without any adventitious aid, by purity of line and rightness
of proportion. The build-
ing is almost complete,
and it might be supposed
that by the help of the
data gleaned at Abusir
and in the chapels of the
Pyramids, we should be
able to re- establish the
general plan of the ordinary
temples from this example;
such, however, is not the
case, and the problem is
still obscured by too many
unknown issues to be
solved. I think I may
venture so far as to say
that they lacked certain
features proper to those of the later periods, such as pylons,
with their high bay flanked by two massive towers. The doors
opened directly in the enclosing wall as did later those of
Thebes, in the Saite period. They were accompanied by a
portico, and followed by a court, round and in the midst of
which the offering-tables and the materials of worship were
disposed. The main body of the building rose at the end, but
we are unable to say how the different apartments were arranged.
The sanctuary was assu-
FIG. 79. FLOOR AND LIBATION-TROUGH OF THK
UNFINISHED PYRAMID AT Z A WYET-EL-ARY An.
{Phot. Oyopesa.)
redly quite at the back,
but it is a question
whether the rooms which
flanked it right and left
were already assigned to
the mother-goddess and
the child. The point most
clearly established by the
ruins is that a good many
elements very frequent at
a later period were alrea-
dy in use, among them
the cornice with its curved
gorge , the gargoyles of projecting dcmi-lions on the stone
facings, the images of gua-.dian lions (Fig. 88), the square pillars,
48
FIG. 80.
-FI.AN OK THK CHAl'KI^ OK C
(After Sttindorff.)
MEMPHITE ART
the
and
the palm or lotus column. The former was in favour under
Fifth Dynasty, rather heavy in the temple of Sahu-Ra, lii^ht
slender in that of Unas (P ig. 89),
Its capital is formed of a bunch
of palm-leaves, attached to the
shaft by four ribbons, and bend-
ing gracefully under the weight
of the abacus. The lotus-like
columns of Sahu-Ra and Shepses-
ptah (Fig. 90) are circular, where-
as those of Ra- en -user are
rectangular at the base, but
are gradually rounded as they
rise till they become almost
circular at the summit (Fig. 91).
Save for some slight variations,
they consist of four or six lotus-
stems in fasces, bulbous at the
foot, and adorned with triangular
leaves; the buds, bound to the
neck of the shaft by four or
five bands, are grouped into a
bouquet to form the capital,
and sometimes young buds, inserted between the half-open
ones, fill the spaces above the ligatures. Examination of the ruins
leads to the conclusion that Memphite architecture, though it
8l. — I'lAN ..
(After IJ
>rchardl.)
inclined to the gigantic
desire it for the temples
of the gods; it aimed here
at strength and elegance
rather than at immensity.
The surfaces it offered
nevertheless afforded an
almost boundless field for
the activity of sculptor
and painter. Generally
speaking , the Egyptians
would not allow even the
most beautiful stone to
remain bare, while on
the other hand, painting
alone without sculpture
beneath it, did not approve
for the tombs of its kings, did not
FIO. 82.
SEPULCHRAL CHAPKL OF RA-EN-USER.
(After Borchardt)
49 E
ART IN EGYPT
r.^
FIG. 83. — SOI.AR TEMPLE OF RA-EN-USER,
AS RESTORED BY BORCHARDT.
itself to them as possessing the enduring qualities required for
the adornment of temples and tombs; with few exceptions, it
was tolerated only in
houses and palaces. The
Pharaohs, indeed, had
an instinctive repugnance
to taking up their abode
in dwellings where others
had lived before them;
they generally abandoned
these to their progeny,
and improvised new dwell-
ings for themselves, which
always seemed to them
good enough if they were
of a nature to last as
long as themselves. For
such ephemeral buildings
they were content with a perishable ornamentation of simple
painting on the ceilings, pavements, and walls, and the same
latitude obtained perforce in hypogea carved in a rock unfit for
sculpture, as well as in the chapels of sun-dried bricks which
villagers too poor to use stone raised for their gods; everywhere
else, colour isonly, sotospeak, the complement of relief, but a comple-
ment so indispensable that
it is difficult to imagine
a building without it.
We understand now why
painting in Egypt never
acquired the personal
development and com-
plexity which characterises
it in our own countries.
It laid flat tints on the
work of the sculptor, and
indicated the details of
costume and the acces-
sories which he had not
noted. The artist's work
was therefore rather that
of an illuminator than a
painter, and the necessity of reliefs to cover was so impera-
tive in his eyes that he did his utmost to suggest them, even
50
FIG. 84.— BRKK BOAT OF RA-EN-USER.
(After Borchardt.)
