EGYPTIAN ART.
‘Anything capable of uniting many souls--is _sacred_,’ says Goethe.
The sacredness of religious tenets or monumental buildings is at once
explained by this. To unite humanity into one great brotherhood was
first attempted by the Babylonians with their huge tower of Belus,
Baal, or Babel. Men for the first time left patriarchal particularism,
and tried to build a beacon reaching up to the stars, calling humanity
together to one spot, by a work produced by their united labour as a
visible sign of their union. This first attempt at a really monumental
building was made in the plains of the Euphrates. Whilst the people
of Asia still struggled to settle down, and changed their habitations
and with them their forms of art, we see monuments emerge from the dim
past, which reflect man for the first time in his grandeur as wielder
of matter.
The sphinx in its incomprehensible, mysterious form, half brute, half
human being, may be looked upon as the very emblem of Egyptian art.
It is written in one of the Hermetic books, ‘O Egypt, fables alone will
be thy future history, wholly incredible to later generations, and
nought but the letter of thy stone-engraved monuments will survive.’
Our knowledge of Egypt is scarcely half a century old. It originated
in a black basalt stone, the so-called Rosetta-stone, deposited, at
the beginning of the century, in the British Museum. Approached by Dr.
Young, of Cambridge, with the wand of investigation, this stone poured
forth a little spring, which has now swollen into a mighty river,
carrying off with irresistible force all those little souls who, on
their small boats of prejudice, with tiny chronological ladles, try
to stop the sweeping power of historical truth. We know something
at least of Egypt; we have _monumental_ evidence, which surpasses
all _written documents_, which may be voluntarily or involuntarily
falsified. Egyptologists may be divided into two parties:--the _long_
and the _short_ chronologists. The _short_ chronologists, in the
face of our advanced knowledge of geology, of the vast accumulation
of pre-historic relics, consisting of flint instruments, pottery,
weavings, and architectural remains (lake and pile-dwellings), deserve
no consideration. They follow the chronological dislocation of Rabbi
_Hillel_, of the first half of the fourth century A.D., with childish
ignorance. This view is the most charitable, as otherwise we should be
driven to accuse them of interested knavery. After the exertions of a
Champollion-Figeac, Böckh, Barucchi, Bunsen, Brugsch, Henry, Lesueur,
Lepsius, Hincks, Kenrick, Uhleman, &c.--who all belong to the _long_
chronologists, to turn to the short chronology is impossible.
_Lepsius_ succeeded in tracing Egyptian history, king by king, event
by event, to Alexander the Great, and hence through the XXXIst,
XXXth, XXIXth, XXVIIIth, XXVIIth, XXVIth, XXVth, XXIVth, and XXIIIrd
consecutive Egyptian dynasties, back to Sheshonk Shishak, founder of
the XXIInd dynasty, who conquered Jerusalem ‘in the Vth year of King
Rehoboam,’ as is hieroglyphically recorded in Karnac. This furnishes
us with a perfect synchronism between Egyptian and Hebrew history up
to 971-3 B.C. From this point we have innumerable Egyptian tablets,
papyri, and genealogical lists, carrying us upward through the XXIst,
XXth, XIXth, and XVIIIth dynasties to Ramses I. (Ramesu) 15th-16th
century B.C. Here we have a short period of anarchy, represented in
the _Disk heresy_, and find sundry royal claimants, at the head of
whom stands Atenra-Bakhan, or Bexen-aten, called by Lepsius ‘Amenophis
IV.’ From the reign of his father Amenophis III. every king is known,
by means of hieroglyphical inscriptions on stone and papyri, back to
the beginning of the XVIIth Theban dynasty, in the reign of AAHMES I.
(Amosis), about 1671 B.C. Here again we have the mysterious period
of the _Hyksos_ or Shepherd kings, who, according to Manetho, ruled
511 years. Three dynasties may be put down for this period--the
XVIth, XVth, and XIVth. But we again step into the broad daylight
of monumental facts when we reach the XIIIth dynasty, and with it
the ‘Old Empire’ in the land of KHAM, Ham, the venerable _Chemnus_,
the Sebakhetps and Hepherhetps of the XIIIth dynasty; whilst the
glories of the XIIth blaze forth effulgently, thanks to the critical
investigations of the _Turin Papyrus_ by the immortal Lepsius.
The XIIth dynasty ends about 2124 B.C.
Though little is known of the XIth, Xth, IXth, VIIIth, and VIIth
dynasties, the VIth and Vth dynasties stand solid as rocks on the
_Turin_ papyrus, and are thoroughly known in consequence of the
recovery of all the kings, but one, from the tombs opened at Memphis.
