DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4794#0225
On the plinth of the cornice which crowns
the sanctuary of the temple, there is an inscrip-
tion in the Greek character, but too much in-
jured by time to admit of being copied.
In the center of the cornice is an head of Isis,
which, every where repeated, shews that this
temple was dedicated to that goddess. Below,
on the entablature, is the * winged globe which
occupies this place in all the edifices of Egypt:
the same figure is. also repeated here on all the
stones of the plat-bands which form the cieling
of the portico. The capitals of the columns,
very peculiarly decorated, produce, in their exe-
cution, an effect as noble as it is rich. The
square part represents a temple, with a divinity
under the portico of its sanctuary: and/this
image exhibits four faces of Isis, with the ears of
a cow, and the head-dress of the Egyptian wo-
men.
To conclude; this most perfect model of
architecture, wre are told, has proved that it is
not any part or particular order, in which the
beauty of the art is to be found, but that
wherever a harmony of parts exists there also is
beauty. And if M. Denon may be credited,
the whole of the French army were not less
struck with the magnificence of Tyntira, than
they had been with’ astonishment, at the gran-
deur of Thebes.
V ! . & ... '
PART II.
the sanctuary of the temple, there is an inscrip-
tion in the Greek character, but too much in-
jured by time to admit of being copied.
In the center of the cornice is an head of Isis,
which, every where repeated, shews that this
temple was dedicated to that goddess. Below,
on the entablature, is the * winged globe which
occupies this place in all the edifices of Egypt:
the same figure is. also repeated here on all the
stones of the plat-bands which form the cieling
of the portico. The capitals of the columns,
very peculiarly decorated, produce, in their exe-
cution, an effect as noble as it is rich. The
square part represents a temple, with a divinity
under the portico of its sanctuary: and/this
image exhibits four faces of Isis, with the ears of
a cow, and the head-dress of the Egyptian wo-
men.
To conclude; this most perfect model of
architecture, wre are told, has proved that it is
not any part or particular order, in which the
beauty of the art is to be found, but that
wherever a harmony of parts exists there also is
beauty. And if M. Denon may be credited,
the whole of the French army were not less
struck with the magnificence of Tyntira, than
they had been with’ astonishment, at the gran-
deur of Thebes.
V ! . & ... '
PART II.