The Amazing Riches of Tutankhamen (continued
page 4)
by Professor T. Eric Peet
The Middle Kingdom (2000-1800 B.C.) hardly equaled
the standard set by the
Old, and the New Empire, 1580 B.C. onward. Although it occasionally
produced a work of the first order, it fell behind its pre-predecessors.
The great days of Egyptian art were in reality gone, and we must
remember this when we try to judge the contents of the tomb.
It
would be
a difficult task to pick out among such wealth of material the
most
beautiful objects. It is, however, not so difficult for one who
has seen
it to select those which impressed him most, and in some cases
to give
the reasons. Undoubtedly the most striking objects are the gold
inner
coffin, and the mask of beaten gold which lay within it, over
the head
of the king. They impress not so much because they are of gold,
but
because both are magnificent pieces of the sculptor's and metal
worker's
art. Both are strong and virile portraits of the king, and they
are
among the very few portraits in metal which have survived from
ancient
Egypt. Superb objects are the four miniature mummies which were
found in
the Canopic jars, and which contain the inner parts of the king's
body
removed during the process of mummification.
The
gilt throne with the figures of Tutankhamen and his queen. They
are of gold, with coloured inlays, replicas on a small scale
of the second coffin. Lovely, too, is the
gold covered Canopic box which contained these jars, with its four
guardian goddesses at the corners,
which stood in the inner chamber of the tomb itself, Many visitors
to the museum stand in long admiration before the gay throne with
its delicate figures of the young king and his bride, inlaid in
glass, faience and precious stones on a background of pure gold.
And yet one has only to turn round to see, in the opposite show-case,
a chair of plain cedar wood carved with a delicacy of which the
more brilliant materials of the throne are incapable, and to wonder
whether the simpler thing are the more beautiful. The famous
painted casket, with its scenes of war and hunting, done with a
delicacy worthy of the modern miniature painter, is an object from
which it is not easy to tear oneself away. Yet it is hard to say
whether it is more exquisite than some of the plainer boxes, more
especially one of wood
Continued...
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