DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27180#0172
PYRAMID AND TEMPLE
tiny green slate head Egypt once more gathers up a brilliant
heritage. Not only is it akin to the Rameses in Turin; you
also fancy you can detect an echo of the earliest dynasties.
However much we may insist that the progress in representa-
tional skill displayed in this little sculpture is an inadequate
substitute for statuesque grandeur, naturalism is still re-
strained by the fundamental Egyptian instinct for the volume
of the head. Certain authorities hold that the green head is
Greek, misled by the objective traits which are also common
in late antiquity; but no Greek or Roman portrait ever
achieved so rotund a solidity. The same fact alienates this
head from Europe as distinguishes the drawings of Hamburg
or Berlin classicists from Ingres: namely, provincialism.
i54
tiny green slate head Egypt once more gathers up a brilliant
heritage. Not only is it akin to the Rameses in Turin; you
also fancy you can detect an echo of the earliest dynasties.
However much we may insist that the progress in representa-
tional skill displayed in this little sculpture is an inadequate
substitute for statuesque grandeur, naturalism is still re-
strained by the fundamental Egyptian instinct for the volume
of the head. Certain authorities hold that the green head is
Greek, misled by the objective traits which are also common
in late antiquity; but no Greek or Roman portrait ever
achieved so rotund a solidity. The same fact alienates this
head from Europe as distinguishes the drawings of Hamburg
or Berlin classicists from Ingres: namely, provincialism.
i54