DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0130
112 A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE.
and ravaged all before them ; how they desecrated the
sacred places and cast down the statues of the goddess and
divided the treasures of the sanctuary. They did not, it
is true, commit such wholesale destruction as the Persian
invaders of nine hundred years before; but they were mer-
ciless iconoclasts and hacked away the face of every figure
within easy reach, both inside and outside the building.
Among those which escaped, however, is the famous
external bas-relief of Cleopatra on the back of the temple.
This curious sculpture is now banked up with rubbish for
its better preservation and can no longer be seen by
travelers. It was, however, admirably photographed some
years ago by Signor Beati; which photograph is faithfully
reproduced in the annexed engraving. Cleopatra is here
represented with a head-dress combining the attributes of
three goddesses; namely, the vulture of Maut (the head of
"which is modeled in a masterly way), the horned disk of
llathor and the throne of Isis. The falling mass below
the head-dress is intended to represent hair dressed accord-
ing to the Egyptian fashion, in an infinite number of small
plaits, each finished off with an ornamental tag. The
women of Egyjit and Nubia wear their hair so to this day
and unplait it, I am sorry to say, not oftener than once in
every eight or ten weeks. The Nubian girls fasten each
separate tail with a lump of Nile mud daubed over with
yellow ocher; but Queen Cleopatra's silken tresses were
probably tipped with gilded wax or gum.
It is difficult to know where decorative sculpture ends
and portraiture begins in a work of this epoch. AVe can-
not even be certain that a portrait was intended; though
the introduction of the royal oval in which the name of
Cleopatra (Klaupatra) is spelled with its vowel sounds in
full, would seem to point that way. If it is a portrait, then
large allowance must be made for conventional treatment.
The fleshiness of the features and the intolerable simper
are common to every head of the Ptolemaic period. The
ear, too, is pattern work, and the drawing of the figure is
ludicrous. Mannerism apart, however, the face wants for
neither individuality nor beauty. Cover the mouth, and
you have an almost faultless profile. Tlio chin and throat
are also quite lovely; while the whole face, suggestive of
cruelty, subtlety, and voluptuousness, carries with it an
indefinable impression not only of portraiture, but of
likeness.
and ravaged all before them ; how they desecrated the
sacred places and cast down the statues of the goddess and
divided the treasures of the sanctuary. They did not, it
is true, commit such wholesale destruction as the Persian
invaders of nine hundred years before; but they were mer-
ciless iconoclasts and hacked away the face of every figure
within easy reach, both inside and outside the building.
Among those which escaped, however, is the famous
external bas-relief of Cleopatra on the back of the temple.
This curious sculpture is now banked up with rubbish for
its better preservation and can no longer be seen by
travelers. It was, however, admirably photographed some
years ago by Signor Beati; which photograph is faithfully
reproduced in the annexed engraving. Cleopatra is here
represented with a head-dress combining the attributes of
three goddesses; namely, the vulture of Maut (the head of
"which is modeled in a masterly way), the horned disk of
llathor and the throne of Isis. The falling mass below
the head-dress is intended to represent hair dressed accord-
ing to the Egyptian fashion, in an infinite number of small
plaits, each finished off with an ornamental tag. The
women of Egyjit and Nubia wear their hair so to this day
and unplait it, I am sorry to say, not oftener than once in
every eight or ten weeks. The Nubian girls fasten each
separate tail with a lump of Nile mud daubed over with
yellow ocher; but Queen Cleopatra's silken tresses were
probably tipped with gilded wax or gum.
It is difficult to know where decorative sculpture ends
and portraiture begins in a work of this epoch. AVe can-
not even be certain that a portrait was intended; though
the introduction of the royal oval in which the name of
Cleopatra (Klaupatra) is spelled with its vowel sounds in
full, would seem to point that way. If it is a portrait, then
large allowance must be made for conventional treatment.
The fleshiness of the features and the intolerable simper
are common to every head of the Ptolemaic period. The
ear, too, is pattern work, and the drawing of the figure is
ludicrous. Mannerism apart, however, the face wants for
neither individuality nor beauty. Cover the mouth, and
you have an almost faultless profile. Tlio chin and throat
are also quite lovely; while the whole face, suggestive of
cruelty, subtlety, and voluptuousness, carries with it an
indefinable impression not only of portraiture, but of
likeness.