New Egyptian style

Elephant House in Antwerp Zoo (1856)

The New Egyptian style was a style in the visual arts from the middle of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century.

history

prehistory

The Pyramid of Cestius, Rome, before the 2012 restoration (15 BC)

Pyramid in memory of Prince Friedrich von Hessen-Kassel (1772–1784) in the Wilhelmsbad State Park

Egypt was already in great fashion at times in Roman times . It began with the Roman occupation of Egypt in 30 BC. . BC Egyptian antiquities were collected and placed decorative - only 13 obelisks were from Egypt to Rome translocated  - or built in Egyptian-forms, such as the Pyramid of Cestius . These testimonies were the "originals" that were first and most easily accessible to those interested in the emergence of the New Egyptian style in Rome and Italy in the 18th century.

In the renaissance , the creative sector was particularly fascinated by the enigmatic hieroglyphs that were occasionally used as a decorative element . In Rome in the 16th and 17th centuries a number of the ancient Egyptian obelisks, which had fallen over in the meantime, were re-erected.

In the Baroque era , interest in ancient Egyptian culture increasingly extended to its architectural legacies and works of art. Early evidence of the interest are travelogues from the early 18th century or pictures.

Basics

Honor column , Hanau (1775)

Until the deciphering of the hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832) in the 1820s, the background of ancient Egyptian culture was largely in the dark. Above all, the ancient, highly interpretive sources were accessible, especially Herodotus (approx. 490-430 BC): Histories , but also Diodors (2nd half of 1st century BC): Libraries , Strabons Geographika and the Naturalis historiae by Pliny the Elder n (1st half of the 1st century AD). This meant that where monuments could not be clearly interpreted, they were imaginatively interpreted. This resulted in the Egypticism of the Freemasons and Rosicrucians , which was largely detached from the sources , works such as The Magic Flute or the work of Alessandro Cagliostro .

In Europe, material evidence of ancient Egyptian culture was primarily accessible in Rome, where Egyptian monumental sculptures, brought here in antiquity, were found as archaeological finds . The largest papal collection of such objects has been in the Capitol since the 18th century . Alessandro Cardinal Albani owned another .

In the contemporary discussion of classical and neoclassical architecture, the question of the extent to which Greek architecture was dependent on ancient Egyptian architecture was in the foreground . Egyptian culture appeared unchanged for a long time, a topos that can be traced back to Plato . Here the image of a “conservative Egyptian wisdom country” emerged, in the political culture highly suited to be idealized by adherents of absolutism and persistence.

Second half of the 18th century

Sphinxes in the garden of Bagatelle Palace

The New Egyptian style emerged as part of classicism , as a counter-movement to and against the Baroque and Rococo, and in France as part of the Enlightenment . In its initial phase, it was not yet determined what was to be included in the “Classical Culture”: only the Greek culture , the Greek and Roman cultures together, or both and, in addition, the preceding ancient Egyptian art . Egyptian culture was then recognized as a source for Greek and Roman art. With his theory of art fundamental to the Late Egyptian style was Anne Claude de Caylus . Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) was the first to publish large-scale architectural designs in the New Egyptian style . From the middle of the 18th century, Egyptian sculptures (or their casts) are part of the collections of art academies in increasing numbers .

In the 1780s, "Egyptian" enjoyed great popularity. This corresponds to the fact that the reception of Egypt was mainly conveyed to the rest of Europe through French culture. The new Egyptian forms were initially limited in their use to the nobility. They symbolized a conservative, absolutist state and also served in France to justify the absolutist monarchy . Louis Marie Duc d'Aumont made the New Egyptian style fashionable in the arts and crafts. And last but not least, the Queen herself, Marie Antoinette , promoted this fashion sustainably by having items of equipment in New Egyptian style procured for her private rooms on a large scale and by viewing the Sphinx as a personal iconographic symbol. The political opponents of absolutism - such as the encyclopedists - therefore also judged Egyptian forms in art negatively. Other opponents of the New Egyptian style were Johann Joachim Winckelmann and his followers, who wanted to see "high-ranking" Greek art interpreted independently of "barbaric" Egyptian art.

In Great Britain - unlike France - the New Egyptian style was not so much a part of fashionable handicrafts that combined it with other elements. In Great Britain the attempt was rather to work as true to the original as possible, based on ancient Egyptian models. These included B. since 1770 corresponding Wedgwood ceramics.

In Germany, the reception of Egypt started a little later and mixed with the irrational , romantic and anti-Enlightenment ideas emerging at the end of the 18th century . Here, it was primarily Freemasons and Rosicrucians who initially used New Egyptian forms as carriers of meaning.

The "long 19th century"

Revolutionary architecture : Egyptian style cenotaph by Étienne-Louis Boullée

French revolutionary architecture was also influenced by elements of Egyptian art. Here the ancient Egyptian architecture was interpreted as "original" and "close to nature", as exemplary in the sense of the influential Physiocrats at the end of the 18th century .

