DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27180#0252
PYRAMID AND TEMPLE
chapel, on both the main walls, we see the boat with the
sacred cow. The third chapel contains a double masterpiece:
the queen, this time not erased, drinking from the udder of
the divine Hathor. Strange ideas and subjects emerge on
these walls. Memories of antiquity and the antique stir
in one’s subconscious, are rejected, reappear. That afternoon
at Dulwich when I first saw the Poussin with the little Zeus
grasping the udder of the goat between her legs and drinking
his fill. It is not merely an association of motifs, but an
association of one Arcadian scene with another, such as
legends of this sort occasion, albeit this art differs from the
other as much as the green garden at Dulwich differs from
the sand of the desert. Fundamentally Poussin is no more
unreasonable in his demands than these Egyptians, and our
opposition is borne down for the same or quite similar reasons.
Perhaps Poussin is a little bit harder to accept since he does
not have the decorative walls of this Sans Souci to help him.
The only things left on the upper terrace are the pretty
niches where statues stood - it almost puts you in mind of a
Renaissance villa in Rome - and traces of walls and the two
masterpieces standing free in the middle: the door frames of
red granite. The second especially, leading to the holy of
holies, is a jewel among ornaments: festal though always
mundane in its splendour, a mixture of sanctuary and palace.
On the vertical jambs the same rich arabesque of the hiero-
glyphs is repeated, though the carving is more delicate.
Above on the granite crossbeam is a richer central motif.
The colour still remains in the cavities in the granite: a
claret which sets off the red tint of the stone, and a bronze-
green. It is a blissful comfort.
The colour assists our fancy to reconstruct the temple
and the history of the lady who built it. Breasted calls
Hatshepsut the first great woman in the world’s history.
It fell to her to oppose for many years the will of her brother
and husband, who subsequently proved to be the greatest
228
chapel, on both the main walls, we see the boat with the
sacred cow. The third chapel contains a double masterpiece:
the queen, this time not erased, drinking from the udder of
the divine Hathor. Strange ideas and subjects emerge on
these walls. Memories of antiquity and the antique stir
in one’s subconscious, are rejected, reappear. That afternoon
at Dulwich when I first saw the Poussin with the little Zeus
grasping the udder of the goat between her legs and drinking
his fill. It is not merely an association of motifs, but an
association of one Arcadian scene with another, such as
legends of this sort occasion, albeit this art differs from the
other as much as the green garden at Dulwich differs from
the sand of the desert. Fundamentally Poussin is no more
unreasonable in his demands than these Egyptians, and our
opposition is borne down for the same or quite similar reasons.
Perhaps Poussin is a little bit harder to accept since he does
not have the decorative walls of this Sans Souci to help him.
The only things left on the upper terrace are the pretty
niches where statues stood - it almost puts you in mind of a
Renaissance villa in Rome - and traces of walls and the two
masterpieces standing free in the middle: the door frames of
red granite. The second especially, leading to the holy of
holies, is a jewel among ornaments: festal though always
mundane in its splendour, a mixture of sanctuary and palace.
On the vertical jambs the same rich arabesque of the hiero-
glyphs is repeated, though the carving is more delicate.
Above on the granite crossbeam is a richer central motif.
The colour still remains in the cavities in the granite: a
claret which sets off the red tint of the stone, and a bronze-
green. It is a blissful comfort.
The colour assists our fancy to reconstruct the temple
and the history of the lady who built it. Breasted calls
Hatshepsut the first great woman in the world’s history.
It fell to her to oppose for many years the will of her brother
and husband, who subsequently proved to be the greatest
228