Memory of Empires: Ancient Egypt - Ancient Greece - Persian Empire - Roman Empire - Byzantine Empire E-Book

Elie Faure

• Herausgeber: Parkstone International
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 322

Beschreibung

Empires are born. Empires reach their peak. Empires die, but leave their mark through their architecture and artistic achievements. From these specks of dust of memory, 40 centuries of history shape our world of the 21st century. The power of ancient Egypt was followed by the influence of Greece, which brought the Persian East together in the conquests of Alexander the Great. After Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt, Rome became the power that ruled part of the world, finally dying out in the fall of the Byzantine Empire on 29 May 1453. The authors take the reader on a journey through time and space and highlight the succession of these civilisations that rubbed shoulders, even fought against each other and led us towards a more enlightened humanity.

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Author: Elie Faure and Victoria Charles

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ISBN: 978-1-64461-817-2

Elie Faure and Victoria Charles

Memory

CONTENTS

Ancient Egypt

Introduction The Country: Its Characteristic Aspects

A Glance At History

The Monuments

Tutankhamun, Pharaoh Of The Eighteenth Dynasty

Akhenaten, Pharaoh Of The Eighteenth Dynasty.

Nefertiti, Queen Of The Eighteenth Dynasty

Ramesses Ii, Pharaoh Of The Nineteenth Dynasty.

The Twentieth Dynasty

The Egypt That Does Not Die

Epilogue

Ancient Greece

Introduction

The Sources Of Greek Art

The Dorians

Dorian Art And Architecture

The Hera Of Samos

The Ionians

The Apollonian Myth

The Hellenistic Period

Phidias (C. 480 – 430 BC)

The Parthenon

The Dusk Of Mankind

Praxiteles (C. 400 – Before 326 B. C.)

The Gods Have Deserted The Souls Of The Artists

Persian Empire

Introduction

Before History

The Age Of Hellenism

The Sassanian State

Islam And Medieval Persia

Persian Manuscript Illumination And Persian Miniature Painting

Roman Empire

Introduction

Painting

Sculpture

Architecture

Byzantine Empire

Introduction

I. Early Byzantine Art (306-843)

II. The Renaissance Of Byzantine Art (843-1204)

III. Late Byzantine Art (1204-1453)

List Of Illustrations

ANCIENT EGYPT

Written in Greek and acient Egyptian, using three scripts (Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphs and demotic), the Rosetta Stone held the key to the decipherment of the ancient Egyptian texts.

INTRODUCTION THE COUNTRY: ITS CHARACTERISTIC ASPECTS

The natural introduction on Egyptian Art is a study, however summary, of the physical conditions of the country. Without exaggerating the influence of this medium upon artistic productions, it is nevertheless necessary to take into account the chief peculiarities of the Nile Valley, and to show in what respects this region essentially differs from almost every other land.

Let us glance at a map of Egypt. Across the great desert regions of northeastern Africa, the Nile forms a giant oasis, exceedingly elongated, which can be divided into two principal parts: the triangular estuary, called the Delta, and the course of the stream, which stretches far away toward the interior of Africa. The Delta is known as Lower Egypt, and the river proper, as far as the First Cataract, Upper Egypt.

Egypt is situated at the point of contact of three worlds: on its northern frontier it adjoins the eastern basin of the Mediterranean; on the eastern frontier of the Delta it touches Asia; and, by the course of the river, it effects a penetration into African regions. The natural frontiers of the north, the east and the west (Libyan or Sahara Desert) have never changed, but that of the south, on the contrary, has reached farther and farther up the course of the Nile just as the power of the kings of Egypt has extended to remoter regions. The First Cataract, in the Assouan District, constitutes the southern frontier of Egypt proper toward the south. The Pharaohs of the Ancient Empire rarely went beyond it: those of the Middle Empire conquered Lower Nubia; and later, Egyptian domination extended to Upper Nubia and even to the Sudan.

