DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27180#0247
DER-EL-BAHRI
in the parts which jut out at right angles to the rocky wall
and create the impression of depth. The colonnades running
lengthwise naturally enhance the effect of flatness and do
not stand out sufficiently from their background. Nature
threatens to undo the work of man. Originally the terraces
were sharply defined right angles and the steps went much
farther on to the level. There were the famous gardens, for
whose trees Hatshepsut sent expeditions to far-off lands, as
we learn from the scenes inside; and these gardens which
have now vanished may have been a slight help. The avenue
of sphinxes is also missing; it began on the edge of the
cultivated land and led up to the temple. But above all there
existed in the days of Hatshepsut the old temple dating from
the Middle Kingdom, hard by the new. It has now almost
entirely disappeared. The close proximity of two buildings
of different ages is always noticeable; and in this case it may
have increased the sense of depth as well. With that assump-
tion, and with the most favourable allowance made for all
circumstances which agreeably distract our attention from the
original layout, we are still far from wresting art from nature
and nature from art. I can almost believe that if every ele-
ment were preserved intact the discrepancy would be even
more striking.
No human building material can approach the structure
of the rock-wall with its vertical cuts at equal intervals above.
You can sing its praises, write epics and heroic dramas
around it; but it is impossible to add a stone to this stony
structure. The verticals resemble the bodies of primeval
beings who rest their lion-paws on the plain and whose heads
have been annihilated in some desert catastrophe. Beside
those beings the terraces and trees of the royal garden and
the sphinxes of the avenue can only lead a diminutive and
shadowy existence; and gracefully as the temple might rise,
and brilliant in effect as all its details might be, it remained
like a chirping musical-box overwhelmed by the rushing
223
in the parts which jut out at right angles to the rocky wall
and create the impression of depth. The colonnades running
lengthwise naturally enhance the effect of flatness and do
not stand out sufficiently from their background. Nature
threatens to undo the work of man. Originally the terraces
were sharply defined right angles and the steps went much
farther on to the level. There were the famous gardens, for
whose trees Hatshepsut sent expeditions to far-off lands, as
we learn from the scenes inside; and these gardens which
have now vanished may have been a slight help. The avenue
of sphinxes is also missing; it began on the edge of the
cultivated land and led up to the temple. But above all there
existed in the days of Hatshepsut the old temple dating from
the Middle Kingdom, hard by the new. It has now almost
entirely disappeared. The close proximity of two buildings
of different ages is always noticeable; and in this case it may
have increased the sense of depth as well. With that assump-
tion, and with the most favourable allowance made for all
circumstances which agreeably distract our attention from the
original layout, we are still far from wresting art from nature
and nature from art. I can almost believe that if every ele-
ment were preserved intact the discrepancy would be even
more striking.
No human building material can approach the structure
of the rock-wall with its vertical cuts at equal intervals above.
You can sing its praises, write epics and heroic dramas
around it; but it is impossible to add a stone to this stony
structure. The verticals resemble the bodies of primeval
beings who rest their lion-paws on the plain and whose heads
have been annihilated in some desert catastrophe. Beside
those beings the terraces and trees of the royal garden and
the sphinxes of the avenue can only lead a diminutive and
shadowy existence; and gracefully as the temple might rise,
and brilliant in effect as all its details might be, it remained
like a chirping musical-box overwhelmed by the rushing
223