The Memphian Empire has furnished thirteen plates, and I doubt if
they are enough. The number of masterpieces, and especially of pieces
which, without possessing claims to perfection, offer interest on some
count, is so large that Bissing could easily have found, in the Cairo
Museum alone, material enough to double the number. Very probably it
was due to the publisher and a question of economy: but all the same I
regret the absence of half a dozen statues that would have made a good
appearance by the side of the Scribe of the Berlin Museum. The chief
species of the period are at least represented by very good examples:
statues of the Pharaoh seated, receiving homage, are represented by two
of the Chephrên of the Cairo Museum; of the Pharaoh standing, by the
Pioupi in bronze; those of private individuals standing and isolated,
or in groups, by the Cheîkh el-Beled of the Gizeh Museum, by the
Sapouî and the Nasi of the Louvre, or by the pair at Munich; those of
individuals seated by the Scribe of Berlin and by one of the Readers
of Cairo. One of the Cairo statues, of mediocre workmanship, is,
however, curious, because it shows us a priest completely nude, by no
means usual, and circumcized, a fact still less usual. Three fragments
preserved at Munich, portions of three stelæ, a complete stele from
the Cairo Museum, an episode borrowed from the tomb of Apouî, of which
Cairo possesses almost an entire wall, provide specimens of bas-reliefs
for the student to study, without, however, permitting him to suspect
the variety of motives and abundance of detail usually met with in
the necropolises of Saqqarah or of Gizeh. Reduced to these elements,
Bissing’s book will make the impression on its readers of a noble art
exalted by inspiration, minute and skilful in the material execution,
but monotonous, and confined in a rather narrow circle of concepts
and forms of expression. It is only fair to add that the book is not
finished and that, thanks to the system employed of double and triple
plates, it is quite easy to insert new documents among those of the
parts that have already appeared. Some of the lacunæ will assuredly
be filled up, and the additions will place us in a better position to
judge the worth of the ancient Memphian school.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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