Sculpture statue of landmark Egyptian warrior goddess Sekhmet also Solar deity and protector of pharaohs monument in Temple of Medinet Habu or Ramses III in Luxor Egypt Africa

Moscow, Russia - Antique sculpture of sphinx and human murals in Egyptian room of Pushkin state museum of fine arts.

Let us first recall the brief and striking phrase by which Herodotus described Egypt as “a gift of the Nile.” The time of the rise and of the ebb of its waters is so governed by the courses of the sun and the moon that there is one season of the year when all the elements of the universe come to pay to this King of Rivers the tribute with which Providence has endowed them for his benefit. Then the waters increase, leave their bed and cover the whole face of Egypt in order to deposit there the fertile mud. There is no communication between village and village save by means of boats, which are as numerous as palm leaves. When at last the time comes when the waters cease to be necessary to the fertility of the soil, the docile river retreats within the banks which destiny has marked out for it, leaving the hidden treasures to be gathered. There are little copses of date palms, groups of acacias and sycomores, plots of barley or wheat, fields of beans or bersim here and there banks of sand which the slightest wind stirs up into clouds, and above all deep silence, scarcely broken by the cries of the birds or by the song of the oarsmen of a passing boat. The Nile unfolds its wandering course with the same motion amid the islets and its steep banks: village follows village at once smiling and dull beneath its canopy of leaves. «Everyyear, from June to October, the inundation drives the river from its bed: that part of the valley which is under water and on which the mud is deposited — the mud with which the water is charged — constitutes what might be called the real Egypt in opposition to the desert.

The Egyptians have bequeathed to us but scanty traces of their historical records. We know that from the earliest times they were wont to record important events in their history: indeed, there was even a special goddess relegated to preside over the annals of the Empire, but only a few fragments have come down to us.

Historical artifacts in Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Nile River of landmark Philae Temple ancient Egyptian public monument for the goddess Isis in Agilkia island Egypt Africa..

A GLANCE AT HISTORY

Can one compile, at the present day, a true history of Egypt, especially of the most ancient times? Information derived from the monuments, despite the great abundance of the latter, is, after all, of a very fortuitous nature. For one ancient papyrus which has been rescued, countless millions must have perished. ... It would seem that there still exists a great abundance of Egyptian documents, but they have to cover an enormous space of time. We can generally say that such and such a king carried out building operations upon such and such a temple; that he undertook a military expedition against such and such a neighboring country; that he returned with the spoils which he proudly enumerates; to which we may add a more or less lengthy catalogue of the monuments, which his contemporaries have left behind them. Our knowledge of the civilization of Egypt is much fuller, thanks to the biographical inscriptions and to the countless scenes depicted upon the temples and the tombs.

We must also allude to another important source of information, although the most difficult to use — the religious texts. These appear to us, from the times of the Ancient Empire, as the written version of a long and almost invariable oral tradition. They indicate to us a state of civilization which Egypt had long since left behind when these religious texts were used. The general impression which emerges from a scrutiny of these materials is that even the Egypt of the earliest dynasties had already a long past behind it.

The entrance of the mastaba of Seshemnufer IV and the Great Pyramid in background. Giza, Cairo, Egypt.

Step pyramid in Sappara, Egypt.

View of pyramids from the Giza Plateau: three Queens’ Pyramids the Pyramid of Menkaure the Pyramid of Khafre and the Great Pyramid of Giza (Khufu or Cheops).

Ancient history is divided into the following division:

Early Dynastic Period

First + second Dynasty

I and I

c. 3150-2686 BCE

Old Kingdom

Third to sixth Dynasty

III, IV, V, VI

2686-2181 BCE

First Intermediate

Seventh to eleventh Dynasty

VII, VIII, IX, X, XI

2181-2061 BCE

Middle Kingdom

Late eleventh to fourteenth

XI, XII, XIII, XIV

1705 - 1690 BCE Second

Intermediate

Fifteenth to seventeenth

XV, XVI, XVII

1674-1535 BCE

New Kingdom

Eighteenth to Twentieth

XVIII, IXX, XX

1549 - 1077 BCE Third

Intermediate

Twenty-first to twenty-fifth

XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV

1069-653 B.C.E.

