Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/164

142 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. make this readily understood. At Medinet-Abou the portico is terminated laterally by two antse, one corresponding to the row of columns, the other to the row of caryatid piers. In another court of the same temple the antse on either side vary in depth, at one end of the portico there is a bold pilaster, at the other one which projects very slightly indeed (Fig. 128). This is another instance of the curious want of symmetry and regularity which is one of the most constant characteristics of Egyptian architecture. M$> Fig. 125. — Antse, Temple of Khons. Description, iii. 54. Fig. 126. — Anta and base of pylon, Tenple of Khons. Descrip/ion, iii. 55. The anta is often without a capital, as, for instance, in the temple of Khons (Fig. 126). Elsewhere the architect seems to have wished to bring it into more complete harmony with the magnificence of its surroundings, and accordingly he gives it a capital, as at Medinet-Abou, but a capital totally unlike those question is composed, run in an unbroken line round the court with the exception of the side which is filled by the pylon. It was natural enough, therefore, that they should each be stopped against an anta, even if there had not been an additional reason in the inclination of the pylon. The ordonnance as a whole may be com- pared to a long portico, like that in the second court of the temple at Gournah, bent into two right angles. — Ed.