Chapter XVI: Egypt’s Place in the Art of the World

In the opening chapter we have considered the point of view from which the art of Egypt--like that of every other country--must be approached. The physical conditions which surround man will necessarily control his expression of thought and his perception of beauty. Forms and designs growing out of the conditions of one land will be inappropriate in another land, and lose most, or all, of their value if transported to different surroundings. Hence it is futile to attempt to contrast the art of one country directly with that of another. We might as well compare the beauty of a tropical garden with that of an alpine forest. The only ground of comparison is that of expressing the character and emotions of the artists; and that art which conveys the mental state of the people most readily is the most perfect art. This criticism leaves aside altogether the moral question of our appreciation of the people themselves; that does not belong to art but to ethics. And before we can begin to judge of that, we must know their surroundings, and the position in which they were conditioned in the world.

Our consideration here is with the art. When we look over the varied artistic expression of different races, we see that each people has seized some one excellence, growing out of its conditions, and adapted to its feelings and utilities. We can admire each excellence in turn, and see that in each of these qualities no other people has reached the same perfection. We must recognise that artistic expression is not only shown in sculpture and painting, but in literature, mechanical design, and the amenities and adaptation of the social organism.

In Egypt, as we have noticed, the ruling principles of the art are durability, strength, and dignity, and such were the features of the national character. In vain do we look in any other country for as great an expression of any of these principles. And, with the single exception of Greece, it was also supreme in precision of work. Its work was the true expression of character, and in perfect harmony with the nature of the country.

In Crete, so far as we can yet see, the pre-eminent facilities were the expression of motion, and the development of decorative form, and especially colour, upon pottery. Classical art never attained to the skill shown by the prehistoric art in these directions.

In Assyria, figure and animal sculpture stood very high in the best period; and the free adaptation of this to the purposes of life, as we see in the great development of friezes on the palace walls, was the distinguishing feature. No people seem to have lived amidst their art more than the Assyrians.

In classical Greece, the supremacy in vital sculpture and architectural proportion has so filled the attention of the modern world that the higher achievement of surrounding nations in other directions has been largely overlooked. In each of the special qualities that we note in other peoples the Greeks were their inferiors.

Rome was largely dominated by other races in its development; but in the art of civilisation and raising subject peoples, in the shaping of life and rule of law, it stood far above any ancient nation. In this--as in the arts elsewhere--we must look at its best period, when the impartiality and probity of its administrators brought all Greece under their sway.

The Celtic and Northern arts stood first in the rhythm of intricate decoration, and the subtlety of the curves; the ideal may not appeal to us, but no other region has ever produced such perfect and complex design.

In Medieval Europe, though sculpture scarcely reached the vitality of classical work, yet in expression it stood as high as in any school of art; and in the architecture the sense of expansion and aspiration--the spiritual aspect--reaches a higher level than man has touched elsewhere.

In Italy, the expression of art in painting was its great achievement, in harmony with the character of grace seen in other lines of Italian production.

The Persian and Mesopotamian civilisation triumphed in its glorious use of coloured glaze decoration, which has been carried westward to Syria and Rhodes, and still continues in the vast domes of coloured tiles in Spain.

In Arab art we meet the exquisite calm of geometrical design with various angles, which cannot be analysed at a glance like a Roman pavement: they arrest the eye to linger over them, to seek how they arise, and what they mean.

Further east, it is difficult for us to enter sufficiently into the fundamental feelings of the races, to enable us to value their art truly. But we can at least feel the grand sense of profusion when looking at the mountainous structures of the immense topes and pagodas of India, peopled with innumerable figures on countless stages. To the minds which produce and live amongst such forms, all other work must seem poor and bare. In Chinese art we can admire the fine adaptation and the sense of minute perfection in the articles before us, the dignity and reserve shown; and, in the literature, even a stranger to the land can feel the intimate harmony with Nature, and the mystic sense of mood in the mountains and trees and lakes around. Hardly any other poetry that we know touches the spirit of life so essentially.

The facile Japanese may well claim an unsurpassed skill and deftness in the painting of Nature, and a power to grasp the greatest amount of reality with the least means. Their perception of Nature in its strange and mysterious moods, which they show by the brush, is almost as penetrating as in the literature of China. Their exquisite sense of fitness, and of taste for beauty of workmanship, only makes us begin to realise the clumsiness of our own cast-iron performances.