MEMPHITE ART
â– FIG. 85-
-TEMPLE OF THE SPHINX.
(After Mariette.)
where they did not exist; he surrounded his fiirurcs with a
red or black outline which defines the contours as sharply as if
he had cut them with a style.
The deliberate neglect of half-
tones and of their infinite variety,
led him to choose for each ob-
ject or person a tone which,
without deviating too widely
from nature sometimes made
no attempt to approach it very
closely. Thus men are represented
with skin of a more or less dark
brown , while women are light
yellow; a blue, either pure or
streaked with black, was reserved
for the sea, a bright green for
grass and foliage, and a dirty
yellow dotted with red stood
either for corn piled in heaps
or for the sand of the desert. With conventions so harassing,
and means so restricted, artists nevertheless man ged to produce
works of striking truth and senti-
ment. Such was the tomb of the
time of Seneferu at Medum,
where Vassalli saved the famous
geese which are now in the Museum
of Cairo (Fig. 92). The movement
is excellent, and the characteristics
which distinguish the male and
female in each couple are noted
with an accuracy which surprises
naturalists; a Chinese or Japanese
artist could have done no better.
Unfortunately, this is an excep-
tional example; the painting of
the Memphite age rarely rose to
the dignity of an autonomous art;
it was a servile dependent of
sculpture.
Such being the case, decoration,
whether of tomb or temple, was
considered an immense composition, every part of which converged
to the same point: in the temple, to the wall at the back of
51 e2
FIG.86.— rS'TERIOR OF THE TEMPL,E
OF THE SPHINX (Phot. E. Brugsch).
ART IN EGYPT
FIG. 87. — FACADE OF THE TE^rPLE OF THE SPHINX
(Phot. Steindorff).
the sanctuary, in the tomb to the stele which had replaced the
door of the vault. It is true that every room, and in every room
each wall, and on
every wall each picture
constitutes a whole
where the various
persons mingle and
confront each other
in such a manner,
that if some are ad-
vancing to this kib-
lah ^ others seem
either to be going
away from it, or at
least, not to be
making their way
towards it; but this
contrariety of move-
ment , which might
seem to stultify the
principle just laid down, is explained when we examine the
conditions under which it is produced. In the temple, it is
always the god, the supreme
deity of the place, and the divin-
ities of his family or of his suite
who move in the opposite direct-
ion to the rest: the oblationist,
priest or king, always advances
in the normal direction. Occasion-
ally, but infrequently, a single
scene occupies the entire wall;
more often, it is divided into
panels. Thus the ritual of divine
worship was resolved into a
definite number of ceremonies,
which were at will isolated from
their neighbours, or grouped in
})rocessions more or less long.
When at the beginning of the
sacrifice Pharaoh washed the altar,
lighted the fire, burnt the incense, poured the libations of water,
wine , milk and essences, he provided the material for so many
* The Arab prayer-niche, facing towards Mecca.
52
Fir.. RS. — TTKAn OF A T.TON FROM
SAKKAHAU (Museum, Cairo).
(Phot. E. Bnigsch.J
MEMPHITE ART
distinct scenes. And as, to
ensure the complete efficacy of
these operations, he had to j)er-
form them once as the kinir of
the South, and again as the king
of the North, the artist was also
obliged to depict them twice, but
at the same time to distribute
them symmetrically from room to
room, so that at last the temple
came to be, as it were, cut into
two parallel sections with corre-
sponding decorations; in the
right hand section the sovereign
officiated in the name of Upper
Egypt, in the left in that of
Lower Egypt. He thus pro-
ceeded from without to within
until he reached the Holy of
FIG. 89.— TWO COLUJINS WITH PALM-
LEAF CAPITALS FROM THK FUNKR-
ARY CHAPEL OF UNAS
(Museum, Cairo). (Phot. E. Brugsch.)
FIG. 90.
LOTUS COLUMN OF
SHEPSES-PTAH
(Museum , Cairo).
(Phot. E. Brugsch.)
Holies, and
at each stage,
the god rose before him, like some great
lord coming out to meet his subjects, con-
fronting them and receiving their homage
from station to station. The concatenation
is far less strict in the tombs, for here the
deceased plays a double part , and whereas
in some places he passively awaits the results
of the labours his posterity performs for his
benefit, in others he behaves as if he were
still reckoned among the living; he passes
through his fields or workshops to see what
is being done, and superintend. The con-
tradiction in the two parts is accordingly
translated by a similar contradiction in the
orientation of his 'mages; some of these move
or stop facing the kiblah, like the faithful who
have come from the outer world to do honour
to their ancestor, but the majority turn their
backs on it and seem to be advancing from
it, as becomes the master of the house. If,
disregarding these exceptions, which are the
result of the ideas held by they Egptians as
53
ART IN EGYPT
to the material conditions of the after-life, we take the pictures
of the hypogeum as a whole, we must admit that they tend uni-
formly towards the stele, and that they illustrate by their suc-
cession the mystic drama, the episodes of which are evolved
from the threshold of the chapel to the sup-
posed door of the tomb-chamber.
