MADE IN ANCIENT EGYPT

by Christine Price ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 1970

Dates and dynasties, that bugaboo of Egyptian history, are simplified and tabulated at the start and largely eliminated from the text; moreover the time chart appears -- with a made-to-order map -- on a self-finding blue inset: as usual, Miss Price recognizes both the problems of her subject and the needs of her audience. To Egyptian art a further stigma attaches, that of apparent stiffness and sameness, both more apparent than real, and when real, for a reason (the majesty of god-kings, the retention of ""the most typical and understandable view of everything""); neither is the imputation of morbidity justified, for ""it is life, not death that seems to fill"" the tombs. Meanwhile the very dynamism of this distillation mitigates against dullness: a few signal monuments are approached physically and emotionally; history is swept up in union and dissolution, outreach and incursion; unfinished or damaged works yield secrets of preparation and execution; and always art is at one with religion and expressive of an ethos. Thus, under the revolutionary Akhenaten, ""the new art must first of all be truthful, revealing the world and its people as they appeared by the light of the sun."" But nothing bespeaks sensitivity to the Egyptian practice of art better than the closing entree to the Place of Truth, the Theban enclave of artists and craftsmen who might spend a lifetime adorning a single royal tomb, and to the tombs of these Servants, ""who knew better than most men the importance of a proper burial to help the dead man reach Osiris' kingdom."" A creative use of the best scholarship designed (with excellent illustrations) for maximum effect. And provided with a fine bibliography for further study.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION