{"title":"Discernment or Devotion: Egypt and Sculptural Politics in Eighteenth-Century France","authors":"Elizabeth Saari Browne","doi":"10.1111/1467-8365.12712","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Although French fascination with Egyptian material culture is often dated to the nineteenth century, ancient Egyptian gems, architectural fragments, and small statues were already avidly collected in the eighteenth century. For some, the display and close study of small Egyptian works of art in private cabinets served to develop discernment, the formal properties illuminating historical moeurs, techniques, and artistic exchanges otherwise unknowable from then-untranslated hieroglyphs. Others, however, dismissed these objects as fetishes and idols, produced under the control of priests and despots for ritual devotion. Escalating prejudices in Europe toward the peoples and objects of Africa was fundamental to this latter attitude. Yet, the bigoted language also illuminates the fraught boundaries perceived between connoisseurship and idolatry, both predicated on the focused attention toward material objects. This essay addresses the implication of ancient Egyptian sculpture in these period debates, and demonstrates the impact of these biases on art histories of sculpture.</p>","PeriodicalId":8456,"journal":{"name":"Art History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Art History","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8365.12712","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"ART","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Although French fascination with Egyptian material culture is often dated to the nineteenth century, ancient Egyptian gems, architectural fragments, and small statues were already avidly collected in the eighteenth century. For some, the display and close study of small Egyptian works of art in private cabinets served to develop discernment, the formal properties illuminating historical moeurs, techniques, and artistic exchanges otherwise unknowable from then-untranslated hieroglyphs. Others, however, dismissed these objects as fetishes and idols, produced under the control of priests and despots for ritual devotion. Escalating prejudices in Europe toward the peoples and objects of Africa was fundamental to this latter attitude. Yet, the bigoted language also illuminates the fraught boundaries perceived between connoisseurship and idolatry, both predicated on the focused attention toward material objects. This essay addresses the implication of ancient Egyptian sculpture in these period debates, and demonstrates the impact of these biases on art histories of sculpture.
期刊介绍:
Art History is a refereed journal that publishes essays and reviews on all aspects, areas and periods of the history of art, from a diversity of perspectives. Founded in 1978, it has established an international reputation for publishing innovative essays at the cutting edge of contemporary scholarship, whether on earlier or more recent periods. At the forefront of scholarly enquiry, Art History is opening up the discipline to new developments and to interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approaches.