“The cultural leaders of the great revolution immediately seized upon the symbols of the ancien regime that seemed useful to them, in order to adapt them to the rapidly changing political situations and to develop new bourgeois-republican symbols from them. This also included Egyptian and Egyptian elements such as obelisks, pyramids, sphinxes and hieroglyphs. "

Since most of the monuments created in the stormy initial phase of the revolution, which were primarily of daily political importance, soon became obsolete in the course of the revolutionary events and were also made of rapidly perishable materials, little has survived from this period. As the only from the early days of the Republic in Paris got neuägyptisches, immobile cultural monument two seats are in the Jardin des Tuileries by 1794. They are equipped with winged female sphinxes that a Nemes headscarf , decorated bear. In the years that followed, there were repeated designs for large-scale projects in New Egyptian style or in which New Egyptian style elements were to be used. But in view of the turbulent political developments, hardly any of it was implemented.

The Egypt campaign and the consequences

Fontaine du Fellah , Paris		Thomas Rowlandson : Egyptomania (1806)

Contrary to popular belief, the New Egyptian style already had a 50-year history when Napoleon carried out the Egyptian campaign . This did not give rise to the style in the first place. However, the campaign led to a hype of the New Egyptian style . There were several reasons for this: Although the campaign failed militarily, it represented a considerable prestige success for Napoleon, who rose from this starting point to become “First Consul”. Napoleon subsequently established the New Egyptian style as part of the Empire and it quickly spread across Europe with the military and cultural dominance of the French Empire . It spread among the now dominant bourgeoisie and was no longer limited to the nobility.

The scientific expedition accompanying the campaign increased the amount of knowledge and material on Egyptian art in Europe enormously.

In contrast to the republican phase of the revolution, some monuments in New Egyptian style have also been preserved from the empire . The New Egyptian forms spread widely and were adopted into fashion.

Not everyone was enthusiastic about the New Egyptian style . Especially followers of classicist forms rejected him. This is what has come down to us from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe :

"Now I should like myself on the Nile,
dog-headed gods are called big:
Oh, if I were
rid of my halls, Isis and Osiris too!"

After Napoleon

Neues Museum Berlin , Ägyptischer Hof (lithograph after a watercolor by Eduard Gaertner )

The conditions for the reception of Egyptian art changed dramatically as a result of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt. The country came back into the focus of European interests with the high point of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the occupation of the country by Great Britain in 1882. In addition, after the deciphering of the hieroglyphs, scientific research into ancient Egyptian culture began. As a result, collections and museums were now being created in Europe, which - in contrast to their forerunners of the 18th century - collected not only the Egyptian culture of the late period, but the entire ancient Egyptian culture.

But even in the first decades of the 19th century, the height of the artistic reception of Egypt, buildings in the New Egyptian style remained relatively rare. In addition, the ancient Egyptian statues were difficult to associate with the ideal of beauty shaped by the Greek classical period . They acted as "exotic curiosities". To the extent that statues were created in the New Egyptian style at all, they were based on models from the Roman Empire . Ornaments or decorative elements , on the other hand, were adopted more easily. The first focus of the New Egyptian style during the Empire was interior decoration and furniture.

Masonic Lodge in Boston, Lincolnshire : A copy of the Temple of Dendur		Synagogue in Hobart

In the 19th century, exact copying based on the archaeological model increasingly prevailed in the application of the New Egyptian style - even if the compromises to the modern use of the buildings were considerable. For example, the Masonic Lodge in Boston (Lincolnshire) , Great Britain (1860–1863) is a replica of the Temple of Dendur and has a building inscription in hieroglyphics. Increasingly, the New Egyptian style also served to emphasize the “exotic”: architecture in zoological gardens and even later: cinemas. This also made the New Egyptian style interchangeable with other "exoticisms" and it was only one option among many to give expression to the exotic.

Carreras Cigarette Factory, London

The last wave of New Egyptian building began in the 1920s, when Egyptian art again became very fashionable in the context of the discovery and opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun .

Style elements

Grauman's Egyptian Theater (1922): exterior view		inside view

On the one hand, New Egyptian forms were only used selectively. Complete structures in New Egyptian style are rare. On the other hand, New Egyptian elements were used in a variety of ways, for example to decorate open spaces. Egyptian column orders were considered archaic and original, the hollow should not be missing. The (New) Egyptian style was considered to be particularly suitable for buildings that evoke eternity, arouse sublime feelings and awe, or evoke horror, e.g. B. Museums , schools , libraries , prisons and cemetery portals. In garden art - almost stereotypically - almost only pyramids , obelisks and sphinxes were used. In addition, the style was popular with synagogues and Masonic houses.

The New Egyptian style remained rare in Germany. It is most likely to be found in unrealized projects or theater decorations.

