DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27180#0109
CHAPTER IX
KING ZOSER’S EAR
Involuntarily one gets more and more involved in the web.
We were at Abusir. We climbed the fallen pyramid of
Nefererkere, which dates from the fifth dynasty, and had a
beautiful view from the top; after that we scrambled about
among the remains of the temple of Sahure and Nehuserre,
which Borchardt has excavated. Black basalt slabs with
white limestone walls resting on a black basalt plinth. The
walls were painted and we can imagine the effect. Then
there are palm-columns: the two best-preserved examples
stand in the hall of Chefren at the museum, round shafts
with high palm-leaf capitals. The allusion to the natural
prototype is unmistakable; and when I was told about such
columns in Europe, I disliked the idea and thought of Arab
rubbish. Frightful garish imitations, with which European
architects of Egyptian halls do homage to the genius loci, did
their bit. The palm-column is better in practice than in
theory. The leaf turns to stone, the trunk to column; and
the stone-mason effaces every uncomfortable recollection of
nature with his tool. He places the eight sharp-pointed
leaves of the capital close together and obtains even surfaces
with ribbed ornament. The leaves bend over above and form
a sort of crown. Out of this the abacus rises to support the
architrave; the abacus is carved in one piece with the capital,
and is the one part which is not quite satisfactory, to our way
of thinking. The capital finishes at the bottom in a very
simple and beautiful way with a band of slightly convex rings;
and its connexion with the shaft is perfectly convincing.
93
KING ZOSER’S EAR
Involuntarily one gets more and more involved in the web.
We were at Abusir. We climbed the fallen pyramid of
Nefererkere, which dates from the fifth dynasty, and had a
beautiful view from the top; after that we scrambled about
among the remains of the temple of Sahure and Nehuserre,
which Borchardt has excavated. Black basalt slabs with
white limestone walls resting on a black basalt plinth. The
walls were painted and we can imagine the effect. Then
there are palm-columns: the two best-preserved examples
stand in the hall of Chefren at the museum, round shafts
with high palm-leaf capitals. The allusion to the natural
prototype is unmistakable; and when I was told about such
columns in Europe, I disliked the idea and thought of Arab
rubbish. Frightful garish imitations, with which European
architects of Egyptian halls do homage to the genius loci, did
their bit. The palm-column is better in practice than in
theory. The leaf turns to stone, the trunk to column; and
the stone-mason effaces every uncomfortable recollection of
nature with his tool. He places the eight sharp-pointed
leaves of the capital close together and obtains even surfaces
with ribbed ornament. The leaves bend over above and form
a sort of crown. Out of this the abacus rises to support the
architrave; the abacus is carved in one piece with the capital,
and is the one part which is not quite satisfactory, to our way
of thinking. The capital finishes at the bottom in a very
simple and beautiful way with a band of slightly convex rings;
and its connexion with the shaft is perfectly convincing.
93