Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/169

 Bk. I. Ch. V GREEK AND ROMAN PERIOD. 137 (i gpp ^ TT- n-F which distinguislies all the later Egyptian styles from that of the rigid, projiort ion-loving pyramid builders of Memphis. This irregularity of plan was nowhere carried to such an extent as in the Ptolemaic temple on the island of Philae (Woodcut No. 43). Here no two buildings, scarcely any two walls, are on the same axis or parallel to one another. No Gothic architect, in his wildest moments, ever played so freely with his lines or dimen- sions, and none, it nuist be added, ever produced anything so beautifully picturesque as this. It contains all the play of light and shade, all the variety of Gothic art, with the massiveness and grandeur of the Egyptian style ; and as it is still tolerably entire, and retains much of its color, there is no building oiit of Thebes that gives so favorable an impression of Egyjitian art as this. It is true it is far less sublime than* many, but hardly one can be quoted as more beautiful. Notwithstanding its irregularity, this tem- ple has the advantage of being nearly all of the same age, and erected according to one plan, wliile the greater buildings at Thebes are often aggregations of parts of different ages ; and though each is beautiful in itself, the result is often not quite so liarmonious as might be desired. In this resj^ect the Ptol- emaic temples certainly have the advantage, inasmuch as they are all of one age, and all completed according to the plan on which they were designed ; a circumstance which, to some extent, at least, coin])ensates for their marked inferiority in size and style, and the littleness of all the ornaments and details, as compared with those of the Pharaonic })eriod. It must at the same time be admitted that this inferi- ority is more apparent in the sculpture of the Ptolemaic age than in its architecture. The general design of the buildings is frequently grand and imposing, but the details are always inferior ; and the sculpture and painting, which in the great age add so much to the beauty of the whole, are in the Ptolemaic age always frittered away, ill-arranged, unmeaning, and injurious to the general effect, instead of heightening and improving it. Strange as it may at first sight appear, we knoAV less of the man- ners and customs of the Egyptian people during the Greek and Roman =f- L I