The remains of the IVth dynasty surpass belief; those who doubt can
refer to the folio plates, the ‘Denkmäler,’ by Lepsius, copies of which
are in nearly all our libraries.
Of the IIIrd, IInd, and Ist dynasties we have no monuments, but
even this unknown age must have been preceded by a long period of
development, till at last MENES is set down as the first Pharaoh of
Egypt about 3892 B.C. according to Lepsius, or 5702 B.C. according
to Böckh; 5613 B.C. according to Unger; Brugsch puts him 4455 B.C.;
Lauth 4157 B.C., and Bunsen 3623 B.C. But before Menes constructed
Memphis; Teni, This, or Thinis, was already a once flourishing and
then decaying town. Menes erected at Memphis a green sanctuary,
ornamented with the figures of men and animals. Memphis (Men-ofer)
means ‘the good station.’ The king in the times of Menes had already
several titles. He was called the great house--_Per-āo_, Pharaoh; as
we speak of the ‘sublime Porte.’ The king was to his subjects _nuter_
(divine), or _neb_ (master). He was addressed by the title of _hon-f_,
corresponding to our ‘Your Majesty’; or only by _on_, which would be
our ‘Sire.’ The Egyptians under Menes had already rewards in the form
of decorations, in _nub_, the golden collar, corresponding to our
‘order of the garter.’ The court consisted of nobles and attendants.
The nobles were _Sez_, and had to distinguish themselves by wisdom and
learning. The house of the king’s children was under a governor, who
was responsible for their health and education. Those belonging to the
highest classes had the title of _erpa_, illustrious, _ha_, chief, or
_set_, your excellency. The affairs of the court were entrusted to
intendants, the _hir-sesta_, the secretary and numerous scribes. The
king 3000 or 5000 years B.C. had a quartermaster-general; a director
of vocal music; a director of amusements; a chief of the chamber of
the robes; a chief hair-dresser; a master of trimming the nails of
H.M., and a superintendent of the baths. Inferior court-officials
were intrusted with the supervision of the granaries, the fruit and
oil-chambers; there were royal purveyors of meat, royal bakers, and
equerries. Architects, who were held in the very highest honour,
because they could marry the daughters of the king, had to inspect the
public works. Judges administered the law, already divided into a civil
and criminal section. The title _hir-sesta_ meant ‘he who is above a
secret,’ There was a hir-sesta of heaven (the royal astronomer), one
of ‘secret words,’ a kind of private secretary, who had to compose
important political or social essays; another of grammar. The scribes
again were divided into different classes. They had to transmit orders
from their superiors; to register dry facts; to keep accounts. The very
titles of these court-officials are enough to convince us that at the
time of Menes, Egypt must have already possessed a highly-complicated
and civilised State-organisation.
The successor of Menes, Atos or Akotus, is recorded to have written
‘books on Anatomy,’ and constructed the royal palace of Memphis.
This was the state of Egypt under _Menes_. His name suggests a more
than merely accidental analogy with _Manû_, _Minos_, or _Man_, and
has reference to the time when _man_ became conscious of law, and
assembled into a social bondship. The Egyptians, before a Menes could
have ruled over them, must have gone through the savage and nomadic,
or pastoral stages, and have passed from the palæolithic, neolithic,
and bronze ages of art into that of iron. When did they invent their
_hieroglyphs_, which must first have been _ideographic_ before they
became _phonetic_? From the first-recorded meeting between the
Hebrews, then still nomads, and the Egyptians, it appears that the
latter already then formed a well-organised State-body. As regards
their monuments, we see them enter the mythical age with their grand
stone-constructions, their pyramids, colosses, temples, palaces,
sphinxes, catacombs and obelisks, as a developed artistic nation. All
these stupendous works are constructed for eternity; there is nothing
nomadic in them, though this element here and there shows itself in
colossal petrifactions. Wood-constructions and textile fabrics form
the bases of their ornamentation, but this influence must have taken
effect in antediluvian, nay, even pre-Adamitic, times, when humanity
everywhere else was sunk in a state of unconscious inactivity. The
mound, constructed with geometrical accuracy as a huge pyramid, must
have had an origin somewhere. The construction itself has a purpose.
The crystal form surrounds an inner kernel, around which the stone
shell is laid; it not only serves to point upwards, but also downwards.
Thus mortality and immortality are already blended into one in these
hoary monuments.
To proclaim the grandeur of the silent inhabitant, once a mighty ruler,
to the four quarters of the globe, was the purpose of these pyramids.