To wander so far from Egypt may seem needless; and it would be so if the essentials of other arts were more familiar in English works. We have read lately of an alleged “tyranny of the Nile”; but the real tyranny over English minds for a century past has been the “tyranny of the Hellene.” The one side of art in sculpture has obscured all others; and the English mind has, with its usual idolatry, made the standard of Greece its sole measure. We need to see that a dozen national arts have each been supreme over the others in some one aspect. Then we shall see how meaningless it is to contrast the excellence of one national art with another. Each country has to confess that it has only fully expressed one aspect out of many in the immense range of human life.

Now we can begin to see the real meaning of the so-called limitations of Egyptian art. Every people has had its limitations likewise, fitting it to its conditions; and if we look at them all impartially, and not by the standard of any one of them, we shall see that the deficiencies and limitations of most races are of much the same extent. If the Egyptian had tried to render not only character, but emotion also, he would have been defying his true conditions, as much as if we put a dado of Persian glazed tiles on the Parthenon. To refer this artistic perception to the uniformity of the Nile, is about as true as if we attributed any deficiencies in German art or literature to the prevalence of cold and snow, which is a far greater tyranny than the inundation. Every physical circumstance is a factor in human work, but none of them singly dominates it. There is no point in calling the Egyptian childish in his abilities, as every other nation has been equally childish in some other respects--the Roman in his abject submission to omens, the Greek in playing with words, the Assyrian in his inaccuracy, the Arab in his drawing. In short, there is no essential difference in the capacity for showing national life and feeling by the art of each country; and in the facility and truth of expression Egypt stands in the first rank of those lands where Art has exhibited the character of man.

INDEX

Aah-hotep jewellery, 91, 92.

Aahmes I, jewellery, 92.
II, inlaid hawk-head, 103.

Aahmes-si neit-rannu (fig. 9), 21.

Abu Simbel, 28.

Accuracy of work, 81, 82.

Ainofer servant, 16.

Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), art of, 20, 53;
sculpture, 41;
relief, 53;
death mask, 144.

Alabaster sculpture, 25;
vases, 78.

Amenardys, statue of, 26, 44.

Amenemhat, III, 39, 88.

Amenhotep, I, 120.
II, 26, 111, 129.
III, 26, 28, 53, 111, 120, 129.
official of, 41.
IV, 26, 111, 120.

Amethyst beads, 80, 86.

Amulets of stone, 79.
of glaze, 114.

Animals, real and mythical, 49.

Antef V, 119.

Antimony used, 104.

Arab art, 155.

Arch avoided externally, 6.
known early, 64.
form of brick, 64.
built without centring, 65.

Architecture, 62-68.

Armlets of flint, 81. _See_ Bangles.

Art belongs to country, 1, 2, 152.
absent from copying, 2, 53.
conditions in Egypt, 2.

Art dominated by strong light, 3.
accepted strong contrasts, 4.
ruled by level and vertical lines, 5.
analysis by Tolstoy, 7.
expression of character, 7-10, 19.
truth of Egyptian, 9.
greatest under pyramid kings, 16, 17.
rapidity of development, 17, 51.
decay of, 18.
of character and of emotion, 19.
of different peoples, 153-156.

Asiatic conquests influence art, 19.

Assyria, art of, 154.

Aswan, school of, 27.

Axe of Aahmes, 92.

Baboon, ivory, 136.

Bak-en-khonsu, head of, 44.

Bangles, 94. _See_ Bracelets, Armlets.

Basalt, green, sculpture in, 24, 40.
black, for building, 70.

Basalt, used for vases, 78.

Beads, materials of, 80.
gold, 84.
open-work, 94.
glazed, 119.
glass, 121, 125.

Bee amulet, 80.

Blue, manufacture of, 117.
paint on vases, 129.

Bracelets of Zer, 84.
of Aah-hotep, 92.
of Ramessu II, 93.
silver, 93.
gold, 95.
Coptic, 95.

Brick building, sloping inward, 62.

Bronze, use of, 100, 101.
origin of, 101.

Building transport, 74.

Bull hunt, 54.

Bull trampling on enemy, 14.

Bull’s head amulet, 79.

Bushman type, 29.

Button seals, 86.

Canon of drawing figures, 50.

Capitals, early forms of, 67.

Captives, influence on art, 19.

Casting of gold, 85, 89.
of bronze, 101.
in plaster, 144.

Ceiling pattern, 58.

Celtic art, 157.

Chains, patterns of, 86, 91.

Character in art, 8, 9, 19.

Chinese art, 156.

Civil service, organizing, 16.

Claw amulet, 79.