Late Period

Twenty-sixth to Thirty-fist

XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX XXX, XXXI.

672 -332 B.C.E.

1st and 2nd Persian Period

Ptolemaic (Hellenistic) Period

From all this we perceive that there are two obscure epochs, one between the Ancient and Middle Empires, the other between the Middle and the New, and a confused period between the close of the New Empire and the 26th dynasty. We find that the first two of these obscure periods have been times of artistic decadence in Upper Egypt. With the inauguration of the Middle Empire (12th dynasty), of the New Empire (18th dynasty), and again under the Saite Empire (26th dynasty), the artistic traditions of the great epochs were successively revived. On each occasion, in fact, the models which served in the most brilliant periods of the Ancient Empire were reverted to, so that Egyptian art may thus be described not as a gradual artistic evolution which perfected itself as the ages rolled on, finally to deteriorate and die out, but rather as a series of deviations, or of decadence followed by renaissance. It is thus that we can explain the fundamental uniformity of Egyptian art, in a number of its manifestations, in spite of the great diversity which we notice.

THE MONUMENTS

Let us try to form a general idea of the monuments which have come down to us. What has been said above on the subject of history in general cannot but be repeated in the case of the history of art. All our knowledge is above all things fortuitous; for certain periods materials abound whilst for others, on the contrary, there are none at all, although one cannot legitimately infer from this lack of evidence that the Egyptians had completely ceased, for long ages, to produce works of art.

Certain classes of objects have entirely vanished. It is sufficient to cite but one example: the decorative goldsmith’s work, which is known to us through the representations of it on bas-reliefs and on paintings in the tombs and temples of the New Empire, where we see the kings presenting it as an offering to the gods, or the envoys of tributary states coming forward to lay it before the throne of the Pharaoh. Of another kind of monument, which is mentioned at times in the texts, it chances that a single specimen has survived. This is the great statue in metal of King Pepi I of the 6th dynasty.

The division of the country into Upper and Lower Egypt is an important one from the point of view of the preservation of works of art. One might say, almost without exaggeration, that in the Delta everything has disappeared, whilst in Upper Egypt, on the contrary, a great number of antiquities is preserved. This difference can be accounted for in various ways, of which we may cite a few instances.

In the Delta, on account of the great distance of the quarries, most of the buildings were necessarily constructed of wood or brick, stone being but sparingly used only in the principal parts, such as in facades or in doorways. The great growth of settlements and townships in Lower Egypt has led to a more and more systematic pillage of the ruins in order to carry off all the stones which can be re-used for building. The damp soil of the Delta has destroyed most of the objects confided to its care, whilst the desert of Upper Egypt has preserved them almost intact. But alike in Upper and Lower Egypt, other causes of destruction and disappearance are not lacking.

Even in quite recent times antique sites have been exploited as quarries: the temple of Amenophis III at Elephantine, for instance, which was an object of great admiration to the savants of Napoleon’s expedition, was completely demolished a few years later. Travelers in the first half of the nineteenth century have described and published in their narratives of travel many once important ruins which have vanished completely today.

The great pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

The great pyramids of Giza.

When one considers the countless wars and revolutions which have devastated the country (to say nothing of the fact that under the last dynasties Egypt submitted to at least two Ethiopian invasions, two Assyrian, and two Persian), and when one recalls the systematic destruction by the Christians who smashed the idols and the temples of false gods, and by the Arabs who mutilated all human figures, to say nothing of the ravages caused by excavators of long ago, one is astounded to find that so many Egyptian monuments still remain. And as though destruction by man were not sufficient, animals have done their share; one may instance the veritable invasions of white ants which have ravaged the ancient cemeteries.