Natural caves must have suggested their tombs and catacombs. The sacred
Nile with its majestic flow is reflected in the endless horizontal
lines of their temples. The rising peaks of mountains seem to have
suggested their huge pylons. The rays of the sun were transformed by
them into stones, recording, as gigantic obelisks, the deeds of their
kings. When did these obelisks shake off the rough shape of mere
huge monoliths, placed in plains to commemorate some grand event?
To point upwards in isolated forms was the secret tendency of these
half-sculptured, half-architectural marvels. Trees and forests were
turned by the Egyptian artists into hypostyle halls, with innumerable
columns, spreading a mysterious gloom about them.
The Chinese were practical; the Trans-Himâlâyans metaphysical; the
Cis-Himâlâyans agricultural, commercial and warlike; and the Egyptians
pre-eminently architectural and _monumental_.
Their whole historical life may be divided into the following
art-periods.
_(a)_ The Ante-monumental.
_(b)_ The Pyramidal.
_(c)_ The Hieratic.
_(d)_ The Ptolemaic.
A. These four epochs of art-development resemble layers in the
earth’s crust. Whilst with other nations the remnants of art are mere
skeletons, colourless frames of an extinct social organism, with the
Egyptians we have art in all its different phases, with the dried flesh
and the scarcely-faded colours, embalmed like a mummy. Life and death
were with them so closely allied, that we may say, their life was a
continual death, and their death was everlasting life.
The spiritual conceptions of the Egyptians, which might have served
to enable us to understand their art thoroughly, were lost with their
sacred books, of which, with one exception, we have merely the titles.
Plato considered them 10,000 years old in his time. They consisted of:--
1. The _two_ books of the Chanter--like the Vedas and the Zend-Avesta
containing hymns in honour of the gods, and a code of laws like those
of Manû.
2. The _four_ astronomical books of the Horoskopus; treating of fixed
stars, and of solar and lunar conjunctions, making the sun the centre,
round which we revolve.
3. The _ten_ books of the Hierogrammatist, or the Sacred Scribe,
treating of the art of writing, which was: hieroglyphic (sacred),
hieratic (a kind of hieroglyphic tachygraphy--short-hand writing, used
by priests only), and enchorial or demotic, used by the people. These
books contained, further, the elements of cosmography and geography;
tablets, on which the high-roads of the earth were marked; astronomical
records, mentioning, according to Diogenes Laertius, 373 solar and
832 lunar eclipses, referring thus to a period of 48,863 years; a
chorography of Egypt, and the delineation of the course of the sacred
Nile; an inventory of each temple, of the landed property of the
priests, and a treatise on weights and measures.
4. The _ten_ ceremonial books of the Stolists, which were entirely
devoted to religious worship, containing the ordinances as to ‘_the
first-fruits, and the sacrificial stamp, sacrifices, prayers,
processions_,’ and the like. No human sacrifices were offered up from
at least 3000 years B.C.
5. The _ten_ books of the prophets, consisting of thirty-six sections,
called the hieratic writings, with which the prophets, the first
order of the priests, were entrusted. A description of the deities,
regulations for the education of the priests, and general laws formed
their contents.
The oldest books of law, were attributed to _Hermes_ (Toth), implying,
that the first germ of an hierarchical organisation of society sprung
from the sacred songs, and that law was entirely based upon the
religious conceptions of the secret forces of nature by which man
had been impressed. Like the Code of Manû, which took its origin in
the Vedas, or the Laws of Zoroaster based on the Zend-Avesta, or the
injunctions of Confucius founded on the holy records and songs of
by-gone ages, the Egyptian laws took their origin in the first poetical
feelings of awakened humanity, excited by the mysteries of nature under
the rule of an incomprehensible first cause.
6. The _six_ books of the Dead. The only books still extant, written
in hieroglyphs, and divided by Lepsius into 165 sections. The first
fifteen chapters form a distinct and connected whole, with the
superscription: ‘Here begin the Sections of the glorification in the
Light of Osiris.’
It concludes with a book entitled ‘The Book of Deliverance in the Hall
of the _twofold_ Justice (Reward and Punishment), and the Book of
Redemption.’
With such a deep and mystic literature, encompassing the gods, nature,
and man, in life and death, it is no wonder that a mystic and symbolic
art should have succeeded in Egypt.