Cleopatra Cocce (Ptolemaic), 21.

Cloison inlaying, 87-89, 93, 95.

Cobalt colour of glaze, 118.

Colossi, raising of, 77.
weight of, 26.

Colours, making of, 117.

Columns, palm, lotus, polygonal, 67.

Comparative art, 152.

Conditions of Egyptian art, 2-5.

Conquest of Egypt by artistic race, 14.

Constantine, pottery of, 129, 131.

Contrasts of desert and cultivation, 4.

Conventions absent in early art, 15, 35, 36.

Copper, colours from, 116-118.

Copper work, 98-100.

Coptic pottery, painted, 130.
tapestry, 148.

Copying, a degradation, 2, 17, 20, 21.

Cornice, origin of, 63.

Crete, art of, 153.

Crocodile amulet, 79.

Crowns of XIIth Dynasty, 88.

Cumaean glass, 121.

Daggers of Aahmes, 92.

Degradation of art, 17, 20, 51.

Deir el Bahri, 5, 52.

Desert, contrasts of, 4.
art in Eastern, 25, 39.

Detail, treatment of, 18.

Diorite, sculpture in, 24, 34, 70, 78.

Divisions, political and artistic, v.

Drawing, 58-61.

Dressing stone faces, 71, 72.

Drills, tubular, 72.
flint, 79.

Dynastic new art, 14, 30.

Dynasty I, 14, 49, 84-86, 108, 126, 135, 147.
II, 32.
IV, 16, 50, 129, 135.
V, 67, 127, 131, 140.
VI, 17, 86, 109, 131.
XI, 17, 51.
XII, 18, 26, 27, 36, 52, 87, 110, 127, 129, 131, 136.
XVIII, 19, 26, 27, 40, 52, 91, 110, 120, 128, 129, 131, 139, 140,
143, 144, 148.
XIX, 20, 27, 53, 92-94, 113, 128, 129, 131.
XX, 21, 54.
XXIII, 94, 113, 121.
XXVI, 21, 54, 113, 128, 131, 136.
Ptolemaic, 21, 95, 115, 131.
Roman, 22, 95, 115, 123, 131, 145.

Earrings, 93, 94.
Coptic, 95.

Embroidery, 149.

Emery, used for cutting, 72, 73.

Emotional art, 19.

Enamel, Roman, 94.

Eye amulet, 80.

Eyes inserted in copper frames, 33.
relation to brow, 36, 40.
gibbous and narrow, 37, 38.
not detailed, 77, 145, 146.

Fan bearer, figure of, 114.

Figures, canon of drawing, 50.
modelled in pottery, 132.

Fish offerers, 39.

Fist amulet, 80.

Flask of bronze, 101.

Flint drills, 79.
working, 80.

Floret crown, 88.

Fluted metal vases, 101.

Fly amulet, 79.

Foil, impressed, 86, 90, 93, 94.

Foreign influences on art, vi.

Foundations, 74.

Frog amulet, 79, 80.

Furnaces for glazing, 117, 118.

Furniture, 138, 139.

Gates of temples, immense, 138.

Gazelles of palm, 15, 49.

Geese of Medum, 56.

Gilding, 84, 96.

Girl somersaulting, 59.

Glass, 119, 125.
earliest, 119.
black and white, 120.
varied colours, 120, 122.
patterns on, 120.
forms of vases, 121.
beads, 121, 125.
engraved, 121.
mosaic, 122.
blown, 123.
weights, 123.
manufacture of, 123-125.

Glazed ware, 107-119.
origin of, 107.
two-coloured, 108.
tiles, 108.
tablets, 109.
colours of, 109-115, 118.
pendants, 112.
architectural, 112.
ushabtis, 113.
figures, 114.
late, 114, 115.
body, 115.
stone ware, 116.
decomposition of, 116.
manufacture of frit, 117.
moulded, 118.
inlay in wood, 140.

Glazing on quartz, 107.
on pottery, 108, 115.

Gleaners, paintings of, 56, 57.

Gold, sources of, 83.
leaf, 84, 96.

Gold casting, 85, 89.
wire, 85, 86, 90.
soldering, 85, 86, 90.
base, 94.
over plaster, 95.

Granite, black, school of, 24.
red, school of, 27.
temple, 65.
quarrying, 70, 71.
sawn, 72.

Granulated work, 90.

Greek art, 154, 157.
influence in Egypt, 47, 146.
pottery figures, 132.

Hammer dressing of stone, 74.

