The Amazing Riches of Tutankhamen (continued
page 5)
by Professor T. Eric Peet
inlaid with ivory, which, both in design and proportions,
seems unsurpassable.
One may spend hours in the Gold Room admiring, for instance, the
king's diadem, a lovely piece of designing, perfectly carried out.
It is in this room, however, that Dr. Carter's observation that
some of the objects were rapidly and roughly made for the special
purpose of the king's burial is most clearly borne out. For side
by side with many admirable things there are some which are poorly
designed and still worse finished. Indeed, a comparison of the
contents of the room as a whole with the work of the Middle Kingdom
jewellers in the other Gold Room turns very much to the advantage
of the latter.
The funeral barque in alabaster, one of the finest
examples
of ancient Egyptian lapidary work, 27 inches high.
Among the hundreds of smaller decorated objects, sticks, bows,
swords, staffs, a word of special praise is due to the walking-sticks
with crooks of ebony and ivory respectively in the form of black
African and Semite prisoners. The characterisation of the two races
is superb, and these sticks certainly rank among the finest pieces
of decoration, not only in ancient Egypt, but in the world.
From an artistic point of view the most disappoint ing objects
in the tomb are those made of alabaster. The great alabaster
vases on stands, with the plants of Upper and Lower Egypt
on either side
of them, cut in the same material, look unattractive in the
photographs, but one hoped that in the originals the beauty
of the translucent
material would more than make up for clumsy designing. It does
not, and these must be reckoned among the few aesthetic failures
of the tomb. The same is true of several of the more ambitious
objects in this material, though an exception must be made
in favour of the four Canopic jars with their delicately cut
portrait
heads,
touched with colour to show the beauty of the stone.
One
meter long gilded wooden box. Sides are decorated with
the alternating
prenomen and nomen of the king.
Summing up the impression made by the whole treasure, we may say
that the dominant note is one of brightness. The Egyptians were
a good-tempered, merry people. "Let us make a happy day" was
one of their favourite maxims and they loved to be surrounded by
beautiful and gaily coloured things in life and in death. And the
other point which strikes us is its wealth in gold and precious
stones. Not diamonds, rubies and emeralds, such as modern taste
loves; but carnelian, amethyst, turquoise and lapis lazuli, which
many of us find even more beautiful. Continued...
Page 5 of 6.  
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