The Arts and Crafts of the Nations
General Editor: S. H. F. CAPENNY
THE ARTS AND CRAFTS
OF ANCIENT EGYPT
OLD KINGDOM RELIEF
55. Wood-carving of Ra-hesy
THE
ARTS & CRAFTS
OF ANCIENT EGYPT
BY
W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE
D.C.L., F.R.S., F.B.A., ETC., PROFESSOR OF
EGYPTOLOGY IN LONDON UNIVERSITY;
AUTHOR OF “A HISTORY OF EGYPT,” ETC.
CONTAINING
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY ILLUSTRATIONS
SECOND EDITION
WITH ADDITIONAL CHAPTER
T. N. FOULIS
LONDON & EDINBURGH
1910
First Edition, November 1909
Second Edition, October 1910
PRINTED BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH
PREFACE
This present handbook is intended to aid in theunderstanding of Egyptian art, and the illustrationsand descriptions are selected for that purpose only.The history of the art would require a far greaterrange of examples, in order to illustrate the growthand decay of each of the great periods; whereashere only the most striking works of each periodare shown, in order to contrast the different civilisations.The origins and connections of the art ineach age are scarcely touched, and the technical detailsare only such as are needed to see the conditionsof the art. The archaeology of the subject wouldneed as wide a treatment as the history, and thesesubjects can only appear here incidentally.
It should be noticed that the divisions of artisticperiods are often not the same as those of politicalhistory. Politically, the history divides at theXVIIth dynasty with the fall of the Hyksos, andat the XXIInd dynasty with the rise of the Delta[vi]government. But artistically the changes are underTahutmes I, when Syrian influences broke in, andunder the XXVIth dynasty, when the classicalGreeks began to dominate the art.
The effect of foreign influence in art is quiteapart from political power; it is due to rival activitieswhich may or may not mean a physicaldomination. The reader should ponder differentcases, such as those of the spiral design of earlyEurope entering Egypt, of the Syrian and Cretanart in the XVIIIth dynasty, of the effect of Persiaupon Greece, and of Greece upon Italy (both throughMagna Graecia and the conquest of Greece), of theeffect of the Goth, Lombard, and Northman onEurope, and of Japan on modern Europe. Somereflection on these great artistic movements will givea little insight as to the history of art.
Regarding the illustrations, I have thought itmore useful to give details large enough to beclearly seen, rather than to contract too much surfaceinto a space where it cannot well be studied.Portions of subjects are therefore often preferred togeneral views of a whole. The outlines of artisticvalue, such as contours of faces or figures, are leftquite untouched, as an outline cannot be taken