[Illustration: Front view of the Younger Memnon.]
Those who visit the British Museum cannot fail to have observed in the
room of Egyptian antiquities, a colossal statue of which only the head
and breast remain. It is numbered 66 in the catalogue and on the stone.
Though this statue is commonly called the “younger Memnon,” a name to
which for convenience we shall adhere, there is no reason in the world
for calling it so, but a mistake of Norden, a Danish traveller who
visited Egypt in 1737. He then saw this statue in its entire state,
seated on a chair, in precisely the same attitude as the black breccia
figure, No. 38, but lying with its face on the ground; to which accident
indeed the preservation of the features is no doubt mainly due. Several
ancient writers, and among them the Greek Geographer Strabo, speak of a
large temple at Thebes on the west side of the Nile, to which they gave
the name of the Memnonium, or Memnon’s temple. Norden fancied that the
building, amidst whose ruins he saw this statue, was the ancient
Memnonium; though he supposed, that another statue of much larger
dimensions than this in the Museum, and now lying in numerous fragments
in the same place, was the great Memnon statue, of which some ancient
writers relate the following fact--that at sun-rise when the rays first
struck the statue, it sent forth a sound something like that of the
snapping of the string of a lute.
It is now generally admitted that the real statue of Memnon is neither
the large one still lying at Thebes in fragments, nor this statue in the
Museum, which came out of the same temple--but another statue still
seated in its original position on the plain of Thebes, and showing by
numerous Greek and Latin inscriptions on the legs, that _it_ was the
statue of which Strabo, Pausanias, and other ancient writers speak. The
entire black statue, No. 38, is also _a_ Memnon statue, for it resembles
in all respects the great colossus with the inscriptions on its legs,
and it has also the name of Memnon written on it and enclosed in an
oblong ring, on each side of the front part of the seat, and also on the
back.
If this colossus in the Museum (No. 66) was entire in 1737, it may be
asked how came it to be broken? We cannot say further than the following
statement:--
Belzoni, whose name must be fresh in the recollection of most people,
went to Egypt in 1815, intending to propose to the Pasha some improved
mechanical contrivances for raising water from the river in order to
irrigate the fields. Owing to various obstacles this scheme did not
succeed, and Belzoni determined to pay a visit to Upper Egypt to see the
wonderful remains of its temples. Mr. Salt, then British Consul in
Egypt, and Lewis Burckhardt, commissioned Belzoni to bring this colossal
head from Thebes. Belzoni went up the river, and landing at Thebes found
the statue exactly in the place where the Consul’s instructions
described it to be[2]. It was lying “near the remains of its body and
chair, with its face upwards, and apparently smiling on me at the
thought of being taken to England. I must say that my expectations were
exceeded by its beauty, but not by its size. I observed that it must
have been absolutely the same statue as is mentioned by Norden, lying in
his time with the face downwards, which must have been the cause of its
preservation. I will not venture to assert who separated the bust from
the rest of the body, by an explosion, or by whom the bust has been
turned face upwards.”
It will be observed that the left shoulder of this figure is shattered,
and that there is a large hole drilled in the right shoulder. We believe
both are the work of the French who visited Thebes during the occupation
of Egypt by the French army in 1800; and there is no doubt that Belzoni
in the above extract means to attribute to them the separation of the
head and shoulders from the rest of the body. In the magnificent work on
Egyptian Antiquities, which has been published at Paris, there is a
drawing of this head, which is pretty correct, except that the hole and
the whole _right_ shoulder are wanting. It seems that they drew the
colossal bust in that form which it would have assumed, had they blown
off the right shoulder. From what cause it happened we do not know, but
they left the colossus behind them; and Belzoni, alone and unaided,
accomplished what the French had unsuccessfully attempted.
All the implements that Belzoni had for removing this colossus were
fourteen poles, eight of which were employed in making a car for the
colossus, four ropes of palm-leaves, four rollers, and no tackle of any
description. With these sorry implements and such wretched workmen as
the place could produce, he contrived to move the colossus from the
ruins where it lay to the banks of the Nile, a distance considerably
more than a mile. But it was a no less difficult task to place the
colossus on board a boat, the bank of the river being “more than fifteen
feet above the level of the water, which had retired at least a hundred
feet from it.” This, however, was effected by making a sloping causeway,
along which the heavy mass descended slowly till it came to the lower
part, where, by means of four poles, a kind of bridge was made, having
one end resting on the centre parts of the boat and the other on the
inclined plane. Thus the colossus was moved into the boat without any
danger of tilting it over by pressing too much on one side.