Their mythology was not less profound than that of the
Trans-Himâlâyans; there was more of symmetry, at least architectural
symmetry, in their conceptions and representations than in those of the
Brahmans, though Egyptian priests and Brahmans have apparently taken
their conceptions from one and the same source. The Egyptian had eight
gods of the first order, twelve gods of the second, and seven gods of
the third order, pointing by these very numbers to an astronomical
basis, thus:--
1. The cosmical forces of creative nature.
2. The twelve months of the year.
3. The seven days of the week.
Astronomy is the first powerful divisor of time and the supreme lord
of agriculture. Only when the ‘Sacred Nile’ deposited its fructifying
alluvium on the barren limestone of the valleys, formed by the Libyan
and Arabian mountain ranges, man could exist and develop in that
region. The regular inundation appeared to have taken place under the
influence of the sun, moon, and stars. The sun (Osiris) was, therefore,
believed to call forth the Nile (Isis) from regions _unknown down to
our own days_, and sun and water became, as with the Indians (_Indra
and Agni_), the first visible, creative forces of nature.
The eight gods of the first order were:--
I. AMN (Brahm), Am-Ra, Ammon, the Greek Zeus (the son of Kronos and
Rhea), the Roman Jupiter; the ‘Concealed God,’ the ‘Lord of Heaven,’
the ‘Lord of Thrones’; the first creative, incomprehensible, invisible
force of the universe. The Brahmă of the Indians, the Zeruane-Akerene
of the Persians.
II. KHEM (Kama), the generative God of Nature, Brahmā. He was
worshipped, under the _second Thinite Dynasty_, under the symbol of the
goat. The primitive, _active_, or male element of nature.
III. MUT (μαῖα {maîa}, matter, Demeter, Leto, Latona, Bhavani), the
primitive, _passive_, or female element of nature.
IV. NUM (Nu, Kneph, ChNUbis, the Indian VischNU, Noah, Neptun).
In Arabic _nef_ means to breathe. The breath of the universe when
condensed--‘water;’ the creative spirit, the Ἀγαθοδαίμων [Greek:
Agathodaimôn]; the πνεῦμα {pneûma}(the wind, the air) of the Greeks.
V. SETI (in Koptic Sate), the ray, the arrow; at a later period
the frog-headed goddess, the consort of Kneph; the sun-beam, the
fructifying heat in union with water (cosmical moisture), producing the
inner force of creation.
VI. PHTAH (Ptah, Phthah, S’iva, Vulcan), the creator of the world,
which sprang from the mouth of Kneph, meaning at his bidding. His
symbol became at a later period the scarabæus. The more numerous this
animal was in the Nile valley after the subsidence of the inundation,
the more fruitful was the year. Phtah was in reality telluric heat.
VII. NET (Neith, Athene, Pallas, Minerva, Doorga), the bright goddess
of intellectual power, wisdom, knowledge, virtue, passionless
happiness. Isis was her substitute. Her temple at Saïs had no roof, but
was vaulted over by the sunny or starry canopy of heaven, and bore the
mysterious inscription: ‘I am all that was, and is, and is to be; no
mortal has lifted up my veil, and the fruit I bore is Helios.’ Past,
present, and future, are mysteriously entwined in the conception of
intellect, pervading and ruling the universe.
VIII. RA (Helios, Apollo, Adonis, Adonaïs, the Lord, Baal, Mithras,
Moloch, Teotl, Toth, Hermes, Odin, Thor, Atys, Janus, Kekrops,
Endymion, &c.), the sun, the reflected light (with the Cabalists
_Hachoser_, in opposition to the expanding light, _Hajashor_).
The representations of these divinities were not monstrous, like
those of the Indians; the human form predominates, but the _symbolic_
is still the most important element. The outward form has an inward,
secret meaning. ‘Meaning’ and ‘meant’ are still in wild conflict. The
sublime forces of the deity were to be hewn in stone, or given in
outlines, or painted; the result was a grotesque product of art, and as
such a complete failure.
The twelve gods of the second order were the children of four of the
gods of the first order.
I. AMN had only one son, Khunsu (Chous, Chaos, the prototype of
Herkules).
II. KNEPH had also only one son, Teth (Toth, Thoth, Hermes), who taught
men to write and to read.
III. PHTAH had two children, Atumu (Atum, Atmu), and Pecht, the
cat-headed goddess of Bubastis (the Greek Artemis or Diana).
IV. RA had eight children, Hat-her (Athyr, Athor, Aphrodite); Mau
(Jao); Ma (Truth); Tefun (the lion-headed goddess); Muntu (Mant); Sebak
(Sebek), the crocodile-headed god; Seb (Kronos), and Nutpe (Rhea).
The seven gods of the third order, emanations from those of the second,
as these were emanations from those of the first, were:--
1. Set, Nubi, or Typhon, celebrated for his struggle with Horus, the
son of Osiris, in the infernal regions. (See what is said of Krishna,
p. 70.)
2. Hesiri, Osiris (also the solar year), HSR.
3. Hes or Isis, HS, the Nile, the moon (the lunar year).
4. Nebt-hi or Nephthys, the sister of Isis; sister and wife of Typhon.
5. Her-Her (Aroëris, Arueris).
6. Her (Horus, the child of Osiris and Isis, Harpokrates), who, with
Isis and Osiris, formed the great, incomprehensible, mystic trinity of
the Egyptians, of which we have the following record:--
OSIRIS was the father, husband, brother, and son of ISIS.
ISIS was the mother, wife, sister, and daughter of OSIRIS.
HORUS was the brother and son of Osiris and Isis, and was OSIRIS
himself.
7. Anubis (Anupo) the dog-star.
Who does not understand at once that, out of these half-astronomical,
half-cosmogonical conceptions, a religion and art full of mysticism,
blending into one _Fetishism_, _Astrology_, and _Anthropomorphism_,
must have grown? Only through a careful study of Egyptian mythology are
we enabled to comprehend that gigantic power which urged the people to
construct those temples and palaces, those labyrinths and catacombs,
as mystic in themselves, as the hidden powers of nature. The masses in
Egypt were kept in a degraded state of passive obedience; they were
overawed by metaphysical subtleties, and by huge stone monsters, which
filled them with horror, and made them subservient to the dictates of
a gloomy priesthood. Religion and art, both supported by a vast store
of natural science, were the exclusive property of the priests, of
whom the Pharaoh was the merely _tolerated_ head, a kind of stone idol
in the flesh. Egyptian art was an echo of priestly caprices, which,
wrapt in symbolism, had a powerful hold on the untutored minds of the
people. Careful investigations have proved that these priests were of a
different race to the aborigines; their mythological analogies point to
immigrated Brahmans, who brought some religious notions with them from
the Ganges, and transferred them to the Nile.
Egyptian art reflects in every form the gorgeous influences of
religion. The whole life of every Egyptian was placed, in seven phases,
under the protection of seven divinities. The _first_ period of man’s
life was under the influence of _Isis_, the moon (Luna, Selene). The
_second_ was devoted to _Hermes_; during this period man had to learn
to read and to write, to play the harp, to dance, to develop the
body in the gymnasium, and to make himself well versed in knowledge
according to his station in life; but the only station that granted
man an insight into knowledge was that of the _priest_. During the
_third_ period man was under the care of _Hat-her_ (Athyr), or Venus.
Love was to rule the youth; the world was to appear to him in the
rosy hue of a mystic foam of incomprehensible longing. The _fourth_
period was under the dominion of _Ra_ (Helios); when love had ceased
to disturb the mind, and to fill this world with illusions, the light
of truth and earnest activity was to ripen man, and to prepare him for
the _fifth_ period, under the protection of _Man_ or Mars, the God of
War; man was to learn either to conquer others, or to conquer his own
passions, and to work in the State as a useful member. Few only reached
the _sixth_ period, guided by _Amn_, the supreme representative of
abstract wisdom; during this period man was admitted to act as a judge,
to sit at the board of a hierarchical council, or to teach priests
as high-priest. At last man became, during the _seventh_ period,
vapour--breath--air--under the dominion of _Num_ (Kneph), and was
detached from reality; if good, transferred into a state of ideality;
if not, doomed to begin life anew as a loathsome animal, till he atoned
for his evil deeds, and, purified, reached the bright abode of Osiris.
B. The _pyramidal period_, the most ancient of Egyptian art, is the
outgrowth of these mystic religious conceptions. Nature was to be
reproduced, and surpassed in her sublime grandeur. The mountain was
brought into a geometrical shape.
The three principal pyramids were built during the reign of the fourth
dynasty, 3426 B.C.-3220 B.C.; the first, by Shufu (Cheops), was, in
extent, 13 acres 1 rood and 22 perches, more than twice the area of St.
Peter’s at Rome. The original quantity of masonry was 89,028,000 cubic
feet. Total height 480 feet; 16 feet higher than St. Peter’s, and 120
feet higher than St. Paul’s (London); 360,000 human beings worked at it
for twenty years. The stones are from 9 to 12 feet in length, and 6½
to 8 feet in breadth. The second pyramid was smaller, built by Shafra
(Chephren), only 454 feet high; and the third by Menkare (Mykerinus),
218 feet high. The mode of fitting the polished stones together is a
perfect master-piece of architectural construction.
Osiris was to be worshipped in all halls of festival, in all creation,
in all places. Temples were erected in honour of the gods, which were
approached through avenues of sphinxes. These sphinxes were of six
different kinds. 1. The pure lion (symbol of Amn). 2. The lion with
the ram’s head (Krio-sphinx--symbol of Khem or Amn). 3. The lion with
hawk’s head (symbol of Ra). 4. The lion with a male human head (the
symbol of Osiris or Horus). 5. The lion with a female human head (the
symbol of Mut or Isis). 6. The lion’s half-body and legs, with female
human head and arms, as in the reliefs of Karnack, and on the Campesian
obelisk (probably the symbol of Net).
