Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/493

 The Temple under the New Empire. 397 the top of the steps, the other at the back.^ The first named was indicated as the true entrance to the building- by the slight salience of its jambs and lintel, by the increased size of the columns in front of it, and by its position with regard to the steps. One more peculiarity must be noticed. Neither in piers nor in walls do we find that inward slope which is almost universal in Egyptian exteriors. The lines are vertical and horizontal. This is not the effect of caprice ; the architect had a good reason for neglecting the traditions of his profession. By avoiding the usual inclination towards the centre, he gave to his small creation a dignity which it would otherwise have missed, and, in some degree, concealed its diminutive size. Fig. 230. — View in perspective of the Temple of Elephantine (from the Description de VEg^'pte, i. 35). In spite of Its modest dimensions, this temple was without neither beauty nor grandeur. Its stylobate raised it w^ell above 1 Our plan. etc. shows the temple as it must have left the hands of the architect, according to the authors of the Description de V Egyple. Jomard (pi. 35, Fig. i) has imported a small chamber into his plan, placing it behind the large hall as a sort of opisihodomos ; but he bids us remark that it was constructed of different materials, and in a diftlerent bo7id, from the rest of the temple. It showed no trace of the sculptured decoration which covered all the rest of the temple. This chamber was therefore a later addition, and one only obtained at the expense of the continuous portico, the back part of which was enclosed with a wall in which the columns became engaged. According to Jomard, this alteration dates from the Roman period, but however that maybe, in our examination of the temple we may disregard an addition which appears to have been so awkwardly managed.