It will now perhaps be convenient to draw up a kind of synopsis of typical groups of monuments, which must occupy our attention, picking out characteristic examples from each kind and for different periods. A monument of the 1st dynasty in the name of King Narmer (which some would identify with Menes, the first king to unite the two Egypts under one scepter) is known as the Palette of Narmer. It displays, among other things, a figure of the king clubbing a vanquished foe with his mace. From this monument onwards, the general association of ideas is fixed, and the same theme reappears again and again across the whole page of Egyptian history. The same palette, by its portrayal of a ritual festival, makes it possible for us to trace, from the very beginning, the complex of motives which originate in the art of this remote epoch. The stele of the Serpent King, now in the Louvre, is a masterpiece of execution. The falcon which surmounts the royal name is rendered with incomparable precision. One wonders for how long and with what thoroughness it must have been studied from nature before it became possible to seize with such perfection the characteristic form of the bird and to render the lines so simply and with so sure a hand that all the succeeding ages should find no need to alter in the smallest degree the outlines which thus became fixed and unchanging.

If we now glance at the reliefs on the wooden panels of Hesi, in the Cairo Museum, which date from the first part of the third dynasty, we shall find there, perfectly employed, the fundamental conventions in Egyptian drawing of the human figure. Thus, we see that the monuments of the first dynasties, rare as they are, display a fully developed art the execution of which is striking in its perfection.

The great necropolis areas, which extend all over the plateau of the Libyan desert from Gizeh to Meidum, have preserved an important series of architectural monuments; royal tombs, generally in the form of pyramids; funerary temples of the kings, adjoining the pyramids themselves; and the tombs of high officials of the type called by archaeologists, “mastabas.”

To cite some instances: the reconstruction of the temple and pyramid of Khephren gives us a general view of the necropolis of Kheops and of Khephren. In the background the great masses of the pyramids tower above the burial chambers of the kings; on their eastern faces the funerary temples stand, connected by a long passage to a kind of vestibule in the valley, at the foot of the plateau. Numerous mastabas are grouped around the pyramids, or in the neighborhood of the vestibules in the valley below. The same general arrangement is met with around the pyramid temples of Abusir, where we shall find all the fundamental principles of Egyptian architecture in all ages employed by the architects of the 5th dynasty, especially the floral columns, which are the most typical elements of this architecture.

The mastabas, which are massive rectangular piles, appear too as architectural complexes containing in embryo all the fundamental parts of the sacred edifice of Egypt. The walls of the chambers within are covered with bas-reliefs and paintings; in niches or in recesses hidden in the masonry are found numerous statues which furnish material for the study of sculpture in the round. To name three examples: The first is a diorite mask in the Leipzig Museum, reproducing the features of Khephren. Detached from the statue, this fragment perhaps gains somewhat in beauty and lifelike intensity, separated as it is from the purely Egyptian peculiarities of form which sometimes offend our eye. Next comes the striking copper statue of Pepi I; it bears witness to a very advanced knowledge in the rendering of anatomical details. It is, in fact, a real masterpiece in metal work. The material of which it is made has permitted the sculptor to separate the arms and legs entirely from the trunk without having to make use of slots for fitting, which we find in stone statues. The two statues of Rahotep and Nofrit, found at Meidum, complete our examples of the perfection of Egyptian art under the Ancient Empire.

Later ages may perhaps have produced more elegant works, but they have never succeeded in surpassing the Ancient Empire in truth and in fidelity to nature.

All of a sudden everything seems to dwindle and disappear, and the few monuments of the intervening period between the Ancient and the New Empires are of such a kind as to provoke the belief that some irremediable catastrophe has occurred. The most casual glance at the Dendereh stele of the end of the Ancient Empire shows to what depths of ugliness and coarseness Egyptian art must have lapsed, at least in Upper Egypt. Had we not precise information as to date, one might easily imagine that the Dendereh reliefs are centuries older than the admirable statues of the Ancient Empire. One can scarcely attribute this to the clumsiness of some inexperienced craftsman, of whom a poor man had requisitioned a funerary stele in some provincial town. The royal monuments of the 11th dynasty give a scarcely better impression, for we find the fragments of a certain King Mentuhotep at Gebelein, reproducing the theme of the Narmer palette, which is treated in a stiff and angular fashion without any life.

