Egyptian Art

Only a few generations ago it would have seemed strange indeed if the statement had been made that Egyptian art is in every way equal to Greek, or that it puts Roman art in the shade. Nowadays, on the contrary, it is necessary to defend classical art against Egyptian. That is due to the artistic tendencies of a new generation of artists. Despite the change in our attitude to Egyptian art no comprehensive and at the same time reliable work with reproductions of the finest works in the collections of the whole world has yet appeared. Many publications have limited themselves to the most important collections, others have not succeeded in separating what has a merely archeological interest from the real works of art. The voluminous work we are now publishing represents the modern view of Egyptian art.

This last concession was also made as regards the Egyptians, whose works commanded attention on account of their numbers and still more on account of their convincing lifelikeness. But as more and more works of Egyptian art have been discovered during the last decades and have been studied with increasing zeal by research-workers and connoisseurs, it has become gradually clearer that within the limits of Egyptian history a level of artistic creation was attained which is equal to that of any other people. We know now that Egyptian art-in the course of the curious transformation which it underwent during the three 'Kingdoms'-represents one of the greatest achievements of human creation in the field of art to be found in the whole world. We know also that it was neither superior nor inferior to Greek art, but simply 'different', and that the Greeks themselves regarded these works with the greatest admiration. A close study of Egyptian art is one of the most thrilling experiences which the lover of art can undertake, and it is hoped that the examples of Egyptian arts and crafts illustrated in the present volume may provide the reader with an introduction to this experience.

Early students of Egyptian art thought that its beginnings were to be sought among the works of the pyramid-builders of Giza and their contemporaries, and were astounded that such perfect works could exist at the very beginning. Like Athene from the head of Jupiter, Egyptian art seemed to have sprung fully equipped out of the earth. To-day we know that this was an erroneous supposition. In Egypt, as in every other country-epochs of high civilization-among which that of the pyramid-builders must certainly be reckoned-are preceded by periods of preparation and of slow development, during which the ground is rendered suitable for all that is to follow.

The first point to be remembered is that in Egypt , as in every other part of the earth, the beginnings of artistic creation were closely related to the material and spiritual needs of everyday life. All Egyptian art is a part, a phenomenon, a form of expression of Egyptian life, and nothing more than this.

When we consider in this connection the beginnings of architecture, the huts of the primitive inhabitants of the Nile Valley which gradually developed into royal palaces and into temples sacred to the gods, we observe that even this distant prehistoric age contained the full cycle of the mighty Egyptian art. That this 'Egyptian art' was not a 'rigid' structure, inaccessible to our understanding and remaining monotonously unchanged without any development, but, on the contrary, progressed from one transformation to another -transformations of such magnitude that we spectators can only contemplate them with reverent awe- is a fact which has been recognized by ever wider circles during the last few decades; and the series of illustrations contained in the present work provide unmistakable evidence of its exactness.