Artists registered them, and as they were
used in the same manner in the temples, they
finally became a series of designs containing
all the elements necessary to decorate the
house of the dead or that of the god. It is
probable that in the beginning each town had
its cartoons , in which the characteristic features
of its religion and its burial rites were repro-
duced, but at the moment when history begins
for us, local diversities persisted only in a
slight degree, and two general types prevailed,
one for the tomb, the other for the temple;
the numerous examples of each which we
possess were distinguished only by the details
of the names and figures. As I have already
said, several evidences lead one to conclude
that they were definitively fixed in the schools
of the Delta, and this I consider a proved
fact in the case of the tombs; it is, indeed,
in the Delta, and in the Delta alone, that
the papyrus reed grows to an immense height,
and forms those vast thickets into which the
holy dead penetrate at will, to harpoon fish,
or hunt water-fowl and hippopotamus (Fig. 93).
After the priests of Heliopolis had codified
the principles of the worship of the gods and
of the dead, they came almost inevitably to
lay down rules for the composition and exe-
cution of the pictures in which they represent-
ed it. They permitted no variation in aught
relating to the gods, for when man was invoking these, his
most insignificant acts and attitudes had their importance. To
carry out his work to perfection, the artist should have de-
composed the slightest gestures of the celebrant into as many
distinct images, but the theologian did not insist on this. He
merely required the artist when rendering each of the episodes,
the sequence of which constituted the ritual, to express the
54
pu; .(ji .— i>f )T(;.s-coi.-
UMN OK KA-KN-USKR
(Museum, Cairo).
(Phot. E. Brugsch.)
MEMPHITE ART
critical moment when the act was accomplished which procluccd
the maximum effect. In earlier ages, the chief or king himself
lassoed the almost wild bull in the fields for sacrifice (Fig. 91).
1
•^^."^
FIG. 92.— THE GEESE OF MEDUM (Museum, Cairo). (Phot. E. Brugsch.J
He felled it, tied its hoofs together, and then killed it with a
wooden pole-axe, partially sharpened, with wnich he dealt it
a blow on the skull between the eyes. At a later period, they
cut the beast's throat instead of dealing it a death-blow, but
the antique weapon and the gesture it demanded were preserved
and inscribed on the walls as the characteristic emblem of
the rite. Where we see the king standing before the god and
presenting the pole-axe to him, we are contemplating the sacri-
fice, although the victim is absent; when once the scene had
been thus symbolised, it was
transmitted from generation to
generation in the same form,
varying only in the accessories,
and it was to be found at
Kom-Ombo under the Antonines
just as it was under the earliest
Pharaohs. If we now return to
the mastabas and examine the
same motive there, we shall
suddenly perceive that it is not
treated in accordance with
an immutable formula. The
draughtsman expands or con-
denses it regardless of the
theologian ; he multiplies or
suppresses supernumeraries, re-
laxes or stiffens theii' gestures,
combines their efforts; if so
disposed, he devotes entire
panels to the ultimate fate of the bull, the cutting-up, and the
presentation of the pieces to the master. And what is true of
55
FIG. 9?.
-HIPPOPOTAMUS HUNT IX THE
TOMH OF TI.
ART IN EGYPT
the sacrifice applies equally to all the rest; composition and
rendering are no less varied in the book of the tombs than
they are uniform in that
of the temples. Dogma,
which prescribed to the
artist the choice and treat-
ment of the scenes in
which the gods were visibly
present, allowed him much
more liberty in dealing
with the dead.
