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Egyptian Portrait-Sculpture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Alexander Scharff
Alexander Scharff*
Affiliation:
Munich University
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Extract

WE are often far too ready to apply to Egyptian art the same standards which we use in dealing with Greek, Roman, medieval and modern works. Thus, for example, we are apt to speak of Egyptian ‘masters’ or ‘master-hands’, expressions which constantly occur in connexion with Greek sculpture or Renaissance painting; or we assume that the identity of an Egyptian portrait can be established just as if it were a question of a definite Renaissance personality. Now one of the chief characteristics of Egyptian art is its impersonality. The Egyptians had no conception of a work of art produced, so to speak, from pietas, to perpetuate the features of some dear departed, or such as it would be pleasant to possess from sheer delight in artistry; in particular, the artistic contemplation and enjoyment of a work of art as we understand it could scarcely have been understood by an Egyptian.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 11 , Issue 42 , June 1937 , pp. 174 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1937

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References

1 Capart, Memphis, fig. 317; there are also exceptional cases of Mastabas where the statue was placed in the cult–chamber (e.g. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology VI, plate 25).

2 Torso of Sesostris I from Tanis (Evers, Staat aus dem Stein, I, plate 39).

3 Torsos of princesses in University College, London (Catalogue of the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1922, plate 9).

4 Capart, Memphis, fig. 341.

5 Ibid., fig. 335.

6 Fechheimer, H. Die Plastik der Ägypter, 1914, p.52–3.Google Scholar

* A new and enlarged edition of this appeared, when my present paper was already written; Schäfer, H. Das altägyptische Bildnis, (Leipzig. Aeg. Stud. 5), Glüchstadt 1936.Google Scholar

7 Mélanges Maspero, I, p. IOI and plate.

8 op. cit, 2, p.108 ff.Google Scholar

9 9Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 19, plate 12 (unfortunately not taken from a good angle.)Google Scholar

10 Schä-Andrae, Kunst des alten Orients (Propyläenkunstgeschichte, 2), p.433.Google Scholar

11 Legrain, Statues et Statuettes, 3, plates 46–7, nos. 42237–8.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., plate 44–5, no. 42236.Google Scholar