But a very short time had to pass before the kings of the 12th dynasty had completely revived the traditions of the Ancient Empire. The bas-reliefs of Sesostris I at Koptos, as well as at Karnak, show us once more in their conception and execution the perfection of the work of the Ancient Empire.

We know of few great architectural monuments of the Middle Empire. Plenty of temples had fallen into ruin in the course of ages, had been restored, rebuilt or enlarged by the sovereigns of the New Empire. A study, however, of the great funerary temple of the 11th dynasty at Deir-el-Bahari, whose ruins give us the data necessary for such a reconstruction, will serve to give a good idea of the abilities of their architects. A careful study should be made of a number of interesting documents of the Middle Empire: the tombs of the nomarchs or provincial governors in Upper Egypt, the most remarkable of which are at Beni Hasan. The façade of the tomb of Chnumhotep II is justly celebrated for its so-called proto-Doric columns, and displays a standard of beauty and simplicity which only the architects of Greece, who came centuries later, were able to surpass. The walls of these same tombs present a most interesting series of reliefs and paintings. Two lucky “finds” of caskets containing royal jewelry at Dahshur and at Illahun make a welcome contribution to the study of the industrial arts.

The New Empire will testify to a fresh revival of all the ancient traditions, when architecture will flourish on a majestic scale in the temples of the gods and of the funerary cult Thebes and Abydos, to name but the two most important sites, will furnish us with ample material for study. It will suffice here to cite one or two instances: the colonnade, in classic style, of the great temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir-el-Bahari is certainly one of the most amazing works, which Egyptian architecture has bequeathed to us. Only the Cavetto cornice which surmounts the entablature informs us that we are not in the presence of a creation of the classic architects; but the bas-reliefs and the inscriptions stand there as an irrefutable proof against any classic influence, and show that the builders of Deir-el-Bahari lived a thousand years before the childhood of Greek architecture.

Luxor is a well-known name in the history of art: it is there that stand the gigantic piles to which the greatest kings of the 18th and 19th dynasties devoted their building activities. But it is at Karnak that the taste for the colossal manifests itself in all its fulness. The hypostyle hall, so vast that it could contain the whole of the structure of the cathedral of Notre Dame at Paris, has its roof upheld by 134 columns, of which the highest are as massive as the Vendome Column.

Statue of ancient egypt deities Osiris and Isis with Horus isolated on white background

Nefertari, the favourite wife of Ramesses II, is introduced to various deities in scenes from the vestibule of her tomb in the Valley of the Queens.

Ancient Egyptian papyrus.

TUTANKHAMUN, PHARAOH OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY

Tutankhamun was a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1332–1323 BCE) during the period known as the New Kingdom. His tomb nestled in the desolate Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile just opposite Luxor was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. It was the richest royal tomb of antiquity ever found.

The ancient monuments of Egypt testify that the early Egyptians prepared for death as thoroughly as for life. Eternity was emphasized and, possibly as a consequence of this belief and the way it was carried out, the names of the Pharaohs have endured for more than three millennia. The Egyptians believed that the soul, living on after death, needed a home. Each tomb therefore contained the many possessions one might need for a future life - including murals, decorative arts and jewelry - and even servants, who could do the King’s work in the afterworld, in the form of Shawabty figures.

Tutankhamun’s tomb was crammed with magnificent furniture, statuary and countless glistening objects of gold. A coffin of massive gold held the mummified body of Tutankhamun, Canopic receptacles were used to preserve the young Pharaoh’s viscera and an alabaster lid from one of them, in the form of the King’s head, is in the exhibition. Also in the exhibition are: a miniature gold coffin in the likeness of the King; a turquoise-colored glass and gold headrest; a ceremonial flail and crook of gold and blue glass - both symbols of the Pharaoh power; the King’s favorite hunting knife fashioned of gold and found enclosed in the mummy’s linen wrappings; the young monarch’s gold walking stick embellished with a figure in his likeness; libation jars decorated chests; statuettes of gods; pectorals; rings; amulets and scarabs. The scarab was one of the many protective amulets placed on the mummy. The Egyptians believed that the scarab had the power to bring about the resurrection of the dead.

