Egyptomania! - Western art that is inspired by Egyptian art, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria

Art in America, Nov, 1994 by Todd Porterfield

[1.] Jean-Marcel Humbert, "L'egyptomanie: actualite d'un concept de la Renaissance au postmodernisme," in Egyptomania: L'Egypte dans l'art occidental, 1730-1930, Paris, Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 1994, p. 25.

Any study of Egyptomania would now begin with this catalogue and would include standard texts such as: Richard G. Carrott, The Egyptian Revival: Its Sources, Monuments, and Meaning, 1808-1858, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1978; James Stevens Curl, The Egyptian Revival: An Introductory Study of a Recurring Theme in the History of Taste, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1982; and Humbert's L'Egyptomanie dans l'art occidental, Paris, ACR Edition, 1989. [2.] See, for instance, Humbert's remarks in Egyptomania, pp.21,252,288. [3.] Humbert, Egyptomania, p. 26. [4.] Christiane Ziegler, "D'une egyptomanie a l'autre: l'heritage de l'Antiquite romaine," Egyptomania, p. 15. [5.] Humbert, Egyptomania, p. 21. [6.] J.-B. Fourier, "Preface historique," Description de l'Egypte, vol. I (1809), p. 1. The Description, a collective work containing some 3,000 illustrations, was the product of a 1799 expedition of scientists and artists sent to Egypt on Napoleon's orders. [7.] The 10 categories are: Le voyage d'Italie; Absolutisme et lumieres; De Wedgwood a Thomas Hope; Denon et la decouverte de l'Egypte; Le retour d'Egypte; Le developpement des lectures paralleles, 1815-1869; L'Egypte a l'Opera; Confirmation d'une perennite, 1869-1910; Les annees Toutankhamon, 1910-1930; Cleopatre ou les seductions de l'Orient. [8.] The Egyptian Service was produced in part to raise the technical standards and reputation of the Sevres manufactory, which Denon also headed; see Humbert, Egyptomania, p. 222. [9.] Charles Truman, The Sevres Egyptian Service, 1810-12, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982, pp. 21-28. Humbert (Egyptomania, p. 225) notes that from 1934 to 1938 a third edition was made for the Musee Bonaparte in Cairo, during Egypt's fight for independence from Britain, and that it was given to the king of Egypt in 1938. [10]. Humbert, Egyptomania, p. 318. [11.] Pantazzi, Egyptomania, p. 122. The bathhouse was designed for the park of the Chateau de Montbeliard at Etupes. [12.] Ziegler, Egyptomania, pp. 578-79. Linda Nochlin offers a critique of traditional approaches and methods for critical studies of Orientalism in "The Imaginary Orient," Art in America, May 1983, pp. 119-31, 187-91. Also see Mary Hamer's Signs of Cleopatra, London, Routledge, 1993. [13.] Humbert, Egyptomania, p. 21. [14.] Salon de 1806," Le Publiciste, Oct. 10, 1806, p. 3. [15.] The second is Francois-Edouard Picot's Study Crowned with Laurels and the Genius of the Arts Unveiling Ancient Egypt for Greece of 1827, which the catalogue and the wall label in Paris inexplicably dated to 1837. [16.] Adolphe Thiers, "Discours sur le budget de l'Algerie, prononce le 9 juin, 1836, a la Chambre des Deputes," in Discours parlementaires de M. Thiers, vol. III, Paris, Calamann Levy, 1879, pp. 512-16. [17.] Reprinted in Jacques-Joseph Champollion-Figeac, Fourier et Napoleon: l'Egypte et les cent jours: memoires et documents inedits, Paris, Firmin Didot Freres, 1844, p. 170. [18.] G. W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy of Fine Arts, vol. II, trans. F. P. B. Osmaston, London, G. Bell & Sons, 1920, p. 14.