File:A history of art in ancient Egypt (1883) (14772667175).jpg

Identifier: historyofartinan01perruoft (find matches)
Title: A history of art in ancient Egypt
Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Perrot, Georges, 1832-1914 Chipiez, Charles, 1835-1901 Armstrong, Walter, Sir, 1850-1918
Subjects: Art -- Egypt History Egypt -- Antiquities
Publisher: London : Chapman and Hall
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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to evolveorder from such a chaos of pylons, columns, colossal statues andobelisks, from such a tangled mass of halls and porticos, corridorsand narrow chambers. If we begin, however, by studying some ofthe less complex structures we soon find that many of thesenumerous chambers, in spite of their curious differences, wererepetitions of one another so far as their significance in thegeneral plan is concerned. When a temple was complete inall its parts any monarch who desired that his name too should beconnected with it in the eyes of posterity, had no resource but toadd some new building to it, which, under the circumstancessupposed, could be nothing but a mere replica of some part alreadyin existence.^ They took some element of the general plan, such At Thebes, still existing inscriptions prove this to be the case, and at Memphisthe same custom obtained, as we know from the statements of the Greek travellers.The temple of Ptah—the site of which seems to be determined by the colossal
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a, o X c a C3 OM O VOL. I. V ^ The Temple under the New Empire. 347 as the hypostyle hall at Karnak, and added to it over and overagain, giving rise to interesting changes in the proportion,arranofement and decoration. One of the most intelligent of the ancient travellers, namely,Strabo, attempted the work of discrimination which it is nowour duty to undertake. He wrote for people accustomed tothe clear and simple arrangements of the Greek temple, andhe attempted to give them some idea of the Egyptian temple,such as he found it in that Heliopolis whose buildings made suchan impression upon all the Greeks who saw them.^ His description is, perhaps, rather superficial. It says nothingof some accessory parts which were by no means without theirimportance, and those details which most strongly attracted theauthors attention are not mentioned in their natural order, w^hichwould seem to be that in which the visitor from without wouldmeet them in his course from the main door to the sanctuar

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