Incoherent as they are,
the fragments of the
chapels of Unas, Ra-en-
user and Sahu-Ra which
have come down to us,
suffice to prove that the book of the temples comprised even
at this period the same kind of pictures, connected almost in
the same manner, as those we find under the Second Theban
Empire. The decorative scheme changed its nature as it pro-
gressed from without to within. In the places accessible to
the public, in the co
FIG. 04. — THK SACRIFICIAL BIU.L LASSUKI) BY
THK KING, AT ABYDOS (Drawing by Boudier).
umned hall which served
as vestibule, and under
the porticoes bordering
the entrance court, the
warlike deeds of the so-
vereign were set forth,
or at least those for which
he gave glory to the god,
and the spoils of which
had helped to build or
restore the temple. Thus
Sahu-Ra was shown on
the south side of his
hypostyle hall striking
down a king of Libya
who is pro'ie at his feet
(Fig. 95); further on, three
daughters of a Libyan
chief implored his mercy,
captive herds of oxen, asses, goats and sheep advanced in four
rows, while at the base of the wall, beneath the animals, the
56
p-f«^
w^ru
I
.^\
^ 1
/
k
Z
FIG. 95.— A LIBYAN CHIKK STRl'CK DOWN BY
SAHU-RA (Museum, Berlin). (Phot. L. Borchardt)
MEMPHITE ART
family of the vanquished
wept over the fate of its
chief in the presence of
Amentit, Regent of the West,
and Ashu, Lord of the Desert.
Elsewhere, Pharaoh is en-
gaged in a naval expedition
against Asiatics; his fleet ad-
vances towards him in two
lines, amidst the clamour of
the crews. Or he is hunting
in the desert, where he pur-
sues birds through the pa-
pyrus. All these recollect-
ions of his princely life cease
when he crosses the thresh-
old of the inner chambers.
An escort of offering-bearers
accompanies him thither for
a few moments, but these
soon leave
turn, and he
him
m
remams
FIO.06.— KlNOSAHT'-T
CiOODESS TX THK PRKSKM K (IK KlINKMU
(Museum, Cairo). (Phot. L. Brugsch.)
FIG. gy.— MENKHAU-HERU
(The Louvre, Pau^is).
their
alone
with
his divine fathers; the goddesses adopt
him as their son, suckling him from their
breasts (Fig. 96), and the gods receive
wine and water from him, and perfumed
oil, tribute by which he hopes to gain
their goodwill. Several of these motives
we have already seen in the mastabas;
but until we have studied them on the
royal monuments, we can form no idea
of the perfection with which the Memphite
artists have treated them. The Menkhau-
Heru of the Louvre (Fig. 97) had already
shown us with what charm they were
able to invest the images of their Pharaohs,
but this was but an isolated fragment;
on the great bas-reliefs of Abusir, each
figure, from head to foot, and when
several figures in conjunction are in
question, each group of figures, is drawn
with a continuous line, traced upon the
57
ART IN EGYPT
gS. — TRIUMPHAL BAS-RELIEF OF SEXEFERU
AT SINAI. (Phot. Petrie.)
stone with an assurance and freedom that never falter for an
instant. The background is hollowed imperceptibly along- this
line, to accentuate the
relief, but so subtly is
it done that we can only
perceive it by an effort;
the subject is by this
means placed in an at-
mosphere which softens
its contours more than
might have been thought
possible with a relief
kept so low. The inner
details show a mingling of
definite lines and almost
imperceptible modellings;
the individual elements
of the face, the eyes, the
nose, the mouth, and the
chin are indicated with a
vigorous point, and with sharp edges which accentuate the form;
but the elasticity of muscles
and flesh is expressed by mellow
strokes and touches which coun-
teract the hardness of the rest
(Fig. 99). Beings of supernatural
proportions, kings or gods, had
eyes of enamel , and this device
gave them an appearance of life
which was enhanced by the paint-
ing. The colour has fallen off
nearly everywhere, but where
it has been preserved , it is ad-
mirably fresh and harmonious. It
completes the work of the sculptor,
and adds to this a precision which
the chisel could hardly have
achieved without heaviness; thus
it clothes Uzucri, the god of the
sea, with a tunic of undulating
blue stripes, symbolising the ocean
or covers the god of cereals, Naj)riti , with a sprinkling of
brownish yellow oblong grains, typifying corn (Fig. 100).
58
FIG. 99.— PORTION OF A FEMALE
FIGURE (Tomb of Gemnikai).
