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
Others make similar claims for the papyrus. They refuse to admit that
the whole of the Egyptian orders were founded upon the lotus. Mariette
allowed that the capitals which we have called lotiform were copied
from that plant, but he contended that the bell-shaped capital was
freely copied from the plume of its rival. He proposed that this
latter capital should be called _papyriform_, and to my objections,
which were founded upon the composition of a head of papyrus, he
answered that the Egyptians neglected what may be called internal
details, and were contented with rendering the outward contours. In
support of his idea, he called attention to the fact that some of the
faggot-shaped columns present triangular sections, like that of the
papyrus stem.
In spite of this latter fact, Mariette did not convert me to his
opinion. The columns in which this triangular section is found are not
crowned by an open flower. The profiles of their capitals resemble
that of a truncated bud, a form which cannot possibly be obtained from
the papyrus, and they seem, therefore, to combine characteristics
taken from two different plants. His explanation of the campaniform
capital seems still less admissable. It is impossible to allow that in
the tuft of slender filaments gracefully yielding to the wind, which
is figured on page 127, we have the prototype of those inverted bells
of stone, whose uninterrupted contours express so much strength and
amplitude. No less difficult is it to discover the first idea of those
sturdy shafts which seem so well proportioned to the mighty
architraves which they have to support, in the slender stalk of the
famous water plant. The hypostyle halls may be compared to palm
groves, to forests of pine, of oak, or of beech. In such a comparison
there would be nothing surprising, but the papyrus, with its
attenuated proportions and yielding frame, would seem to be, of all
vegetables, the least likely to have inspired the architects of Karnak
and Luxor.
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