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Show ' . t: :. . ~ : :. : " If ·~~~ I :If ...... f ~ I: • ; • ': .. · GENERAL REMARKS ON ICONOGRAPIIY. Jl7 Under the long reign of the great conquero1· RamesFJcs IT., the Sesostris of the Greeks, as well as under his successor ME.NEPli'£AH li. (possibly, as Lopsi us considers, tho Pharaoh of tho Exodus), thor~ is a considerable falling oft' from the accomplished forms of tho proceding periods. Egyptian artists now indulge merely in external grandeur, whilst expression and individuality arc neglected. The taste for colossal statuary of enormous size, which always announces an inroad of barbal'ism into art, prevails in tho time of the gt·eat Conqncrot·. The artist no longer aims to create satisf~wtion, but only to excite wondce in the heart of a spectator. Tho overcoming of mechanical diilicuHies becomes his hi(J'hcst goal ;-a cot'Lain sign that engineee's work is more appreciated by the people than aetistic merit. It is remarkable that Lito deterioration of style, whi •h thcnceforwaed continues for many centuries, appears just under the reign of RAMESSES n., who brought Egypt into close contact with Asiatic nations tl1rough matrimonial alliauces74 and by conquest: in confirmation of which Asiatic. infiltration, we perceive that, about his time, several words, avowedly Shemitic, wore introduced into the body of the Egyptian language,75 and Asiatic divinities were imported into the Egyptian pantheon; thus for instance ATEsu, or Anatlta, the goddess of love, adored on the banks of tho Euphrates, had temples dedicated to her at Thebes ;70 Baal entered into Nilotic theognosy; Astarte soon after had a Phamician temple at Memphis ; the goddess J(:ioun-t, with her companion Renpo, appears on steles.77 But this intercourse with foreign nations, and pharaonic domination over a portion of Asia, exercised no good influence and I dosignatod them, in Types, proceed from omnscnlation; otherwise, thnt, at some period of his adult ngo, ho becRmo (not voluntarily like 01\IOllN, who was imbued with A!attl!ew xix. 12) nn Eunucli; which probo.blo circumstance would o.lso oxplo.in tho condign vengeance wreaked by him on the god Amun and ita votaries, to whom ho doubtless owed his treble voice. My own experiences during 28 years in tho Levant cnti1·oly conoborato tho view tnken (toe. cit.) by Mariette:- "No us avons, do notre temps mtlmo, quelques exemplos de ces alliances. Dans oe cas, loa info..tunos que la civilisation musulmano admot dans son sein iL de si r6voltantos conditions, 6pousent des vcuves, lours oompntriotcs ou lonrs nlli6cs, nux enftmts dcsqnolloa ils tmnsmot.tont loa b6n6fioos des ohorgos 6leveos quo, mnlgr6 lour mutilation, illour est permis do remplir. 11 est probable quo si Akbonnten 6prouvn r~ollomont lo mnll1our dont sos trnits somblont r6v6ler l'6videnco, oo fut pondttnt Jes guoJTes d' AJU6nophis JI£ au milieu des peuplades du Sud. L'usngo do mutilor les prisonniors et los bloss6s ost, parmi cos poupln. do~, aussi ancien quo lc mondo. "-G. R. G.] 7< ffo •nnrYied the daughter of his greatest enemy, the king of tho Kl!etas, (Ilittitoa ?), Shomitic Asiatics. 75 Bmou, Crystal Palace Catalogue, p. 251. 76 D11 ltouo~. Notice sommaire, p. 16. 77 LANOI, Le/lre a 1Jf.Prisae d'A.vennes, Paris, 1847, pp. 17-20, Pl. II.:-and PmssB, Contimwtion des Jl(onuments de Cllampollion, 1848, fol. |