ABSTRACT
Of the modes by which the life of a community expresses itself, the arts are the most subjective. Nevertheless, the physical nature of the country imposes certain methods on the artist, by the materials which it furnishes, and the political system influences his imagination, by the intellectual discipline which it preaches. The Egyptians, like every other people, were subject to these laws. In Egypt, the artist, like the priest, soldier, peasant, and official, worked to increase the chances of society lasting in this world and the next. This explains why the erection of buildings to shelter and magnify the life of gods, Kings, and deified dead is one of the essential manifestations of Pharaonic rule. Every King, “in exchange for the favours which he received “for himself and his people, owed it to his gods, his ancestors, and himself to build monuments in which their names and his own should live for ever. Indeed, most of the evidence with which we reconstruct the history of Egypt comes from the temples and tombs, which have earned their name of “eternal monuments “.
