Química de elementos mayores

These sovereigns finish the twelfth dynasty, but the monuments fail to give us any important information about the history of the king and his sister queen Sebek-nofru-ra. This last was an heiress as the princess Nitaker [174] was at the end of the sixth and Nofertari at the end of the seventeenth dynasty. The succession to the empire went by marriage to a new race, with which we shall be more particularly occupied when we come to consider the thirteenth dynasty. The word Sebek, which is in the name of the Queen, reminds us again of the god of the Fayoom or 'country of the Lake,' which by the works of Amenemhat III. had become of such great importance for Egypt.

We cannot bid adieu to this remarkable period in the Egyptian empire without casting a glance on the great events, which so visibly distinguish the middle empire at its entry into the world. Under the reign of the royal family which composes this dynasty the frontiers of Egypt were extended towards the south, as far as the second cataract. Above this were placed the two fortresses of Semne and Koomme, and formed the frontier, near the negro lands Heh and Akin. The domination of the Egyptian sceptre was vigorously maintained in the peninsula of Sinai. Officials of the king, supported by a large military force, maintained the Pharaonic sovereignty in the mountains of the land of Mafkat. The Egyptians of this epoch kept up also a very active commerce with the tribes of Libya towards the east, and with the inhabitants of Palestine and the neighbouring countries. The arrival in Egypt of representatives of these nations is a fact which is proved by numerous paintings and inscriptions in the [175] mortuary chapels. The light-coloured Libyans frequented Egypt to show their address in warlike games and dances. The dark-coloured inhabitants of Kush flocked there to serve the great lords, and Asiatics presented themselves at the frontier of Lower Egypt, which was secured by fortresses against an entrance without permission, or unexpected attack, to ask for permission to traffic on the banks of the Nile. The Egyptian empire appeared at that time as the centre of

civilisation, and of all progress in intellect, in art, and in trade. This had a great effect on strangers, and led the neighbouring nations to look upon the Egyptians as an important and cultivated nation. In fact such an opinion of Egypt was well founded and justly deserved. Intellectual life developed itself fully. They strove after moral ennoblement; schools were established in the principal towns of the country; and human and divine wisdom was taught in the assemblages of the holy servants of the gods. The natural conditions of the country were improved by the constructions which served to regulate the periodic inundations of the Nile. The territory of the entire country was divided into districts, and engraved stones, fixed as limits, separated neighbouring properties. Written lists, which were laid up in the royal house, gave information on the superficies, the boundaries, and water supply of each nome. The kings constructed temples and raised monuments 'to their name,' in honour of the divinities, and in memory of their own persons ; they continued to build pyramids as tombs, and the great personages of the court, most of them allies of the [176] king, prepared their graves in the deepest pits in the mountains, and placed halls of sacrifice and chambers over the grave, in which all the art and splendour of the sculptors and the painters of those times were

developed. In these by means of excessively rich inscriptions in the decorated rock-hewn halls, the different branches of human industry were represented with the most lively treatment, and in infinite detail, for the information of future generations and for the

enjoyment of cotemporaries who still breathed in the light of the sun. They worked with tools unknown to us the precious quarries which existed in the valley of Hamamat; they drew the rose and the black granite from the 'red mountain,' near Assouan; they brought back the produce of gold from the parched deserts of Nubia, and worked the mineral riches of the peninsula of Sinai, to gain precious turquoises and useful copper.

At this epoch the centre of gravity of Egyptian administration was placed in Middle Egypt Two towns of that territory, Crocodilopolis, the town of Sebek on the shores of lake Moeris, and Heracleopolis 'the great,' whose position is indicated in our day by the site of the Arab town of Ahnas, rapidly rose to an importance of which we can only judge by their remains and by the information of the monuments. Art, in different directions of activity, had arrived at a height of perfection, the chief character of which we cannot better describe than in reproducing the sagacious judgment of M. de Rouge, a master in our science, who was too soon taken from us.

'Long generations,' says this learned Academician, [177] 'the precise dates of which we cannot fix, saw different phases in Egyptian art succeed each other. Our museums contain sufficient specimens to enable us to follow the principal transformations. We know not the

commencement of this art; we find it existing from the monuments of the fourth dynasty. These, the first to which we can assign a certain rank, are extremely advanced in many respects. Architecture already shows us an inconceivable perfection in the cutting and placing of blocks of great dimensions. The passages of the great pyramid remain a model of exactness of building, which has never been surpassed. We are obliged to guess the exterior style of the temples of this first epoch, and to restore it from the bas-reliefs of the tombs, and the

decoration of the sarcophagi. The style was simple and noble in the highest degree; the straight line and the play of the different levels of the outline were the only elements of decoration. One sole motive of ornament varies these dispositions; it was composed of two lotus leaves placed opposite to each other.

'The style of the figures, as well in the statues as in the bas-reliefs, of the earliest times is distinguished by a broad and squat appearance; it seems that in the course of centuries the race became thinner and more élancé from the action of the climate. In the primitive monuments they sought the imitation of nature with more simplicity, and keeping all due proportion. In the execution of the single parts, the muscles especially are always better placed, and indicated more strongly.

'The figures preserved this character till near the end of the twelfth dynasty. This is the epoch when [178] took slenderer and thinner forms. Architecture had then made great progress. With regard to ornamentation, we find under the seventeenth dynasty the first columns which have been preserved to our days in Egypt; thick, fluted, and covered with a simple top piece in the shape of a die. They resemble in a striking manner the first Doric columns.

'The bas-reliefs, devoid of all perspective, are often in the first empire of extreme delicacy. They were always coloured with care. There are some m which the freedom of the attitudes and the truth of the movements seem to promise to Egyptian art a destiny very different from that which was reserved to it in later centuries. The limestone statues were often entirely painted; the figures of granite were coloured in some of their parts, as the eyes, hair, and drapery. The chef d'oeuvre of the art of the first empire is a colossal leg of black granite, from the statue of king Usurtasen I., belonging to the Museum of Berlin, discovered in the ruins in a town of Lower Egypt, Tanis. This fragment suffices to prove that the first Egyptian school was in a better way of art than that of the second empire. The engraving of the sculptures leaves nothing to be desired in these first Egyptian monuments. It is generally executed in relief up to the fifth dynasty. The engraving in intaglio of the twelfth dynasty has never been surpassed at any epoch. The obelisks of Heliopolis and of the Fayoom authorise us to suppose temples of a grandeur and magnificence equal to these fine remains of the twelfth dynasty. We know, in fact, that one of the wonders of the world, the labyrinth [179] of the Fayoom, was

constructed by one of these kings.'

Such are the striking observations on this subject by a master hand, and I will only venture to add a few remarks on the actual authors of those works. There is in all art histories of ancient and modern times, without excepting the most recent, constantly a depreciatory judgment given on the artists of those old days, who, when viewed most favourably, are placed on the same line with skilful mechanics. We cannot too strongly protest against such a judgment, arising from a complete ignorance of the inmost essence of Egyptian art, or from shallowness and a superficial way of looking at it, which ought not to be presumed to exist in judges of art. Egyptian art is art in the noblest meaning of the word. Let anyone look at the lifelike heads of the statues of Meidoom, the so-called Sheikh-el-Belled, of King Khephren, and the Pharaohs of the new empire, and maintain the contrary. But it is Egyptian art, that is to say, it is bound by fetters which the artist dared not loosen for fear of clashing with traditional directions and ancient usage. There floated before the Egyptian artists as well as the masters in the old history of Greek art higher ideals than the censurers brought up in 'the Greek school' alone dreamt of. In this respect we agree with the fullest conviction, in the workmanlike explanation and critique with which Lepsius, in his suggestive work 'On some Egyptian Art-forms and their Development,' has met these depreciatory judges of Egyptian art.

Attention has sometimes been called, in order to [180] designate the so-called mechanical style of Egyptian art, to the remarkable fact that history has not transmitted to us the names of any Egyptian masters. This is correct for those who are ignorant of the contents of Egyptian inscriptions, and hence do not know that the artist was the most honoured man in the empire, and stood close to the Pharaoh, who poured his favours in a full stream on the man of

'enlightened spirit and skilful hand.' The artists themselves relate this to us, and boast of their works and the means for creating them, which reflection and inventive genius had delivered to them. To make mention of an example, let us remember the words on the tomb and memorial stone21 of an old Egyptian master, named Martisen, who lived in the days of King Neb-kheru-

ra Mentu-hotep;22 that is to say, forty-four centuries before our time, and who thought and

worked as an artist. He calls himself 'a master among those who understand art, and a plastic artist,' who 'was a wise artist in his art.' He relates in succession his knowledge in the making of statues, in every position, according to prescribed use and measure; and brings forward, as his particular invention, an etching with colours, if I have rightly understood the expression, 'which can neither be injured by fire nor washed off by water;' and, as a further explanation of this, states that 'no man has arisen who has been able to do this, except himself alone and the eldest son of his race, whom God's will has created. He has arisen able to [181] do this, and the exercise of his hand has been admired in masterly works in all sorts of precious stones, from gold and silver, to ivory and ebony.' His son bore the name Usurtasen, and belonged to an artistic family, whose pedigree, according to the stone, is as follows:

Martisen and his son Usurtasen, without any doubt, opened the age of the highest art

development in the old empire, under the kings of the twelfth dynasty, whose taste for art the monuments of their day clearly demonstrate. It will be for future generations to read from the inscriptions the succession of artists and their families who contributed this high state, and to enumerate their performances. For the purpose of knowing this particular branch of human activity, certain gaps require to be filled up, so that we of the present day must renounce the task of fully comprehending it. But science must not be a silent witness of those unintelligible complaints which are raised against the essential character of Egyptian art; she must loudly raise her voice, and point out that even the dead stones speak to us with living voice. Honour, therefore, to the most ancient art, honour to the first artists, whom we have principally to thank for the legacy which has been bequeathed to us of the youthful history of humanity.

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CHAPTER X