DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4858#0040
THE FORM OF THE TOMB
vapors. Man is delivered from anthropomorphic fancies; but instead
of rising to spiritual aspirations, he is enslaved to a morbid demonology.
Thoughts are no longer complex merely, but are confused. Tasks are
assigned to the artist which cannot inspire him even to good crafts-
manship and, just when the love of freedom is really being kindled in
him, he becomes bound in a more hopeless slavery. Of course, neither
art nor human nature dies out with the establishment of the Ramesside
kings; but there is a great change, and we need not allow it to confuse
our minds at present.
An era ends
with the
XVIIIth dyn.
THE FORM OF THE TOMB
Has the variety of forms which the rock-tomb assumes in Egypt
and especially at Thebes any law of development? One might expect
that its shape would be determined by the fact of its being an exca-
vation in rock of a certain character. But though this has force, the
Egyptian was not practical but governed by ideas; so much so that
what we admire in him is the indomitable courage and patience with
which he pursued his ends against all opposition of nature. If the
products of his art are rarely very spiritual, it was not for lack of
fancy but because his world of imagination was so closely bound to
his narrow material experiences. He did not accept the practical
advice of the quarryman, because he was not intent on making a
cave, but a house for the spirits of his dead. Yet, on the other hand,
if the idea of the tomb as a mansion of the spirit be applied too
stringently as an explanation of form, it will result in many forced
theories. The truest motivation will be a double one, taking into
account the older and simpler desire of finding a safe place of burial
for the corpse, as well as the later and more sophisticated idea of
providing an eternal home for the spirit attached to the body. The
climax of the first pursuit is the early mastaba or the great pyramid,
with its shafts and portcullises, or the royal hypogeum at Thebes with
i3
The form of
the tomb
depends little
on practical
considera-
tions
vapors. Man is delivered from anthropomorphic fancies; but instead
of rising to spiritual aspirations, he is enslaved to a morbid demonology.
Thoughts are no longer complex merely, but are confused. Tasks are
assigned to the artist which cannot inspire him even to good crafts-
manship and, just when the love of freedom is really being kindled in
him, he becomes bound in a more hopeless slavery. Of course, neither
art nor human nature dies out with the establishment of the Ramesside
kings; but there is a great change, and we need not allow it to confuse
our minds at present.
An era ends
with the
XVIIIth dyn.
THE FORM OF THE TOMB
Has the variety of forms which the rock-tomb assumes in Egypt
and especially at Thebes any law of development? One might expect
that its shape would be determined by the fact of its being an exca-
vation in rock of a certain character. But though this has force, the
Egyptian was not practical but governed by ideas; so much so that
what we admire in him is the indomitable courage and patience with
which he pursued his ends against all opposition of nature. If the
products of his art are rarely very spiritual, it was not for lack of
fancy but because his world of imagination was so closely bound to
his narrow material experiences. He did not accept the practical
advice of the quarryman, because he was not intent on making a
cave, but a house for the spirits of his dead. Yet, on the other hand,
if the idea of the tomb as a mansion of the spirit be applied too
stringently as an explanation of form, it will result in many forced
theories. The truest motivation will be a double one, taking into
account the older and simpler desire of finding a safe place of burial
for the corpse, as well as the later and more sophisticated idea of
providing an eternal home for the spirit attached to the body. The
climax of the first pursuit is the early mastaba or the great pyramid,
with its shafts and portcullises, or the royal hypogeum at Thebes with
i3
The form of
the tomb
depends little
on practical
considera-
tions