Ancient Temple of Philae in Egypt by the Nile River.

AKHENATEN, PHARAOH OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY.

Akhenaten meaning (“living spirit of Aten”) (1353–1336 BCE) known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV (sometimes given its Greek form, Amenophis IV, meaning Amun is satisfied), was a Pharaoh of the midst of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years. He is especially remembered for his attempt at a religious conversion of ancient Egypt, abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten cult, which is sometimes described as monotheistic. Aten, the sun disc, became the center of Egypt’s religious life, leading to the complete elimination of the names of Amun, a pre-eminent Egyptian god, from monuments and documents throughout Egypt’s empire.

We must assign a special place to the monuments which are associated with the name of Akhenaten. This strange Pharaoh, the religious and political reformer, has set his mark upon all the artistic productions of his time. The merest glance at the most exquisite piece of the series, the head of the queen in Berlin Museum, reveals to the beholder an aspect of Egyptian art widely different from everything else connected with the ordinary acceptance of the term.

His reign is known as the Amarna Period because he moved the capital of Egypt from the traditional site at Thebes to Akhetaten that he founded (in English transliteration Akhetaten means “Horizon of the Aten)”. The city, which was abandoned shortly after his death, came to be known as Amarna. After his death, traditional religious practice was gradually restored, and when some dozen years later, rulers without clear rights of succession from the Eighteenth Dynasty founded a new dynasty, they discredited Akhenaten and his immediate successors, referring to Akhenaten himself as “the enemy” in archival records.

Luxor Temple is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile River in the city today known as Luxor (ancient Thebes) and was founded in 1400 BCE.

NEFERTITI, QUEEN OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY

Nefertiti (c. 1370 – c. 1330 BCE) whose name means “a beautiful woman has come,” was a queen of Egypt and the wife of King Akhenaten. She ruled alongside Akhenaten during the Eighteenth Dynasty. She enjoyed an unusual status for a queen. Early artistic representations of her tend to be indistinguishable from her husband’s except by her regalia, but soon after the move to the new capital, Nefertiti begins to be depicted with features specific to her. Why Akhenaten had himself represented in the bizarre, strikingly androgynous way he did, remains a vigorously debated question.

As Amenhotep IV, Akhenaten was married to Nefertiti at the very beginning of his reign, and six daughters, but no sons were identified from inscriptions. Recent DNA analysis has revealed he also fathered Tutankhaten with his biological sister. From the earliest years of the heretic king Akhenaten’s reign, Nefertiti was distinctive because of her prominence in representations of cult scenes. Her participation in the rituals of the new religion was equal to that of her husband. In some parts of the Karnak temples of the Aten, the figure of the queen actually dominates the decoration.

Akenaten seems to have had a great love for his Chief Royal wife. They were inseparable in early reliefs, many of which showed their family in loving compositions. In some portrayals Nefertiti is only distinguishable from Akhenaten by their crowns and cartouches. This may reflect that they were siblings or related. The famous bust found in Amarna in 1912 shows not only her great beauty, but also a woman of strength and vision, capable of starting her own cult, and of ruling.

Ludwig Borchardt, a German archaeologist, and his team unearthed an exquisite limestone bust of Nefertiti, sculpted by Thutmose in c. 1360 BCE. The bust is 48 centimeters tall, weighs about 20 kilograms and is housed in the Neues Museum in Berlin. Its companion piece, a bust of Akhenaten, had been smashed.

Landmark ruins Temple of Kom Ombo Egyptian monument from 180 to 47 B.C. in Ptolemaic dynasty with columns reliefs carving images and hieroglyphs in Aswan Egypt Africa.

The temple of Abu Simbel in Egypt.

RAMESSES II, PHARAOH OF THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY.