From Thebes it was carried down the river to Rosetta and thence to
Alexandria, a distance of more than 400 miles: from the latter place it
was embarked for England.
The material of this colossus is a fine-grained granite, which is found
in the quarries near the southern boundary of Egypt, from which masses
of enormous size may be procured free from any split or fracture. These
quarries supplied the Egyptians with the principal materials for their
colossal statues and obelisks, some of which in an unfinished form may
still be seen in the granite quarries of Assouan. There is considerable
variety in the qualities of this granite, as we may see from the
specimens in the Museum, some of which consist of much larger component
parts than others, and in different proportions; yet all of them admit a
fine polish. The colossal head, No. 8, opposite to the Memnon, and No.
2, commonly called an altar, will serve to explain our meaning.
This Memnon’s bust consists of one piece of stone, of two different
colours, of which the sculptor has judiciously applied the red part to
form the face. Though there is a style of sculpture which we may
properly call Egyptian as distinguished from and inferior to the Greek,
and though this statue clearly belongs to this Egyptian style, it
surpasses as a work of art most other statues from that country by a
peculiar sweetness of expression and a finer outline of face. Though the
eyebrows are hardly prominent enough for our taste, the nose somewhat
too rounded, and the lips rather thick, it is impossible to deny that
there is great beauty stamped on the countenance. Its profile, when
viewed from various points, will probably show some new beauties to
those only accustomed to look at it in front.
The position of the ear in all Egyptian statues that we have had an
opportunity of observing is very peculiar, being always too high; and
the ear itself is rather large. We might almost infer that there was
some national peculiarity in this member from seeing it so invariably
placed in the same singular position. The appendage to the chin is
common in Egyptian colossal statues, and is undoubtedly intended to mark
the beard, the symbol of manhood: and it may be observed not only on
numerous statues, but also on painted reliefs, where we frequently see
it projecting from the end of the chin and not attached to the breast,
but slightly curved upwards. Osiris, one of the great objects of
Egyptian adoration, is often thus represented; but the beard is
generally only attached to the _clothed_ figure, being, for the most
part, but not always, omitted on naked ones. The colossal figures, No. 8
and 38, have both lost their beards. There is a colossal head in the
Museum, No. 57, that is peculiar in having the upper margin of the beard
represented by incisions on the chin after the fashion of Greek bearded
statues. It is the only instance we have seen, either in reality or in
any drawing, of a colossus with a genuine beard.
There is more variety in the head-dresses of colossal statues than in
their beards. No. 8, opposite the Memnon, has the high cap which occurs
very often on Egyptian _standing_ colossi which are placed with their
backs to pilasters. No. 38 has the flat cap fitting close to the head
and descending behind, very much like the pigtails once in fashion. The
Memnon head-dress differs from both of these, and has given rise to
discussions, called learned, into which we cannot enter here.
On the forehead of this colossus may be seen the remains of the erect
serpent, the emblem of royalty, which always indicates a deity or a
royal personage. This erect serpent may be traced on various monuments
of the Museum, and perhaps occurs more frequently than any single
sculptured object.
Our limits prevent us from going into other details, but we have perhaps
said enough to induce some of our readers to look more carefully at this
curious specimen of Egyptian art; and to examine the rest of the
ornamental parts. The following are some of the principal dimensions:--
ft. in.
The whole height of the bust from the top of the 8 9
head-dress to the lowest part of the fragment,
measured behind
Round the shoulders and breast, above 15 3
Height of the head from the upper part of the 6 0½
head-dress to the end of the beard
From the forehead to the chin 3 3½
Judging from these dimensions, the figure in its entire state would be
about 24 feet high as seated on its chair; which is about half the
height of the _real_ Memnon, who still sits majestic on his ancient
throne, and throws his long shadow at sun-rise over the plain of Thebes.
[Illustration: Side view of the Younger Memnon.]
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Footnote 2:
Belzoni’s Narrative. London, 1820, p. 39.
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