DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27180#0168
PYRAMID AND TEMPLE
appended. The royal family has the same anatomical
peculiarities.
Even these creations, whose involuntary absurdity would
hardly be passed by the most independent of exhibitions in
Paris or elsewhere, are treated by Egyptologists as works of
high art, and no amount of change of manner invites them
to make a qualitative comparison with earlier masterpieces.
People enjoy the faithful intimacy of their reflections of
family life and overlook the trifling fact that though these
royal personages may chat together and bask in the friendly
rays of constant sunshine, they are not human beings at all.
According to one theory the curious malformation is really
a true production of the form of Amenophis as nature made
him. The honesty of the apostle of truth would not have
tolerated any slurring over of bodily defects. In this context
we may point for confirmation to curious miniature sculp-
tures which do represent actual natural phenomena. One of
the liveliest products of this kind is the small relic in the
fourth room of a Princess of Punt, a dwarf with corkscrew
limbs who amused the witty Queen Hatshepsut. The dealer,
Nahman in Cairo, has a whole collection of these figures.
With the help of the doctors they have determined the disease
of poor Amenophis, a complicated name which I have for-
gotten. His wife and children and the whole court, and in-
deed all his underlings as well, must, then, have suffered
from the same disease. This surpasses the legendary
astigmatism of Greco. Perhaps Egyptologists labour under
the same burden.
Everything has already come to pass beneath the rays of
Aton and everything recurs once more, even princes who
play strange tricks with art instead of ruling. Egypt has no
call to rejoice over this Akhenaton, who forgot the enemies
outside in his passion for style, and let the country go to rack
and ruin. He brought the eighteenth dynasty to an end, for
only half-wits followed him on the throne. His son-in-law
150
appended. The royal family has the same anatomical
peculiarities.
Even these creations, whose involuntary absurdity would
hardly be passed by the most independent of exhibitions in
Paris or elsewhere, are treated by Egyptologists as works of
high art, and no amount of change of manner invites them
to make a qualitative comparison with earlier masterpieces.
People enjoy the faithful intimacy of their reflections of
family life and overlook the trifling fact that though these
royal personages may chat together and bask in the friendly
rays of constant sunshine, they are not human beings at all.
According to one theory the curious malformation is really
a true production of the form of Amenophis as nature made
him. The honesty of the apostle of truth would not have
tolerated any slurring over of bodily defects. In this context
we may point for confirmation to curious miniature sculp-
tures which do represent actual natural phenomena. One of
the liveliest products of this kind is the small relic in the
fourth room of a Princess of Punt, a dwarf with corkscrew
limbs who amused the witty Queen Hatshepsut. The dealer,
Nahman in Cairo, has a whole collection of these figures.
With the help of the doctors they have determined the disease
of poor Amenophis, a complicated name which I have for-
gotten. His wife and children and the whole court, and in-
deed all his underlings as well, must, then, have suffered
from the same disease. This surpasses the legendary
astigmatism of Greco. Perhaps Egyptologists labour under
the same burden.
Everything has already come to pass beneath the rays of
Aton and everything recurs once more, even princes who
play strange tricks with art instead of ruling. Egypt has no
call to rejoice over this Akhenaton, who forgot the enemies
outside in his passion for style, and let the country go to rack
and ruin. He brought the eighteenth dynasty to an end, for
only half-wits followed him on the throne. His son-in-law
150