DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4031#0047
34
APPENDIX.
small plan is given by Mr. A. J. Butler,2
reduced from that given by Denon, and which
faces north and south, with an apse to the
north, resembling in both these features the
little church of Ahnas.
This White Monastery is said to have been
founded by St. Helena ; and from the glowing
descriptions which Mr. Butler quotes from
Mr. Curzon and M. Denon, we may, I think,
fairly conclude that much of the substantial
fabric of the monastery chapel now remains as
she left it.
The feature in the photographs which will
attract most attention is the headless figure
with lion, shown in pi. i., and, as I felt the
importance of this, I consulted with Mr. A. S.
Murray on the subject, and he has been kind
enough to send to me his conclusions, viz.,
" That this sculptured group must have repre-
sented Orpheus, whose appearance is not un-
common, apparently, in the early Christian art
of Italy. The photograph shows a draped
figure seated to the front, and holding at his
left side a lyre, which his right hand has been
stretched across to play. On the right is a
lion springing towards the lyre in a Mycenian
attitude. Very probably there was another
2 Ancient Coptic Churches in Egypt, vol. i. p. 352.
animal similarly posed on the left. It would,
probably, be nearly correct to go back to the
fifth century as the date of the chapel at
Ahnas."
The carved work over the lion, and the very
peculiar way in which the lower part of the
drapery of Orpheus ends, serve to identify the
figure with the style of the other portions of
carving, and we may, I think, class them all
as being of a date at least as early as the fifth
century, the date which Mr. Murray gives for
the Orpheus.
The carving has the peculiarly sharp cutting
of the Byzantine sculptors, and much of it has
the well-known character of that style, so that
I should not hesitate to class the whole as
Byzantine; but much of the scroll-work is
bolder and more graceful in outline than I am
accustomed to meet with in examples in other
countries, and certainly conveys to my mind
the impression that possibly Byzantium owes
its decorative carving, as Mr. Butler suggests
that it owes its domical designs, to Egypt, and
that M. Naville has thus brought to light the
earliest example of Byzantine art yet known.
T. HAYTEB, LEWIS.
November, 1893.
APPENDIX.
small plan is given by Mr. A. J. Butler,2
reduced from that given by Denon, and which
faces north and south, with an apse to the
north, resembling in both these features the
little church of Ahnas.
This White Monastery is said to have been
founded by St. Helena ; and from the glowing
descriptions which Mr. Butler quotes from
Mr. Curzon and M. Denon, we may, I think,
fairly conclude that much of the substantial
fabric of the monastery chapel now remains as
she left it.
The feature in the photographs which will
attract most attention is the headless figure
with lion, shown in pi. i., and, as I felt the
importance of this, I consulted with Mr. A. S.
Murray on the subject, and he has been kind
enough to send to me his conclusions, viz.,
" That this sculptured group must have repre-
sented Orpheus, whose appearance is not un-
common, apparently, in the early Christian art
of Italy. The photograph shows a draped
figure seated to the front, and holding at his
left side a lyre, which his right hand has been
stretched across to play. On the right is a
lion springing towards the lyre in a Mycenian
attitude. Very probably there was another
2 Ancient Coptic Churches in Egypt, vol. i. p. 352.
animal similarly posed on the left. It would,
probably, be nearly correct to go back to the
fifth century as the date of the chapel at
Ahnas."
The carved work over the lion, and the very
peculiar way in which the lower part of the
drapery of Orpheus ends, serve to identify the
figure with the style of the other portions of
carving, and we may, I think, class them all
as being of a date at least as early as the fifth
century, the date which Mr. Murray gives for
the Orpheus.
The carving has the peculiarly sharp cutting
of the Byzantine sculptors, and much of it has
the well-known character of that style, so that
I should not hesitate to class the whole as
Byzantine; but much of the scroll-work is
bolder and more graceful in outline than I am
accustomed to meet with in examples in other
countries, and certainly conveys to my mind
the impression that possibly Byzantium owes
its decorative carving, as Mr. Butler suggests
that it owes its domical designs, to Egypt, and
that M. Naville has thus brought to light the
earliest example of Byzantine art yet known.
T. HAYTEB, LEWIS.
November, 1893.