Hand amulet, 80.

Hand work on stone vases, 78.

Harvest scenes, 56, 57.

Hatshepsut, sculpture of, 52.

Hawk amulet, 79.
protecting king, 35.

Heads modelled in plaster, 145, 146.

Helwan quarries, 70.

Hieroglyphs, cutting of, 74.

Hor, statue of, 42, 139.

Hyaena and bull relief, 14, 49.

Hyksos type, so-called, 24, 37, 38.

Indian art, 156.

Inlaid metal, 92, 103.

Iron, rare appearances of, 104.
sources of, 105.
tools, 106.
cores for bronze, 102.

Isiemkheb, tent of, 150.

Isis, head of, 114.

Italy, art of, 155.

Ivory carving, prehistoric, 12, 134.
Ist dynasty, 31, 32, 134.
IVth dynasty, 135.
XIIth dynasty, 136.
XXVIth dynasty, 136.

Jackal head amulet, 80.

Japanese art, 156.

Jewellery, 83-97.

Ka-aper, 33.

Kauat, princess, 51.

Keft inlaying, 103.

Kha-em-hat, tomb of, 20.

Khafra, statue of, 34.
accuracy of, 82.

Khaker ornament, 64.

Kha-sekhem, head of, 32.

Khety, copper brazier of, 99.

Khufu, organizing by, 16.
figure of, 34, 135.
accuracy of, 81.

Koptos, colossi from, 30.

Lazuli beads, 80, 85.
inlaying, 88, 91.

Lead used, 103.

Leather the earliest clothing, 147.
appliqué work, 149.
slit network, 150.

Lifting of stones, 75.

Light, conditions of strong, 3.

Limitations of national arts, 157.

Limestone sculpture, school of, 25.
earliest, 31.
working in, 69.

Linen, fineness of, 147.

Lines level and vertical in Egypt, 5.

Lion, figures of, 30, 39.
amulet, 80.

Literature compared with art, 7, 8.

Looms, 148.

Lotus capitals, 67.
flower, ivory, 136.

Manganese colour of glaze, 118.

Mastaba tomb-chapels, 16, 50.

Materials of sculpture, 23.

Medieval European art, 155.

Medinet Habu temple, 66.

Memphis, head from, 46.

Mendes bowls, 96.

Menkaura, accuracy of, 82.

Mentu-em-hat, head of, 46.

Merenptah, 44.

Mertitefs, queen, 32.

Middle kingdom style, 17, 18.
statuary, 36-40.

Min, statues of, 30.

Modelling in pottery, 132.

Mosaics of glass, 122.

Moulding by pressure, 90.

Moulds for casting copper, 99, 100, 102.
for glazed ware, 118.
of plaster, 144, 145.

Mykenaean style of inlays, 92.

Narmer, 31, 49.

National arts, 157.

Naturalism of early art, 17.
later, 20.

Necklace fastening, 91, fig. 109, 93.

Necklets of silver, 95.

Negress statuette, 43.

New Kingdom, 18-20.
statuary, 40-45.

Nofert, head of, 33.

Nubian sandstone, 27, 69.

Obelisks, raising of, 77.
transport of, 77.

Observation in early art, 15.

Organization, system of social, 16.

Ovens for glazing, 117.

Oxherd, 51.

Ox, sacrifice of, 51.

Pafaabast statuette, 94.

Painting on tombs, 19.
earliest, 55.
in New Kingdom, 56-60.
light and shade, 59.

Palettes of slate, 13.

Palm capital, 67.
scenery, 4.

Palm-stick construction, 63.

Papyrus structures, 64.
capital, 67.

Pectorals of Senusert II, 87;
Senusert III, 87;
Amenemhat III, 88;
Ramessu II, 93.

Pedubast, 140.

Pelicans, painting of, 56.

Pepy, copper statue of, 99.

Periods of art, 11-21.

Persian glazing, 155.

Pewter, 104.

Plaited wire chains, 91.

Planes for testing faces, 72.

Plaster, 142-146.
in masonry, 142.
coating statues, 143.
modelling, 144-146.
castings, 144.
moulds, 144, 145.
heads, 145, 146.
oiled, 145.

Political divisions different from artistic, v.

Porphyry used for vases, 78.

Portraiture, late, 22, 38.

Pot metal, 103.

Pottery, 126-133.
forms, 126.
decoration, 128.
materials, 130.

Pottery, modelling, 132.

Prehistoric character of art, 12, 13.
statuary, 29, 30.
reliefs, 48.
painting, 55.
stone vases, 78.
amulets, 79.