Ra-Messu II., or Ramesses II. (c. 1303 - 1213 BCE) was the son of Seti I. and the queen Tuya, who seems to have been connected with the royal house of the Amenhotep kings. He was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty. The year of his age when he ascended the throne is unknown, but he is believed to have taken the throne in his late teens. He adopted as his Horus name “Mighty Bull, beloved of Maat,” and a very large number of epithets which we find applied to him in the inscriptions were regarded as Horus names and treated accordingly, being placed in rectangular enclosures within which the Horus names were usually written.

Although it is improbable that Ramesses II. was crowned king of Egypt when he was still a child living in the women’s quarters in the palace, we are right in thinking that he was trained with the soldiers and accustomed to military command when he was ten or twelve years of age. Besides his military appointments he held the offices of counselor and overseer of certain lands, and Seti I. spared no pains to qualify him to become a wise and able prince. In the reign of Seti I. Ramesses took part in certain raids which were made upon the Libyans and other tribes living on the west and northwest frontiers of Egypt, and he was present at several fights with the Nubians in various parts of their country. He continued the wars in Nubia during the first two or three years of his reign, and they were waged with such fierceness that it seems as if some of the tribes of that country must have tried to shake off the yoke of Egypt, and to cease from the payment of tribute to the new king.

The principal memorial of his wars in Nubia, Libya, and Syria is the little rock-hewn temple at Beit al-Walli near Kalabsha, where, on the two sides of the vestibule, are scenes depicting the principal events of these wars, the capture of prisoners, and the receipt of tribute. In the Libyan war the king was accompanied by his son Amun-her-khepeshef, who is represented as bringing prisoners before his father; Ramesses was also accompanied by his favorite dog, which attacked the foe at the same time as his master. The Syrians, as usual, took refuge in their fortresses, but they availed them naught, for their entrances were forced by the Egyptian soldiers and, if we may trust the picture on the wall, the Syrians were put to the sword by the king whilst they were in the very act of tendering submission and pleading for mercy. The scenes which illustrate the Nubian campaigns are more interesting, for we see the king seated in state and receiving the gifts brought to him by the natives. These gifts consisted of gold rings, leopard or panther skins, prisoners, apes, panthers, giraffes, oxen, gazelles, ostriches, ebony, bows, feathers, fans, chairs of state, tusks of elephants, a lion, an antelope, etc., and it is clear that they must, for the most part, have been brought from the country to the south of the Fourth Cataract. On his Nubian campaign Ramesses was accompanied by his sons who are seen in their chariots charging the Nubians, and performing mighty deeds of valor. From the accounts given of the battles in Nubia it does not appear that Ramesses did anything more than make certain tribes pay tribute; he does not seem to have made his way as far to the south as some of his predecessors had done, and he certainly added no new territory to the Egyptian possessions in Nubia.

In the fourth year of his reign Ramesses was engaged in a military expedition in Syria, a fact proved by the memorial stele which he set up on the rocks overhanging the left or south bank of the Nahr al-Kalb, or “Dog River,” near its mouth. Here the king is seen thrusting into the presence of the god Menthu a Syrian prisoner, who has his hands tied behind him, and whom he holds by a feather placed on the top of his head. At the Dog River there are three stelae of Ramesses II., and one of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who set his up on his return from the conquest of Egypt, to commemorate the capture of Memphis by him in the year B.C.E. 670. The inscriptions on all three stelae of Ramesses are obliterated and the dates of two of the three.

The Kheta wars were the chief military events of the reign of Ramesses II., and the result of them, as far as Egypt was concerned, was a reduction of her dominions. On the other hand, the arts and sciences flourished, and the noble buildings of every kind which sprang up as if by magic in all the great centers of religious thought prove that the skill of the architect, and the artist, and the workman was as great as it had ever been; their style was not so good as that of the 4th and 12th Dynasties, but this was due both to change of ideas and taste among the Egyptians, and to the influence, which was exerted on the arts and crafts by foreign intercourse and trafficking. When Ramesses II. died he left his country in a comparatively flourishing condition, but his empire was crumbling away, and the events, which took place under Merneptah prove that the nations around were only waiting for his death to invade Egyptian territory.

A delicately carved and painted raised relief, originally from Seti I’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings, shows Hathor embracing Seti.

