Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/196

A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. the difference between the two less conspicuous. This difference may have been caused by any slight accident, or by the discovery of a flaw in the granite during the operation of cutting It in the quarry. In dealing with huge blocks like these, such contretemps must have been frequent. The smaller of the two obelisks was chosen for transport to Paris In 1836, In Its present situation on the Place de la Concorde it is separated from the sculptured base upon which It stood at Luxor. The northern and southern faces of that pedestal were each ornamented with four cynocephall adoring the rising sun ; the other two had figures of the god Nile presenting offerings to Amen (Fig. 168). In order to restore this and other obelisks to the form which they enjoyed In the days of the Pharaohs we should have to give them back their original summits as well as their pedestals. • Hittorf has shown that these probably consisted of caps of gilded copper fitted over the pyramldion,^ In those cases where the latter was not ornamented with carved figures. A curious passage In Abd-al-latif, which has been often cited, proves that the pyramid of Ousourtesen preserved Its cap as late as the thirteenth century. " The summit," says the Arab historian, " is covered with a kind of funnel-shaped copper cap, which descends about three cubits from the apex. The weather of so many centuries has made the copper green and rusty, and some of the green has run down the shaft of the obelisk." ^ In the plate attached to his essay, Hittorf gives us a plan and elevation of the pyramidion of the smaller obelisk of Luxor. He shows how its broken and Irregular mass , Implies a metallic covering, a covering whose existence is more- over proved by the groove or rebate, about an inch and a half deep, which runs round the summit of the shaft. His Figs. 3 and 4 show that this groove was carefully polished. His conclusions have failed to find acceptance in some quarters. It has been asserted that the rays of the sun, striking upon such a surface, would be reflected In a dazzling fashion, and that the we have restored the base of the larger obelisk after that belonging to the one now at Paris. We were without any other means of ascertaining its form. ■" Precis sur les Pyramidions de Bronze dore Employes par les Ancieiis Egyptiens comme cojironnemefit de quelques-2ins de leurs Obclisqiies, etc. J. J. Hittorf, 8vo, 1836. 2 Abd-al-latif, Relation de I'Egypfe ; French translation by Silvestre de Sacy, published in 4to, in 18 to, p. 181. — Ed.