To get into the spirit of another age and to have a genuine emotional encounter with art from another era or culture demands an expansiveness of mind and spirit. John Dewey rightly insisted, "Art is a universal language" and urged people to strive to achieve the internal experience of another culture, which in turn required an "immediate encounter". Put together the Great Sphinx, the pyramids of Giza, the treasures of Tutankhamen and the temple city of Karnak, we have one of the most elegant and enduring of the world's civilizationsancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt fills us with an inexpressible sadness, perhaps due to the melancholic impression produced by its art. So remote from us and yet so nearof the past and yet alive in myriad formsmysterious, bewitching Egypt continues to grip the interest of the modern world.
The Pharaohs of Egyptimmortalized by their royal sculptors, with their marvelous sense of form and craftsmanshipare no longer tormented by fierce ambitions and violent passions, as they "stare pleasantly out upon the long green snake of Egypt" or better still, gaze into eternity. The calm, imperturbable expression on the faces of the stiff figures puts a dreamlike spell on the art of Egypt, which also reveals the secret knowledge that there is the peace of eternal "being" within every aspect of temporal life. This gives the majestic sculptures of Egypt, a metaphysical resonance. |