The tombs were, more or less deeply, hewn into rocks. They generally
begin with a small sanctuary, from which an inclined passage leads
down into the sepulchral chamber. The decoration is an imitation of
wooden trellis-work in very gay colours. The threshold also distinctly
bears the traces of a primitive wood construction; a round, trunk-like
beam generally unites the two door-posts, and even the ceilings of the
apartments are repeatedly made in imitation of wooden boards fastened
together. The pillars are square, and united either by a rectangular
architrave or by circular beams.
The temples point, by their forms, to a civilisation which took its
course from south to north. This bears out the theory that Meroe was
once the seat of a colony of priests, who spread religion, and with
it science and art, from Upper into Lower Egypt. Thebes appears to
have been the most ancient seat of the Egyptian Pharaohs, one of the
first of whom was perhaps Osiris, though he has been placed amongst
the gods, and was said to have been, like Krishna, an incarnation of
the Supreme Being, who revealed himself in love and kindness, and was
to put an end to the dominion of Typhon, the Eternal Evil. Might not
this myth conceal some historical fact--the advent of a wise hero, who
conquers a wild and reckless tyrant? For Osiris had to go through all
the sufferings of humanity, and even to suffer death, so as to become
the saviour, the deliverer of his people; and then only was he able
to turn the earth into a powerful kingdom. By _Earth_, we may assume,
Upper Egypt was meant, where the god-man Osiris presided, who, in spite
of his having become man, and belonging to the third order of the
gods, was placed on an equality with the gods of the first order. The
temple or tomb of Ipsambul may be considered the very oldest rock-hewn
construction; it has a figure of Osiris twenty feet high over the
entrance door. We pass over the remains of Philæ, Elephantine, and
Edfou, and come to those of Karnac and Luxor, the venerable Thebes,
which, in the fifth century B.C., during the times of Herodotus, were
already in a state of dilapidation.
Upon extensive brick terraces, raised high above the flat banks of the
Nile, the Egyptian temple stood, a strictly secluded building. Strong
walls, rising in pyramidal form, crowned with an overhanging fluted
cornice, gave the mural enclosure a mysterious and stern character. No
opening for windows, no colonnade interrupted the monotonous flatness,
which is covered, as by one long tapestry, with hieroglyphs, and
representations of gods and Pharaohs. The entrance to these buildings,
like that of the temple of Edfou, was placed between two tower-like
structures called propylæa, the walls of which were decorated with
sculptured figures--in three or more rows. Then followed a court,
surrounded by pillars, placed at a distance from the walls on both
sides, roofed over with stone, and forming a gallery. Thence we reach
the pronaos or portico, after which we enter the cell, divided into
the naos and adytum. The naos was generally a kind of hypostyle hall,
with a flat roof raised in the middle. The pillars and columns had a
variety of capitals, but these were generally of one pattern throughout
the temple. The quadrilateral Isis-headed capital, as at Denderah,
was often used. The monuments of the ‘hundred-gated’ Thebes are the
best school for the study of genuine Egyptian art. The temples on the
eastern side of the river are symbolical of the dawn of life; on the
western side we find tombs, catacombs, and Memnoniums. At Karnac we
have one of the grandest constructions of the world in the ruins of
the hypostyle hall, with its gigantic stone ceiling supported by 134
columns, of which the twelve middle ones, about 65 feet high and 11
feet in diameter, are larger and taller than the others, supporting a
loftier central nave. The width of this hall is 338 feet, the depth
170½ feet, and the area 57,629 feet, or about five times as large as
the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London. Columns and walls
are completely covered with sculptured forms of deities; Osiris
predominates. Pylons, propylæa, obelisks, colossal statues of red,
grey, and black granite cover the courts; chapel-like apartments,
connected and unconnected, are strangely intermingled.
Next to the temples we must mention one of the most gorgeous buildings,
the _Labyrinth_, containing between three and four thousand chambers
in rows, facing inwards the winding alleys, which ascended in a spiral
line to the middle, and descended from it in the same way. It has
been minutely described by Herodotus, Pomponius Mela, Pliny, and
Ezekiel. The building was to be a strict architectural imitation of the
planetary system. The inner 1,500 chambers were divided into twelve
courtyards, corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, six of
which were towards the north, and six towards the south.
