DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4859#0055
Ramesside
models fore-
shadowed
here
Significance
of this antici-
pation
Upper scene.
Worship of
Osiris
THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES
only of the bier, the mourners, and the bearers of funeral gifts; the dead
are lifeless mummies; Osiris and Isis are prominent as the august rulers
of "the other land"; the picture of the tomb is a compromise between
a fagade and a stela (though its symbolical representation by means of
a conventional door is retained as well); while the familiar goddess of the
West is reduced to an insignificant figure or to her form of the hawk of
the necropolis. The later outlook on death thus seems to have been fully
reached, since the definite traditions of the artist would be still harder
to break down than the wavering feelings of the people.
The revolution of Akhnaton on this supposition was less an innova-
tion than an act of defense against an incoming lassitude in thought and
life. On its best side it was an attempt, by concentration on the present
life and by the recognition of a natural theology, to regain a more rest-
ful frame of mind. The victory of Amon was the triumph of a depres-
sion inherent in the economic and spiritual conditions of empire, which
wasted on enterprises alien to the spirit of the nation energies which
should have been devoted to ambitions in the valley of the Nile. Amen-
hotep and Akhnaton, in short, vaguely forefelt the distant catastrophe,
inevitable where a braggart people challenges, on nothing but material
resources, the virile, though uncoordinated, forces of the surrounding
world. In this light, if it is not a deceptive one, the Ramesside spirit, so
far from being a violent reaction against an uncalled-for schism, was
already existent in the reign of Amenhotep III, if not before. Narrowed
and hardened in spirit, and gaining unjustified force as a revolt against
revolution, it was the natural culmination of the Imperial movement—
outwardly brilliant, but inwardly shaken—a destiny which the schisma-
tics had sought to avoid by stressing the spiritual gains of that contact
with the outward world which was for the moment to make, but in the
end to mar, the fortunes of the Egyptian people.
The depiction of the funeral is divided into an upper and a lower
picture, and is, it would seem, made applicable at will either to Nebamun
or to Apuki. Both are named and both appear in the same scenes, and
the parts they play combine together to make up the full ceremonial;
4o
models fore-
shadowed
here
Significance
of this antici-
pation
Upper scene.
Worship of
Osiris
THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES
only of the bier, the mourners, and the bearers of funeral gifts; the dead
are lifeless mummies; Osiris and Isis are prominent as the august rulers
of "the other land"; the picture of the tomb is a compromise between
a fagade and a stela (though its symbolical representation by means of
a conventional door is retained as well); while the familiar goddess of the
West is reduced to an insignificant figure or to her form of the hawk of
the necropolis. The later outlook on death thus seems to have been fully
reached, since the definite traditions of the artist would be still harder
to break down than the wavering feelings of the people.
The revolution of Akhnaton on this supposition was less an innova-
tion than an act of defense against an incoming lassitude in thought and
life. On its best side it was an attempt, by concentration on the present
life and by the recognition of a natural theology, to regain a more rest-
ful frame of mind. The victory of Amon was the triumph of a depres-
sion inherent in the economic and spiritual conditions of empire, which
wasted on enterprises alien to the spirit of the nation energies which
should have been devoted to ambitions in the valley of the Nile. Amen-
hotep and Akhnaton, in short, vaguely forefelt the distant catastrophe,
inevitable where a braggart people challenges, on nothing but material
resources, the virile, though uncoordinated, forces of the surrounding
world. In this light, if it is not a deceptive one, the Ramesside spirit, so
far from being a violent reaction against an uncalled-for schism, was
already existent in the reign of Amenhotep III, if not before. Narrowed
and hardened in spirit, and gaining unjustified force as a revolt against
revolution, it was the natural culmination of the Imperial movement—
outwardly brilliant, but inwardly shaken—a destiny which the schisma-
tics had sought to avoid by stressing the spiritual gains of that contact
with the outward world which was for the moment to make, but in the
end to mar, the fortunes of the Egyptian people.
The depiction of the funeral is divided into an upper and a lower
picture, and is, it would seem, made applicable at will either to Nebamun
or to Apuki. Both are named and both appear in the same scenes, and
the parts they play combine together to make up the full ceremonial;
4o