A History of Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol. 1 (of 2)Perrot, Georges
History
A History of Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Perrot, Georges
Art -- Egypt -- History; Egypt -- Antiquities
We may here express our gratitude to all those who have interested
themselves in our enterprise and who have helped us to make our work
complete. Our dear and lamented Mariette had promised us his most
earnest help. During the winter that we passed in Egypt, while he
still enjoyed some remains of strength and voice, we obtained from his
conversation and his letters some precious pieces of information. We
have cited the works of M. Maspero on almost every page, and yet we
have learnt more from his conversation than from his writings. Before
his departure for Egypt--whither he went to succeed Mariette--M.
Maspero was our perpetual counsellor and referee; whenever we were
embarrassed we appealed to his well ordered, accurate, and unbiased
knowledge. We are also deeply indebted to M. Pierret, the learned
_conservateur_ of the Louvre; not only has he done everything to
facilitate the work of our draughtsmen in the great museum, he has
also helped us frequently with his advice and his accumulated
knowledge. M. Arthur Rhôné has lent us a plan of the temple of the
Sphinx, and M. Ernest Desjardins a view of the interior of that
building.
The artists who have visited Egypt have helped us as cordially as the
learned men who have deciphered its inscriptions. M. Gerome opened his
portfolios and allowed us to take three of those drawings, which
express with such truthful precision the character of Egyptian
landscape from them. M. Hector Leroux was as generous as M. Gerome,
and if we have taken but one illustration from his sketch-books it is
because the arrangements for this volume were complete before we had
the chance of looking through them. M. Brune has allowed us to
reproduce his plans of Karnak and Medinet-Abou.
We have had occasion, in the work itself, to express our
acknowledgments to MM. J. Bourgoin, G. Bénédite, and Saint-Elme
Gautier, who have drawn for us the principal monuments of the Boulak
and Louvre Museums. For the architecture we must name M. A. Guérin, a
pupil of M. Chipiez, who prepared the drawings under the direction of
his master, and M. Tomaszkievicz, whose light and skilful point has so
well engraved them. If the process of engraving upon zinc has given
results which, as we hope, will satisfy our readers, much of the
honour belongs to the untiring care of M. Comte, whose process has
been employed; all these plates have been reviewed and retouched by
him with minute care. The steel engravings are by MM. Ramus, Hibon,
Guillaumot père and Sulpis. In order that the polychromatic decoration
of the Egyptians should be rendered with truth and precision in its
refined tones and complicated line, we begged M. Sulpis to make use of
a process which had almost fallen into disuse from its difficulty and
want of rapidity; we mean that which is called _aquatint_. Our plates
II, XIII, and XIV will perhaps convince our readers that its results
are superior to those of chromo-lithography, which is now so widely
employed.
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