The Memnons were monolith statues of imposing size, symbolic of
the rising sun--of Horus or Osiris. Homer mentions Memnon, for his
remarkable beauty, as the son of the east. Diodorus speaks of him
as Tithonus, a general, sent out to aid Priamus of Troy against the
besieging Greeks.
The walls of temples, palaces, tombs, and catacombs were partly
decorated with reliefs _en creux_, and partly with tapestry-like
patterns, using geometrical figures, sometimes, though rarely,
intermixed with plants, or plants treated with conventional stiffness.
The walls with the Egyptians had a different purpose than merely to
encircle or to enclose; they served as huge blackboards of stone, on
which the priests wrote their mystic records. The superfluous thickness
of the walls suggests that they were once made of brick, like those
of Nineveh or Babylon, and, further, the overlaying of these immense
granite blocks with stucco, serves to bear out this supposition. The
walls of the enclosures of temples and the sarcophagi were covered
with hieroglyphs or scenes from life, both on the inside and outside;
tombs and catacombs were decorated on the inside only. These scenes
are framed in with borders, reminding us of the broad seams in woven
stuffs. In temples the scenes refer to burial rituals, or the judgment
of the dead; in palaces to hunts and conquests of the kings. We see the
Asian and African conquests of Ramses II. represented on the walls of
Ipsambul (Aboosimbal in Nubia) in bright-coloured pictures. The king
brandishes a pole-axe over the heads of Negroes, Hebrews, and Aryans,
that is, over one mixed and two pure groups of mankind. Above his head
runs the hieroglyphic scroll: ‘The beneficent living God, guardian of
glory, smites the South; puts to flight the East; rules by victory,
and drags to his country all the earth, and all foreign lands.’ High
officials and private persons ornamented the walls of their houses
and tombs with scenes of every-day occurrences. We may study in these
their whole domestic and public life, their customs and manners, their
amusements and toils. The ceilings of the chambers are not covered
with _symbolic_ pictures, but generally with patterns of conventional
wall-decorations. In temples they are sometimes decorated with zodiacs,
as at Denderah--the best-preserved Egyptian temple, of which, however,
the date is doubtful.
C. The _hieratic style_ of the Pharaohs substituted a greater amount of
very tasteful symbolic ornamentation.
The Hathor-masks, the names of kings in cartouches, the viper as a
symbol of divine or royal power; serpents, scarabæi, winged globes,
either symbolic of the sun, the moon, or the earth, formed the
principal elements of the innumerable variety of severe ornamentation.
In addition to these the following were used:--
1. The papyrus, as the symbol of bodily and intellectual food.
2. The lotus, as a symbol of the creative mysteries of the universe.
3. The palm-tree, with its graceful and simple form, served as the
prototype of their columns, the capitals of which were either open or
closed lotus-buds or flowers.
4. Lastly, the feather ornament, as the emblem of sovereignty.
The columns during the _pyramidal_, or old style expressed with
distinct clearness their purpose to serve as a support; in the
_hieratic_, or new style this purpose is detached from the outer form
of the column, which no longer has to support, but merely to serve
as an ornament, or to proclaim some mysterious tenet in symbolic
types. The face of Isis is to look to the four quarters of the globe;
the closed or open lotus to symbolise the mystery of creation, the
fountain of life, the cup of plenty, and the fount of all blessings.
In this treatment they went so far as to imitate the very dew-drops
on the lotus, in granite. A strict naturalism was the foundation of
all Egyptian conventionalism, and in many instances they succeeded in
producing perfectly astonishing effects. In their columns we recognise
the very plant which must have suggested the forms. When made circular
and of granite, these columns still retained the triangular shape of
the papyrus by means of three raised lines on the round surface. At a
later period they were fluted, and apparently tied together under the
capital with a strap, cord, or band of a broad fibrous substance; the
capital above rose in four divisions in the form of a closed lotus.
In the hieratic style the fluting of the columns disappears--they
are smooth, round, and covered with hieroglyphs, but the base still
discloses the plant origin, disguised in an ornament of palm or reed
leaves. Characteristic in these columns is the expression of tension
in the swelling shaft, which was probably an unconscious imitation of
wood-construction; the heavy cross-beams pressing on the thin posts
produced this effect, which has been slavishly copied in stone. With
the Greeks this swelling of the column became one of the elements of
its beauty, because with them it was an abstraction of symmetrical
proportion, consciously done, to express the conflicting powers of
pressure and resistance. With a proud obstinacy the Egyptians, during
their hieratic period, insisted on separating the ornamental from the
architectural part of the building, so that no organic connection
existed between sculpture and architecture. This is most striking
in those colossal sitting figures which are placed in the front and
at the back of propylæa, or before the walls of pylons. It is a
clear separation of matter and spirit, of purpose and form, which is
altogether contrary to the fundamental principles of good architecture.