Princesses, fresco, 58.

Ptolemaic art, 21.

Pyramid age, 15.
sculpture, 32-36.

Pyramids, accuracy of, 81, 82.

Qualities of Egyptians, 8, 9.

Quarrying, modes of, 70, 71.

Quartzite sandstone school, 26, 41.

Races, types of, 60.

Ra-hesy, panel of, 50, _frontispiece_.

Rameses II, 24, 25, 27, 44, 113.
III, 54.
XII, 94.

Ramesseum arches, 64.

Ranofer, statue of, 36.

Reliefs, quality of, 18, 48.
oldest, 48.
pyramid age, 50.
Middle Kingdom, 51.
New Kingdom, 52.
late, 54.
sunk, 52.

Rock cutting, 70, 71.

Roll at corner of building, 63.

Rome, art of, 157.

Sacrifice of ox, 51.

Sandstone, Nubian, 27.
quartzite, 26.

Sawing of hard stones, 72.

Scaffolding of brick, 74.

Scenery, influence of, 4, 5.

Scenes dominate wall surfaces, 3.

Schools of art, 22.

Scribe, figure of, 35.

Sculptors, training of, 17, 77.

Sculpture dominated by architecture and conditions, 6.

Seals of gold, 86.

Senoferu, 16.

Senusert I, 37, 53.
II, 82, 87.
III, 38, 39, 87.

Serapeum pectoral, 92.

Sety I, 53, 61, 113, 139.
II, 93, 112.

Shells of gold, 86, 91.

Sheykh el Beled statue, 33.

Ship, painting of, 55.
building, 138.

Shrines of palm sticks, 63.

Silsileh sandstone, 27, 69.

Silver, early, 96.
historic, 96.
bowls, 96.

Slate palettes, 13, 49.

Sleep, position in, 31.

Social organization, 16.

Soldering, 85, 86, 90, 103.

Spear-head amulet, 79.

Spinning metal bowls, 96.

Statuary, painted, 8.
local art, 23.
earliest, 29.
pyramid age, 32-36.
Middle Kingdom, 36-40.
New Kingdom, 40-45.
late, 45-47.
outlined and cut, 77.

Steatopygous type, 29.

Steel tools, 106.

Stone buildings copied from brick, 62.
copied from wooden, 62.

Stone vases, 78.

Stones, moving of, 74.

Stucco on wood statues, 33, 44, 143.
_See_ Plaster, modelling, 144.

Study in limestone, earliest, 31.

Syenite used for vases, 78.

Syrian influence, 19, 66.

Taharqa, head of, 44.

Tahutmes I, 19.
II, 40.
III, 19, 40, 110, 120, 129.
IV, 148, xvi, fig. 139.

Takushet inlaid statue, 103.

Tapestry, woven, 148.
use of, on clothing, 149.

Tausert, 94.

Temple, circuit wall, 65.
of Khafra, 65.
of Medinet Habu, 66.
of Dakkeh, 66.

Tin, sources of, 100.
used, 104.

Tiryns, stone-sawing at, 73.

Toilet tray figures, 43.

Tolstoy’s analysis of art, 7.

Tombs, early sculptured, 16.
later painted, 19, 56.

Tools of modern types, 106.

Torus roll, origin of, 63.

Training of artists, 17.

Trichinopoly pattern chains, 91.

Tubular drills, 72.

Turin statue of Ramessu II, 44.

Turquoise beads, 80, 85.

Tut-ankh-amen, 42.

Ushabtis of glazed ware, 113.
of pottery, 132.

Vases of bronze, 99, 101.
of glass, 121, 124.
of pottery, 127-133.
of stone, prehistoric, 78.
from Eastern desert, 25.

Wall surfaces dominated by scenes, 3.

Wax used for modelling, 89, 102.

Weaving, fineness of, 147, 148.

Wigs, prehistoric, 30.
put on over hair, 33.

Wire, 85, 86, 90.
amulets, 90.
plaited chains, 91.

Wooden statues stuccoed, 33, 34.
sculpture, 42.

Woodwork, 137-141.
early, 137.
shipbuilding, 138.
doors, 138.
coffins, 138.
furniture, 138, 139.
statuettes, 43, 139.
inlaid, 140.
methods, 140.

Writing, start of, 14.

Youths’ and maids’ procession, 54.

Zer, bracelet of, 84.
linen of, 147.

Zeser, glazed tiles of, 109.

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