Examples

Egyptian motifs in general were used in large numbers for furniture, decorative elements, textiles, interior decorations and handicrafts, not forgetting stage sets for pieces with a (pseudo) Egyptian subject , such as the Magic Flute , Joseph in Egypt or Aida . The inventory is too diverse to list all of this in detail. For the area of ​​buildings see:

→ Main article : List of structures in the New Egyptian style

See also

• Egyptomania

literature

• Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bissing: The share of Egyptian art in the art life of the peoples . Munich 1912.
• James Stevens Curl: The Egyptian Revival. Ancient Egypt as the Inspiration for Design Motifs in the West . Routledge, Abington 2005. ISBN 978-0-415-36119-4
• Erich Hubala : Ancient Egypt and the fine arts in the 19th century . In: World Cultures and Modern Art. The encounter of European art and music in the 19th and 20th centuries with Asia, Africa, Oceania, Afro- and Indo-America = catalog for the exhibition organized by the organizing committee for the games of the XX. Olympiade Munich 1972. Bruckmann, Munich 1972. ISBN 3-7654-1464-6 , pp. 36-41.
• Stefan Koppelkamm : The imaginary Orient. Exotic buildings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe . Wilhelm Ernst & Son, Berlin 1987.
• Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine : Recueil de Décorations intérieurs . Paris 1801, ²1812.
• Dirk Syndram : Egypt - fascination. Investigations into the image of Egypt in European classicism up to 1800 = European university publications. Row 28: Art History 104. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1990.

Web links

Commons : Egyptian Revival art  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ So in Palace of Versailles for the Petits Appartements (Syndram: Egypt , p. 253 f.), In Palace Fontainebleau (Syndram: Egypt , p. 255 f.) And in Castle Saint-Cloud (Syndram: Egypt , p. 256– 258).
2. ^ "In the 23rd year of the reign of Her Majesty the royal daughter, Victoria , the Most Gracious Lady, this building was erected" (Curl, p. 327).
3. ↑ So z. B. Carl Haller von Hallerstein : competition design for the Munich Glyptothek (Koppelkamm, p. 20).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 142.
2. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 21.
3. ↑ Ludwig Volkmann: Pictorial writings of the Renaissance. Hieroglyphics and emblems in their relationships and further developments . Leipzig 1923. ND 1962; Erik Iversen: The Myth of Egypt and its Hieroglyphs in European Tradition . Copenhagen 1961.
4. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 143.
5. ↑ This includes: Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach : draft of a historical architecture . 5 volumes. Vienna 1721 (vol. 1); Bernard de Montfaucon : L'Antiquité expliquée et representée en figures . 15 volumes. 1719-1724; Syndram: Egypt , pp. 24, 88.
6. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 20.
7. ↑ Histories , Book 2 (Euterpe).
8. ^ Libraries , Book 1.
9. ↑ Geographika , Book 17.
10. ↑ Naturalis historiae , Book 2 (Geography), Book 5, 33–37.
11. ↑ Jurgis Baltusaitis: La Quete d'Isis. Essai sur la legend d'un mythe . Paris 1967.
12. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 146.
13. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , pp. 148–152.
14. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 20.
15. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 14.
16. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 15.
17. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 13.
18. ^ Anne-Claude-Philippe, Comte de Caylus : Recueil d'antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grecques et romaines . 7 volumes. Paris 1752-1767; Syndram: Egypt , pp. 29-53.
19. ^ Giovanni Battista Piranesi : Diverse manière d'adornare I cammini ad ogni altra parte degli edificii, dessante dall'architectura egiziana, etrusca e grecacon un ragionammento apologetic in difensa dell'achitettura egiziana e toscana . Rome 1769; Syndram: Egypt , pp. 184-197; Curl, 160-164.
20. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 166 f.
21. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 249.
22. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 203.
23. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 249.
24. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , pp. 249-260.
25. ^ Syndram: Egypt , pp. 72-80.
26. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 261.
27. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , pp. 271-275.
28. ↑ See: Curl, p. 179 f.
29. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , pp. 109-116.
30. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 286.
31. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 290.
32. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 292, fig. 146.
33. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , pp. 292-294.
34. ↑ Bissing, p. 94.
35. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , pp. 292-294.
36. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 14.
37. ↑ In particular the "official" documentation such as:
    * Sa Majesté l'Empereur Napoléon le Grand (Ed.): Description de l 'Egypt, ou Recueil des Observations et des Recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l' Expédition de l 'Armée française . Paris 1809-1822.
    * Dominique Vivant Denon : Voyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte pendant les campagnes de la général Bonaparte . Paris 1802.
38. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 297.
39. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , p. 299.
40. ↑ Hubala: The ancient Egypt , p. 36 f.
41. ↑ Hubala: The Ancient Egypt , p. 37.
42. ↑ Hubala: The Ancient Egypt , p. 36.
43. ↑ Hubala: The Ancient Egypt , p. 37.
44. ^ Curl, p. 326.
45. ↑ Curl, pp. 383f.
46. ↑ Curl, p. 373ff.
47. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , pp. 225-230.
48. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , pp. 220-224.
49. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , pp. 213-219.
50. ↑ Koppelkamm, p. 20.
51. ↑ Koppelkamm, p. 20.
52. ↑ Curl, pp. 234ff., 330ff.
53. ↑ Curl, p. 238ff.
54. ↑ Syndram: Egypt , pp. 231-260.
55. ↑ Curl, pp. 249–259, plates XVIII - XXIII (1816 by Karl Friedrich Schinkel )