Art with the Egyptians was thoroughly _polychromatic_; they tinted
granite, of whatever colour, with a red pigment, so that the stone
might have its proper divine colour, hallowed by the priests. They
coloured in flat tints, and used no shading or shadow; they had,
however, no difficulty in conveying to the mind the original forms
which they intended to copy. _Priestly canons_ regulated the size,
form, colour, and expression of every statue, and every attribute
had its prescribed form, the meaning of which was concealed from the
artist, turning him into a mere unconscious machine, a tool in priestly
hands. This is the reason why their works of art look monotonous,
and everything with them is impressed by the crushing influence of
over-regulation. The Typhonic blast of uniformity killed every higher
aspiration in the artist. The human figure had to consist of nineteen
units; the _second finger was that unit_. Squares of this unit were
drawn on the flat, and according to these measurements the human figure
was constructed with geometrical accuracy, looking as flat as possible.
Dreary deserts of religious prejudices, gloomy superstitions, and
childish formalities hindered all progress, and marked their sculpture
and ornamentation with fixed, stereotyped stiffness, until the last
period of their art.
D. The _Ptolemaic_ style began to develop a little more life and taste.
The statues did not look as if cast in a general mould; the gods were
allowed to have their feet asunder, the one in advance of the other,
which gave them some appearance of motion. How taste may be degraded
by prejudice and custom, can be seen in the fact, that when this
innovation in Egyptian art was settled by a general law of the Pharaoh,
with the connivance of the high ceremonial courts, the masses, on
seeing their gods with legs apart, as if ready to walk, rushed from all
sides with strong ropes, and tied the divinities to their pedestals,
horrified at the possibility of their leaving the country altogether.
And the gods did leave the country. Anything based on superstition
or prejudice, anything having for its vivifying element symbolism or
mysticism, must die away in time.
What we said of Indian art holds good of Egyptian forms. Take away
from the Uræus, the lotus, papyrus, palm, crocodile, cat, and bull
their symbolic meaning, and these elements of ornamentation lose their
vitality. The Greeks, and more especially the Romans, have shown us how
we may use some of their patterns to advantage: how an entrance hall
may be decorated with silent and mournful-looking sphinxes, and what
an unsurpassed charm there is in the obelisk, directing the thought
upwards. A pyramid still remains one of the finest monuments for one
who has filled the four quarters of the globe with his fame.
In their every-day ornaments, rings, bracelets, necklaces, head-dresses
and furniture, the architectural straight lines prevail; variety is
not much required, the forms as well as the patterns must be the
same. Just as we reproduce horse-shoe upon horse-shoe because they
bring ‘luck,’ the Egyptian jeweller reproduced the scarabæus, and
the Turin Museum has not less than 180 different kinds of scarabæi.
In their architecture they suffered from one great evil--from a
horror of symmetry. Their grand palaces or temples have no ruling
element; everything is out of proportion, and though in their detailed
ornamentation they were symmetrical, and even eurythmical--the
harmony of purpose is often wanting. The thought of building for
eternity, however, is always present, whilst no one can deny that
in our buildings the ninety years’ lease is to be traced in every
corner. The Egyptians tried to represent the forms of monumental
architecture, and they certainly succeeded in reaching the sublime,
but they did this in neglecting the beautiful. Their symmetrophobia,
which many of our architects imitate only too successfully, spoilt
everything. Their weavings were excellent; their wood-constructions,
as far as furniture was concerned, faultless; music was known to them;
they worked gold, and ornamented it in the so-called ‘champ-levé’
manner, and were acquainted with enamel ‘cloisonné.’ They also fixed
thin layers of gold thread on metal, and filled the remaining spaces
with enamel of different colours, which method the ancients called
‘encaustum.’ Notwithstanding all these advantages Egyptian art never
reached the ideal of beauty; it has only the charm of the _mysterious_
for us. To keep this sentiment alive is the duty of any modern artist
who wishes to work in the Egyptian style. He must try to convey
some mystic cosmogonical or incomprehensible religious thought in
diapers, and floral ornament, or in the use of animals or the human
frame in outlines, he must place his ideas and forms under a strict
linear canon. He may then succeed in reproducing the artistic forms
of a nation, during a period, in which humanity did not go beyond
the hierarchical in religion, and the practical in art; during which
mankind struggled to find forms, but was prevented from the freer
exercise of its innate artistic force by the dictates of a despotic
priesthood, and was tied with merciless tyranny to monotonous canons,
crushing under the weight of symbolism and mysticism every higher
artistic aspiration.