DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11610#0033
THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH
21
wall in the grand gallery rough chiselled. The design
was changed, and a rough shaft was cut from the side
of the gallery, down through the building and the
rock, to the lower end of the entrance passage. The
granite in the ante-chamber is left without its final
dressing. And the kernel of the whole, the sarco-
phagus, has much worse work in it than in the build-
ing, or than in other sarcophagi of the same period.
The meaning of this curious discrepancy seems to be
that the original architect, a true master of accuracy
and fine methods, must have ceased to superintend
the work when it was but half done. His personal
influence gone, the training of his school was not
sufficient to carry out the remainder of the building in
the first style. Thus the base and the casing around
it, the building of the Queen's chamber, and the pre-
paration of the granite for the King's chamber, must
all have had the master's eye; but the carelessness of
flie pupils appears so soon as the control was removed.
Mere haste will not account for egregious mistakes,
such as that of the King's chamber level, which the
skilful architect would have remedied by five minutes'
observation. This suggests that the exquisite work-
manship often found in the early periods, did not so
much depend on a large school or wide-spread ability)
as on a few men far above their fellows, whose every
touch was a triumph. In this way we can reconcile
it with the crude, and often clumsy, work in building
and sculpture found in the same ages. There were no
trades union rules against 'besting one's mates' in
those days, any more than in any business at present
where real excellence is wanted.
21
wall in the grand gallery rough chiselled. The design
was changed, and a rough shaft was cut from the side
of the gallery, down through the building and the
rock, to the lower end of the entrance passage. The
granite in the ante-chamber is left without its final
dressing. And the kernel of the whole, the sarco-
phagus, has much worse work in it than in the build-
ing, or than in other sarcophagi of the same period.
The meaning of this curious discrepancy seems to be
that the original architect, a true master of accuracy
and fine methods, must have ceased to superintend
the work when it was but half done. His personal
influence gone, the training of his school was not
sufficient to carry out the remainder of the building in
the first style. Thus the base and the casing around
it, the building of the Queen's chamber, and the pre-
paration of the granite for the King's chamber, must
all have had the master's eye; but the carelessness of
flie pupils appears so soon as the control was removed.
Mere haste will not account for egregious mistakes,
such as that of the King's chamber level, which the
skilful architect would have remedied by five minutes'
observation. This suggests that the exquisite work-
manship often found in the early periods, did not so
much depend on a large school or wide-spread ability)
as on a few men far above their fellows, whose every
touch was a triumph. In this way we can reconcile
it with the crude, and often clumsy, work in building
and sculpture found in the same ages. There were no
trades union rules against 'besting one's mates' in
those days, any more than in any business at present
where real excellence is wanted.