The magical potency of a Cippus of Horus was no doubt strengthened if it was held by a statue of a priest.

THE TWENTIETH DYNASTY

The famous temple at Abu-Simbel, which is entirely excavated out of the living rock, with its colossal statues fifty feet high, is a worthy architectural fellow to the temple of Karnak. In the 20th dynasty the imposing mass of Medinet Habu, raised to the glory of Ramesses III, bears eloquent testimony that the greatest traditions were still flourishing at that time.

The hosts of New Empire tombs at Thebes and Tell-el- Amarna furnish us with types of quite a long series of architectural styles. In some cases, the sand has so acted as a preservative that we can find the structures almost in the state in which the Egyptians left them: such, for example, is the case of the central bay of the tomb of Ay at Tell-el- Amarna. The temples, as well as the tombs, have handed down to us countless statues, both of royal and of private persons, of all sizes, from huge colossi down to delicate little statuettes, and in every kind of material, displaying a surprising variety of different attitudes and forms.

It will suffice for the moment to instance one of the masterpieces of sculpture of the 18th dynasty: the Karnak statue of Tuthmosis III, or the statue of Ramesses II, presenting a table of offerings, which is at once one of the most lifelike and free productions of Egyptian art.

The court of Ramesses II at Luxor, with its great statues set up under the porticoes, proves that in spite of technical difficulties the kings did not shrink from the employment of colossi on a large scale. As may well be imagined, the walls of the temples and tombs of the New Empire have provided an incredible number of bas-reliefs, paintings and drawings. We may cite a single sketch in the tomb of Ramose at Thebes, where the artist has depicted in a group the characteristic features of the races bordering upon Egypt with a precision, which the most critical eye would find it difficult to find fault with.

The wealth of Egypt at this time did not fail to give a great stimulus to the Industrial arts: thus, the tombs have preserved for us a number of pieces of the highest order, especially furniture. Fancy articles are known, as regards the New Empire, in richer abundance than at any other period. Can one imagine any object more truly artistic in its composition than the unguent holder In the Liverpool Museum, which is made in the form of a statuette of a slave, bearing upon his shoulder a large vase?

After this spell of great abundance In the New Empire, we find ourselves almost entirely unprovided with documents for the next few centuries. The 21st to the 24th dynasties have left little by way of architecture; but as to sculpture the discovery of a hoard at Karnak has supplied us with an extensive series of statues of the chief members of the priestly families. These works are interesting certainly, but they display no particular characteristics.

Of the Saite Empire (26th and following dynasties) scarcely anything has survived. Certain statues and reliefs, however, are sufficient to testify to a renaissance, and that once more the Egyptians are drawing their inspiration from the most ancient models. In architecture, one building, the Kiosk of Nectanebo (the temple of Isis) in the island of Philae, is the introduction to the long series of Greco-Roman monuments. The Ptolemies, and then the emperors, did in fact, raise important buildings in different parts of Egypt, which are quite enough to show how much vitality the ancient art of the Pharaohs still possessed. In their day, and in this connection, it is sufficient to cite the well-known names of Philae, Edfu and Denderah. There we shall find buildings almost intact in some parts, and the study of these makes it possible for us to restore, at least in spirit, the great ruins of the preceding ages. When one paces the pathway around the temple of Edfu, or wanders among the columns of the hypostyle hall at Denderah, one might easily be tempted to imagine that time had stopped for hundreds of years, and that one would see, without much surprise, the Egyptian priests, with their white robes and close-shaven heads, sally forth from one or other of the chambers.

The bas-reliefs, of almost infinite extent, show us the Greek dynasts or the Roman emperors doing their best to look like the native Pharaohs, their far-off predecessors. The execution has unfortunately fallen short of its intentions, and sculpture in relief, as opposed to architecture, betrays the imminent decline into which Egyptian art was soon to lapse.

Thèbes Ouest. Vallée Des Rois. Tombe De Taousert (No 14). Les Déesses-Sœurs Isis Et Nephthys.