Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/526

 430 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. Ptah, the great deity of Memphis, they may very possibly have been carved in the imacre of that a^od. Between the days of Cambyses and those of Alexander, Egypt temporarily recovered her independence more than once. The art of that period — during which numerous works were carried out and many others restored — was a prolongation of the art of the Sait princes. Its aims, methods, and taste were entirely similar. We may, therefore, in spite of the limits which we have imposed upon ourselves, mention a work carried out no more than fifty years before the Greek conquest, in the reign of Nectanebo I. We mean the small buildinij which is sometimes called the southern temple, in the island of Philai. It is the oldest building upon the island, all the rest being Ptolemaic or Roman. Its arrangements are different to anything we have hitherto encountered in relicfious architecture. There are no internal sub- divisions of any kind, nothing which resembles a secos. According to all the plans which have been published. It contained only one hall, or rather rectangular court, Inclosed by fourteen graceful columns and a low, richly-decorated wall, which forms a kind of screen between the lower part of the columns. This screen does not extend quite half-way up the columns ; these latter support an entablature, but there has never been a roof of any kind. There can be no doubt that the building was consecrated to I sis, whose Image is carved all over it ; but could an edifice thus open to the outward air and to every prying eye be a temple ? Ebers is disposed to look upon it as a waiting-room.^ Close to it the remains of a wide staircase are to be traced, against which boats were moored, and upon which they discharged their loads. Thus the faithful who came to be present at the rites of I sis would assemble in the waiting-hall, whence they would be conducted by the priests to that sanctuary which became the object of so many pilgrimages In the later years of the Egyptian monarchy. Certain peculiarities in the management of the column, which grew Into frequent use in the Ptolemaic epoch, are here encoun- tered for the first time. This is not the place for Its detailed consideration, but one must point it out as a second result of the desire shown by the architects of the period to achieve new developments without breaking the continuity of the national traditions. Here, as in the monumental cattle-shed at Memphis, ^ Egypic. etc. ]i. 406.