OCR Text |
Show NERAL REMARKS ON ICONOGUAPIIY. G E , ds in style to tho superb to?:so . th fidelity. It correspon U found at Sale, copy nature W1 of PsAMETIK · 1 . l"brary 120 Fig. 18. and long in tho pub 1C 1 at Cambridge.&! ., t This second revival of Egyp was not confined to scu~pture . W o soc once more, as J n the time ofl~AMESSES and Osoncrr.oN, (XVIIIth and XXIIJ. dynastlOs, . . tho 15th and lOth con- t. e. m '1 . tul'l.e S B. c •) a most st.n ongL arallel between tho intolioc~ua pan fl ar t'l S tl'C l=lil''o of tho natLOnf. rrho now naturalistic ph~so 0 Egyptian art coincides Wlth an SA1TIO IIuu. alogous most important stop . t' aonf the Dem' otic alph a b 0 t ' w hich in eivi.lization, viz: tho mt~oduc o%n arativoly greater simplicity than ~ .. ts phonetical character or c ~ l ,.t. g must have :iavourod 101 1 h' . 1yph1Ca wu m , 'thor tho hieratic or tho 1010g t' g epistolary intercourse 01 • 1 d by promo m d tho diffusion of ~now ol go,·n therefore, scarcely surprise anybo y amongst tho Egyptmns. t ~~· '·ds of tho papyri in the Museums a~d to learn that more than two . u the oriod of Psamoticus and his collections of Europe, apportam to : p documents arc extant of a successor B, although abundant papyl lC far oadior epoch.so owin to tho Persian conquest Egyptian art lost its Sai~ic !resh~oss, f u~d down to tho reign of (B c 525) but tho naturahstLC sty ~ con Um der them Egyptian civili- . · ' . d t ofPtolom1es. n . t the M accdoman yn~s y . . immediate relation and umn. or-zation came for the ni:st tunc l~t~ hi h-culturo, although the radlCal ruptcd daily contact with a fo~c g dgGreek race prevented amalga-b t en tho Egyptlan an d f his diii<woncc o we . E tian was too prou o mation on a .larger scale. Tdho gdypto learn anything from the millonm· al · ·1··· t'on to con escon · h h's ClVl 1za L • • tTty as well as m t o 1 - G . 1 hom he called a child m versa 1 1 ' ICC<, W . 17 LEAKE Egyptian jfo11uments of the British .l!fuseum, London, 1827 ' p. ' 111o YonKM AND • • blio~- PJ. Xlll. 0 • thor with this s~vrmt'a vnr10US pu 116 Dunosou, Grammatica Demotlca, 1855' tog;O!l ·-~lso 1'ypca of Manki11d, Tablo of tho tions, cited by Dmou, Oryst. Pal. Oat~loguc, p. Wl'i~in s," pp. 680-1. . "'fhcory of tho order of (lovelopment m hl~m~n d mo!t bo~utiful is PnJass's folio JTiorntlo IIG They o.ro innumorablo. Among tho ~6 o.~ ;n lo plus n.ncion m~nusorit connu dans lo Papyru& Egyptien, P~ris, 1849,- "s~ns 81 ~ 10~ ~I of SeNeWROU (or Senofro), ~king mondo cntior ;" cont~ining, with other~, ~be roya o~ u d'Aahmu, chef de. Nautoniers, Io. ef old Illd dynn.aty (DE Rouofi, Inscription du Tom ea p~rtio, Paris, 1851, P· 76). GENERAL REMARKS ON ICONOGRAPUY. 121 torical ago of his nation. "0 Solon, olon! you Gro ks arc always chi!clron," says l)lato's priest of Sais, in tho colobratccl bold romance on the Atlantic Isles. StiJJ, tho llollcnie spirit could not remain wholly without in.Llucnce. AloxanJ.l'ia assumed a cosmopolitan chat·actor, in wl1ich G1·cok clements prodominat d; and the Ptolomios, surrounclod by Greek poets, artists, and philosophers, enjoyed tho rcsplondout evening of Greek eultut"o on tho foreign soil of tho Nilotic Delta. Indeed, it has been accurately observed that "Alexandria was vol'y 0l'cck, a little Jewish, and scarcely Egy.vtian at all." 87 With artistic display, unparalleled in tho history of mankind, th y celebrated tho festivals of tho Olympian gods, whilst with princely oxponditnl'o they secured all tho treasures of Greek litcratur , as if they entertained a presentiment of tho appl'oaching doom of H ol!onism. But whenever they wont up tho Nile, visiting MomphiR, 1'hoboR, and upper Egypt, they became again Pharaol1s-" ever living, lords of diadems, watchers of Egypt, chastisers of tho foreigners, g ldon lJawks, greatest of tho powerful kings of tho uppcl' and lower country, defenders of truth, beloved of tmth, approved of tho sun, beloved of Phtah." Their costumo and titles, thcil' sacrifices and oblations, tho style of their decrees and d dications, arc su bRtantially tho same as on the monuments of the ancient Pharaohs. But though it seems as if tho national character and public life of Egypt itself had not undergone any material chango, tho Ptolemaic works of art reveal the slow action ofiiollonism. Mariette's unexpected discovery, in 1850, of a hemicycle formed of tlJO Greek statues of Pin dar, Lycurgus, Solon, Eul'ipidos, Pythagoras, Plato, .LEschylus, Homer, Aristotle, &c., in excavating tho Momphito f::orapoum, is a wonderful proof of tho manner in which Hellenic id as travelled with tho Greeks up the Nile. Stil l, tho elaborate attempts to attain Greek ol gancc and t•oibJ cmout, within tho old traditional forms, resulted only in degradation; pr clueing a hybl'id style, inferior to any of th.o former pha~es of Egyptian art. 'l'ho last known monuments creditable to nat1ve statuaries, arc thus rcfonod to by tho late Lott"onno fl9;- "tho second. is a bust in l'OSc-o·L'anito, of N ECTANEno, preserved in the British Museum (Bmcrr, ARUNDAI,J~ and BoNOMI, Galle?'?Jof Antiquities, Pl. 45, fig. luG), of very beautiful workmanship; Lhe thir·d is that 87 AMPi::rw, Voyage et Recherches c11 B'gypte et m Nubie; Rovuo des Doux l\fondes, 1846, 2d article. 88 L" civili.Yation tgyptiennc depuia l'ltabliaaement des Grecs 80u8 Psammetirua ;'uaqu' illa conqul!te d'A texandre. (Extmit do I~ Rovuo dos Doux Mondoa, 1 Fcv. ct I Avril, 1846, p. 50.) 1'11is J•ofinod spocimon of nrL--wbicll singul~l'ly corresponds in oxocution to tho Stritic Ileac! n.bovo figured (No. 18) -mn.y bo soon on nln.rgo sc~lo in tho Dc8Cription d6 l'lt(l,lfl'lc (1\ntiq. V. Pl. 6(), figs. 7, 8); nnd on ~ sm~llor in LENOl!ArANr's .Afudc dea A11tiguitea tgyptiwne8, Paris, fol., 1840. |