A History of Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol. 2 (of 2)Perrot, Georges
History
A History of Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Perrot, Georges
Art -- Egypt -- History; Egypt -- Antiquities
There were at least as many on the right bank. On the avenue leading
through the four southern pylons at Karnak, the same explorers found
twelve colossal monoliths, each nearly thirty-five feet high but all
greatly mutilated, and the former existence of others was revealed to
them by fragments scattered about the ground. They were able to reckon
up eighteen altogether on this south side of the building.[222]
[222] _Description, Antiquités_, vol. ii. p. 105.
Similar stone giants peopled the other religious or political capitals
of Egypt--Abydos, Memphis, Tanis, Sais, etc. The largest of all,
however, are the colossi at Ipsamboul representing Rameses II. They
are about seventy feet high. Among those cut from one enormous block
brought from Syene or elsewhere, the best known are those of Amenophis
III. at Thebes. They are fifty-two feet high without the pedestal. But
the statue of Rameses II., which stood in the second court of the
Ramesseum, must have been more than fifty-six feet high, as we may
calculate from the fragments which remain. The head is greatly
mutilated but the foot is over thirteen feet long.[223]
[223] CH. BLANC, _Voyage dans la Haute-Égypte_, p. 208. It has
been calculated that this colossus weighed about 1220 tons.
These statues were generally seated in the attitude which we have
already described in speaking of Chephren and Sebek-hotep. Some,
however, were standing, such as the colossal figure of Rameses which
stood before the Temple of Ptah at Memphis. This figure, which is
about forty-four feet high, is cut from a single block of very fine
and hard limestone. It lies face downwards and surrounded by palm
trees, in a depression of the soil near the village of Mitrahineh. In
this position it is covered by the annual inundation. The English, to
whom it belongs, have hitherto failed to take possession of it owing
to the difficulty of transport, and yet it is one of the most careful
productions of the nineteenth dynasty. The head is full of
individuality and its execution excellent.
[Illustration: THE QUEEN TAIA
BOULAK MUSEUM
J. Bourgon del. Imp. Ch. Chardon Ramus sc.]
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