38 



JJtesibcnlral JU^ress. 



Delivered December 14th, 1918, in the Large Hall of the 

 Municipal College, by 



Field Marshal LORD Gr REN FELL OF KILVEY, g.c.b., g.c.m.g., 



LL.D., F.S.A. 



The Art of Ancient Egypt. 



OCIENCE and Art, though not identical, are surely twin sisters. 



In Egypt when the sculptor made his model or the architect 

 his proposal for a tomb or temple, Science was required to move 

 the gigantic blocks and to provide the means for cutting the 

 statues out of the hardest possible diorite or red granite. Again, 

 the colossus having been completed the finely cut inscriptions at 

 the base had to be made. 



These are so sharp and so perfect as to rival the finest 

 attempts of our own epoch. How the colossi were originally cut 

 from the rock and by what means the hieroglyphic inscriptions 

 were added is unknown to us. In the days of the ancient 

 dynasties iron had not yet been discovered, but numbers of copper 

 chisels and other copper implements have been found, and it is 

 supposed that means of hardening the metal was known which 

 is unknown to us at present. 



A similar secret may have existed in Peru, where copper 

 was used for swords, daggers and other weapons ; and, according 

 to Schliemann, also in ancient Troy. 



So I think I can claim that in the making and the removal of 

 these vast colossi and gigantic slabs of the hardest stone Engineer- 

 ing Science had, in those early days, taken its place beside its 

 sister, Art. 



As regards the cutting of the hieroglyphics and the delicate 

 work in the hard stone, Petrie has given his opinion that diamond 

 drills must have been used, but no diamonds have yet been found 

 in any tomb in Egypt. 



I propose to devote my address to a discussion on the 

 character of Egyptian art, principally in distinguished statuary, 

 which is by far the most important, most artistic and most suc- 

 cessful of its branches. 



Next to the statuary comes the embellishment of the tombs 

 and temples, inferior to the statuary but still an artistic system 

 of great interest in Egyptian art. I am able to show to-day a 

 few examples of this embellishment by paintings and drawings 

 and of jewellery, metal work, glazed ware, glass and pottery, 

 mostly smaller objects which were placed in the tombs. 



Firstly, the property of the deceased buried with the mummy, 

 and, secondly, innumerable objects which were constructed as 



