Volume II Part 9 (2/2)
We have now brought our analysis of the principal types of pier and coluest, however, certain general reflections to which we reat apparent diversity of their foryptian orders obeyed an unchanging law of development, and that certain characteristic features persistently reappear through all their transformations We must attempt to define these laws and characteristics, as, otherwise, we shall fail to yptian art appreciated, we shall be unable to classify its successes, or to mark with accuracy the limits which it failed to pass
[Illustration: FIG 95--Capital from the work of Thothement of architraves upon a capital
From the plans and elevations of Lepsius]
Between the square pier with neither base nor capital of the early Eraceful colues of progress The general forradually more complex and more refined As occurred elsewhere, it was divided into parts, each of which had its proper duty and its proper nauished from the shaft, and the shaft from the capital Each of these parts was shaped by the sculptor and clothed in colour by the painter For long centuries the architect never relaxed his efforts to perfect his art The siave way to the elaborate forreat temples of the Ramessids; the latter in turn lost their power to satisfy and new ht for in the coone before In the series of Egyptian types the capital of Nectanebo would therefore occupy a place corresponding to that of the composite capital in the series of Graeco-Roypt may therefore be compared to that of art in Greece and Italy; and yet there is a difference From the rise of Greek architecture until its decay, the proportions of its vertical members underwent a continual, _but consistent_, modification of their proportions Century after century the figure in which their height was expressed proportionately with their bulk, becaht of the Doric columns of the old temple at Corinth there are fewer diameters than in those of the Parthenon, and in those of the Parthenon there are fewer than in the doric shafts of Rolect which befel this order about the fourth century before our era In the sus of Asia Minor and Syria and of the ”Lower Period” in Egypt, it was replaced by the graceful and slender outlines of the Ionic order A siiven of the favour in which the Corinthian order was held throughout the Roypt The foryptian architecture did not becoe of the centuries It is possible that faht structures of wood and metal had early created a taste for slender supports The polygonal and faggot-shaped columns of Beni-Hassan are no thicker than those of far later times A comparison of the columns at Thebes points to the same conclusion The shortest and78) is at Medinet-Abou, and is about two centuries later than those of the sa 77) Its heaviness is even reat colu 80), and the Ra 81), which precede it by at least a century
The progress of Egyptian art was, then, less continuous and less regular than that of classic art It had ression It was not governed by internal logical principles so severe as those of the Greeks
The manner in which the capital is allied to the shaft below, and the architrave above shows changes of the same kind
The first duty of the capital is to oppose a firm and individual contour to the monotony of the shaft The constructor has to deterth of the latter where it shall cease to be, where its gradual died to the architrave without co, shall be arrested The natural office of the capital would seem to be to call attention to this point The architect, therefore, gives it a diareater than that of the shaft at the point where they meet This salience restores to the column the material which it has lost; it completes it, and deterer capable of either increase or diain, when the salience is but the preparation for a greater development above, it see the architrave on a far larger surface than the shaft could offer The support seee itself, the better to embrace the entablature
The two requirements which the capital has to fulfil may, then, be thus summarized: in the first place, it has to mark the point where the upward movement of the lines comes to an end; and, secondly, it has to make, or to seem to make, the column better fitted to play its part as a support Its functions are dual in principle; it has to satisfy the aesthetic desires of the eye, and the constructive requirements of the material The latter office may be more apparent than real, but, in architecture, what seems to be necessary is so
The Greek capital, in all its forhly fulfils these double conditions, while that of Egypt satisfies theonal column as an example The feeble tablet which crowns its shaft neither opposes itself frankly to the upright lines below it, nor, in the absence of an echinus, is it happily allied with the shaft It gives, however, a greater appearance of constructive repose to the architrave than the latter would have without it
In the column which terminates in a lotus-bud the capital is of more importance, but the contrast between it and the shaft is often very slightly marked At Luxor and Karnak the sentle swelling in the upper part of the cone; besides which it really plays no part in the construction, as the surface of the abacus above it is no greater than a horizontal section through the highest and most slender part of the shaft
[Illustration: FIG 97--The Nyypte_; _Hist Naturelle_, pl 61]
Of all the Egyptian capitals, that which seems the happiest in conception is the ca folded back upon itself, throws out a fine and bold curve beyond the shaft
But we are surprised and even distressed to find that the surface thus obtained is not employed for the support of the architrave, which is carried by a comparatively small cubic abacus, which rests upon the centre of the capital At Karnak and Medinet-Abou this abacus is not so absurdly high as it afterwards became in the Ptoleular rather than pleasant We feel inclined to wonder why this fine calyx of stone should have been constructed if its borders were to remain idle It is like a phrase commenced but never finished Without this fault the composition, of which it forms a part, would be worthy, both in proportion and in decoration, of being placed side by side with the ood idea of this can be gained fro known as _Pharaoh's bed_, at Philae It is shown on the right of our sketch at p 431, Vol I
The last or, it may be, the first question, which is asked in connection with the form of coluin We have preferred to ht that the analysis of form which we have attempted to set forth would help us to an answer There are many difficulties in the matter, but after the facts to which we have called attention, it will not be denied that the forms of wooden construction, which were the first to be developed in Egypt, had a great effect upon work in stone
Ever since yptian art, this has found an important place in their speculations In the two forms which alternate with one another at Thebes, many have seen faithful transcriptions of two plants which filled a large space in Egyptian civilization by their decorative qualities and the practical services which they rendered; we mean, of course, the lotus and the papyrus
There were in Egyptto the family of the _Nymphaeaceae_, a family which is represented in our northern climates by the yellow and white nenuphars or water-lilies Besides these Egypt possessed, and still possesses, the white lotus (_Nymphaea lotus_ of Linnaeus), and the blue lotus (_Nyyptian lotus, the red lotus (the _Nymphaea nelumbo_ of Linnaeus, the _Neluer in a wild state, either in Egypt or any other known part of Africa (Fig 97) The accurate descriptions given by the ancient writers have enabled botanists, however, to recognize it aer than our common water-lily, from which it differs also in the behaviour of its leaves and of the stems which bear the flowers These do not float on the surface of the water but rise above it to a height of froher than the leaves, is borne upon a stalk which instead of being soft and pliant like that of the water-lily has the firreeable syptians are often seen holding it to their nostrils The fruit, which is shaped like the rose of a watering-pot, contains seeds as large as the stone of an olive
[108] These upstanding flowers and stalks for characteristic of the Nelureen or dried,[109] were called _Egyptian beans_ by the Greek and Latin writers because they were consumed in such vast quantities in the Nile valley[110] The seeds of the other kinds of nymphaeaceae, which were save, when pounded in a mortar, a flour of which a kind of bread wasto the old historians, it had a sweet and agreeable taste[111]
[109] HERODOTUS, ii 92
[110] For the different species of the lotus and their characteristics see _Description de l'egypte_, _Hist
Naturelle_, vol ii pp 303-313 and _Atlas_, plates 60 and 61--In the _Recueil de Travaux_, etc, vol i p 190, there is a note by M VICTOR LORET upon the Egyptian names for the lotus
[111] STRABO, xvii 1, 15--DIODORUS, i 34