notice significant pieces of Egyptian art; some in museums and some as they emerged from the ground.

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E G Y P T I A N ART G asto n M a sper o

O Routledge Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published in 2004 by Kegan Paul International Ltd This edition published in 2013 by Roudedge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0 X 1 4 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Roudedge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© Kegan Paul, 2004

All Rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electric, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying or recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN: 0-7103-0899-X British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Maspero, G . (Gaston), 1846-1916 Egyptian art. - (Library of ancient Egypt) 1.Art, Egyptian 2.Art, Ancient - Egypt I.Title 709.3’ 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Applied for.

PREFATORY NOTE 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 PArt 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 delArt Anden 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 exist­ ence, 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 T he

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Prefatory Note 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 inter­ pretation of the characteristic manifestations of Egyptian art, were reduced to register them without always under­ standing 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 6

Prefatory Note 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 Mends 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.

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CONTENTS PAGE

P r e fato ry N ote

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5

I E

g y p t ia n

Statu ary

and

S chools

it s

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. 1 7

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. 3 6

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. 4 9

II S o m e P o r t r a it s

op

M y c e r in u s

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III A S c r ib e ’ s H

ead

of th e

IY

th

V

or

th

D

ynasty

IV Skhem ka,

h is

W

if e

and

S on :

G roup

a

found

M

at

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e m p h is

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Y T h e C r o u c h in g S c r ib e : V t h

D ynasty

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. 7 4

YI T he N ew

S c r ib e

th e

of

G iz e h

M u seu m

V II T h e K n e e l in g S c r ib e : V t h D

yn asty

V III P

ehournow ri

M

e m p h is

:

Statu ette .

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in

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p a in t e d

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. 9

L

im e s t o n e

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.

found

at

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Contents IX PAGE

T he D

wabf

K hnoum hotpou : V th

V I th D ynasty

or

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85

X T h e “ F a v is s a ”

op

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ture

K abnak, .

and

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the

T h e b a n School

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.

Sculp­

op

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90

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106

XI T he Cow

op

D e Ir - e l - B a h a r i

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XII T he Statuette

op

A m e n o p h is

IV .

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XIII F o u r C a n o p ic

H

eads

pound

in

the

V alley

op

the

K in g s

............................................................................

at

.....126

XIV A H

ead

op th e

P habaoh

H

.

abm habi

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135

.

XV T he Colossus

op

R am ses

II

at

B e d r e c h e in

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140

XVI E g y p t ia n J e w e l l e r y

in

L ouvre

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145

XVII T he T beasube

of

Z a g a z ig

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154

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172

XVIII T hbee Statuettes

in

W

ood

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Contents XIX PAGE

A F ragm ent

a T heban S t a tu e tte

of

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178

XX T he

L ady

T oui

S c u lp tu r e

in

of

W

L ouvre

the

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ood

E

and

.

I n d u s t r ia l

g y p t ia n

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183

XXI Som e P e r fu m e L a d le s o f t h e

X Y I I I th D y n a s t y

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190

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195

XXII S om e G re e n B

asalt

Statu ettes

of

the

S a it e

P

e r io d

XXIII A F in d

of

S a ite J e w e ls a t

S aqqarah

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.

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201

XXIY A

B ronze E

g y p t ia n

Cat

b e l o n g in g

to

M. B

arrere

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208

XXV A F in d

I ndex

of

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C a t s in E g y p t

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11

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214

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ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE

THE MYCERINUS OP MIT-RAHINEH

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MYCERINUS ( r e i s n e r HEAD)

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MYCERINUS, HATHOR, AND THE NOME OXYRRHINCHUS

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MYCERINUS, HATHOR, AND THE NOME CYNOPOLITE

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MYCERINUS AND HIS WIFE

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MYCERINUS, HATHOR, AND THE NOME OF THE SISTRUM

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MYCERINUS AND HIS WIFE (DETAIL)

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MYCERINUS AND HIS WIFE (DETAIL)

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ALABASTER STATUE OF MYCERINUS

SCRIBE’ S H EAD.

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SKHEMKA WITH HIS WIFE AND SON CROUCHING SCRIBE

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THE NEW SCRIBE OF THE GIZEH MUSEUM

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STATUE OF RANOFIR

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KNEELING SCRIBE

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PEHOURNOWRI .

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THE WORKS AT KARNAK IN JANUARY,

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MONTOUHOTPOU V

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HEAD OF A COLOSSUS OF SANOUOSRiT .

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s a n o u o s r It

THE DWARF KHNOUMHOTPOU

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BUST OF THOUTMOSIS III

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phtah

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ISIS, MOTHER OF THOUTMOSIS III

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Illustrations FACING PAGE

SANMAOUT AND THE PRINCESS NAFEROURfYA . STATUETTE IN PETRIFIED WOOD THEBAN KHONSOU

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RAMSES II

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RAMSES IV LEADING A LIBYAN CAPTIVE

MANTIMEHE

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NSIPHTAH, SON OF MANTIMEHE HEAD (SAITE PERIOD)

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THE COW OF DEIR-EL-BAHARI IN HER CHAPEL

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OSORKON H OFFERING A BOAT TO THE GOD AMON QUEEN ANKHNASNOFIRIABRE

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THE PRIEST WITH THE MONKEY

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STATUE OF TOUTANOUKHAMANOU THE SO-CALLED TAIA

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AMENdTHES II AND THE COW HATHOR

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AMENOTHES II AND THE COW HATHOR

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THE COW HATHOR

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AN UNKNOWN FIGURE AND THE COW HATHOR PETESOMTOUS AND THE COW HATHOR .

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PSAMMETICHUS AND THE COW HATHOR

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PSAMMETICHUS AND THE COW HATHOR

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AMENOPHIS IV .

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KING KHOUNIATONOU

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KING KHOUNIATONOU

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KING KHOUNIATONOU

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KING KHOUNIATONOU

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KING KHOUNIATONOU

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QUEEN TIYI (FULL FACE)

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130

Illustrations PACING PAGE

QUEEN TIYI (PROFILE) .

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PRINCESS OF THE FAMILY OF TIYI (PROFILE)

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PRINCESS OF THE FAMILY OF TIYI (FULL FACE)

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KING KHOUNIATONOU

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KING KHOUNIATONOU

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THE COLOSSUS OF RAMSES II EMERGING FROM THE EARTH

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EGYPTIAN JEWELLERY OF THE XIXTH DYNASTY

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GOLD PECTORAL INLAID WITH ENAMEL

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PECTORAL OF RAMSES II

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

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SILVER BRACELETS AND EARRINGS

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HEAD OF THE PHARAOH HARMHABI

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THE HALF-BURIED COLOSSUS OF RAMSES II

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