Ml^MPHlTE ART
WJ\ n
All these were produced in the royal workshops, like the
triumphal bas-reliefs of Sinai (Fig. 98), and also, probably as a
result of royal favour, certain funerary bas-reliefs of tombs in
which friends of the sovereign were buried. In my opinion, we
should include in this category the admirable wood -carvings of
Hesi (Fig. 102), one panel
at least of which (Fig. 101),
ranks among the most
astonishing manifestations
of Memphite art. It is
not surprising that these
workshops , installed as
they were in the royal
residence, in the richest
and most highly civilised
centre of the age, staffed
by families attached for
generations to the service
of the sovereign, and con-
stantly recruited from all
the best elements of the
popular workshops, should
have produced these fine
things; but the level of
artistic excellence sinks
as soon as we turn away
from them, and in certain
provinces it falls so low
that it is hardly superior
to that of the most bar-
barous people. The local
schools, though they had adopted the decorative system of
Heliopolis, had not cast aside their individual characteristics,
and these are clearly manifested in private tombs. Those of the
Said have left us but a few specimens of their respective art,
and it would perhaps be imprudent to judge them from the
examples we have at present. Two or three full length por-
traits of the barons of Elephantine, incised on the facades of
their hypogea, are fairly correct in treatment (Fig. 103), as are
also their bas-reliefs (Fig. 104), but the rest are merely rude dis-
jointed figures with ill-matched arms and legs, rugged, twisted,
and loaded with crude colour. A stonemason turned sculptor
would give a better account of himself after a fortnight's study,
59
JiTklk
a1
FIG. 100.— BAS-RELIEF OF THE CHAPEL OF SAHU-
KA (Museum, Cairo) (Phot E. Brugsdi.)
ART IN EGYPT
and we should readily attribute them to a very primitive period,
if we did not know from their inscriptions that they were exe-
cuted under the Sixth Dynasty.
The persons who worked in the
mastabas of Denderah hardly show
a more highly developed artistic
sense than those of Elephantine,
although they prove themselves
more skilful craftsmen. They encir-
cled the human face with two stiff
lines, uniting at an almost insen-
sible angle towards the tip of the
nose; they furnished the mouth
with lips of equal thickness from
end to end ; they set the almond-
shaped eye between two pads which
are comic as indications of human
eyelids. The slope of the shoulder
is over-round in their figures, the
elbow too pointed, the knee too
knotty; the leg is swollen with
muscles which defy the laws of
anatomy. We divine a strong
ambition to excel, but feeling and technique are not on a level
with aspiration. Some few miles west of Denderah, we enter
suddenly into a world with higher aptitudes for the plastic arts.
Here the unity of style
reveals unity of tradition;
and in fact, one single
school, theThinite, reigned
supreme from Kasr-es-
Sayad to the burial-
grounds of Heracleopolis
in Abydos, to Akhmim,
to Kau-el-Kebir, to Siut,
to Beni - Mohammed -el-
Kufur, to Kom-el-Ahmar,
everywhere save at Her-
mopolis. Hcrmopolis, the
city of Thoth, had been
from the most remote
anticjuity, a centre of religious speculation, where theories as
to the creation of beings and the essence of things were ela-
60
FIG. lOI.— ONE OF THE FIGTmES OF
HESI-RA (Museum, Cairo).
(Phot. E. Brugsch.)
FlfJ. 102.— WOOHEN T'ANEES FROM THE TOMH OF
HE.si-KA (Museum, Cairo). (P/iol. E. Brugsch.)
MEMPHITE ART
FIG. 103.— A PRIXCE OF ELKPHAN-
TIXE. (Phot. J. de Morgan.)
borated; nevertheless, having arrived at reflection and a system
after Heliopolis, it had, in the main accepted the doctrines and
funerary decorations of the latter,
and its originality is revealed to
us less by the concept it may
have formed of the tomb, than by
the details of its scenes and their
material execution. Its draughtsmen
were remarkable for their sense
of life, the intensity and diversity
of their movement, and a good
humour, the expression of which
sometimes verges on caricature.
Thus, in one of the tombs of
Meir, there are persons evidently
suffering from famine; reduced to
positive physiological distress, their
bones are coming through the skin;
this is the procession of the lean
(Fig. 105). Another artist near by
has reserved his wall for the fat
and well -liking, both of man and
beast; it shows a kind of carnival of the obese (Fig. 106)
Anatomical accuracy is scrupulously observed in both cases, but
the lean are perhaps superior to the fat; they come and go
with an angular vivacity which would befit the skeletons of our
dances of death.
The Thinite School is only to be distinguished by its air of
provincial stiffness,
or rather, the Mem-
phite School is in
sculpture as in archi-
tecture the con-
tinuation of the
Thinite. The royal
workshops of This,
transferred to the
North at the be-
ginning of the Third
Dynasty, taught their
methods to the
natives, and soon these, gaining in refinement by practice,
became capable of executing the commissions of princes and
61
FIG. 104.— BAS-RELIEF IX THE TOMl', oi" MKKHC AT
ELEl'HANTINE. (Phot. Couyut.)
ART IN EGYPT
private persons. They were at their full maturity as early as
the time of Cheops, and their prosperity endured until the end
of the Memphite empire. True, there
is not a general level of excellence
throughout their burial-places; but if
there is a good deal of poor work to
be found, there is still more that is
good, and examples of a very high
quality are not uncommon, even setting