Egyptomania in Paris: A Scavenger Hunt Blog

About this Blog

     On 18 June 2013, students in "Building Paris," part of the University of South Florida's Art and Art History Summer program in Paris, fanned out across the city in search of examples of Egyptomania--art created in the spirit of ancient Egypt. Course instructor Dr. Mary B. Shepard (aka "La prof")assigned herself two sites as well, both of which were new to her. Her first two posts, on the Parc Monceau and Montparnasse Cemetery, bookend the period of Egyptomania we explored--from the second half of the eighteenth century to the turn of the twentieth century. But the real work was done by the outstanding students in the course. They are:

Maura Gleeson, MA student in Art History, University of Florida and 

Phillip Townsend, Senior Art History Major, University of South Florida

Bryanna Tramontana, Senior Art History Major, University of South Florida

Dustin Beck, Senior Studio Art Major, University of Arkansas-Fort Smith

Anita Braham, Senior Art History Major, University of Florida

Beth Plakidas, MFA student, University of South Florida and 

Ali Terndrup, MA student in Art History, University of South Florida

Anna Ross, MA student in Art History, University of Florida

Emily Reed, Senior Art History Major, University of South Florida

Becca Barton, Senior Graphic Design Major, University of Tampa

Left to right: Anita Braham, Becca Barton, Lindsay Persohn, Ph.D. student in Education, University of South Florida, and Emily Reed

THE SOURCES WE CONSULTED

Appelbaum 2012. Diana Muir Appelbaum,  "Jewish Identity and Egyptian Revival Architecture," Journal of Jewish Identities, vol. 5 (2012): 1-23.

Curl 2005. James Stevens Curl, The Egyptian Revival: Ancient Egypt as the Inspiration for Design Motifs in the West (Abingdon and New York, 2005).

Humbert and Price 2003. Jean-Marcel Humbert and Clifford Price, ed., Imhotep Today: Egyptianizing architecture (London, 2003).

Paris, Ottawa, Vienna 1994. Egyptomania: Egypt in Western Art, 1730-1930, exhibition catalogue: Paris, Musée du Louvre, et al. (Paris, 1994).

Porterfield 1998. Todd Porterfield, The Allure of Empire: Art in the Service of French Imperialism, 1798-1836 (Princeton, 1998).

And in French:

Humbert 1998. Jean-Marcel Humbert, L’Egypt à Paris (Paris, 1998). 

Lesbros 2012. Dominique Lesbros, Curiosités de Paris (Paris, 2012). 

Parc Monceau: Clue

The most perfect of shapes;

Equal on all sides;

Universal.

A "folly," but serious,

meant for contemplation of the world's oldest symbol.

Parc Monceau: Answer

Parc Monceau, Pyramid Folly, 1779. Park entrance on the Boulevard de Courcelles. 8th arrondissement. Metro: Monceau

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

One of the only original structures to survive in the park, this pyramid was once joined by other exotic structures including a Dutch windmill, an Islamic minaret, and an ancient-style Temple of Mars. 

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

The fad for "follies"--these miniaturizing architectural structures--began in England with the aim of condensing time and place within a picturesque garden setting. The Duke of Chartres, a cousin of King Louis XVI, was an avid fan of English-style gardens and endeavored to create a French interpretation in the years just before the French Revolution.

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

Given its geometric perfection, the Egyptian pyramid was among of the most enduring of forms. The Duke of Chartres was also the grand master of the most prominent Masonic Lodge in Paris; for Freemasons, the triangle embodies sacred geometry and represents the Great Architect of the Universe. Thus, the inclusion of this pyramid in the duke's picturesque garden demonstrated both the French appropriation of ancient civilization and testified to the duke's Masonic beliefs.

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

The herms flanking the now-shuttered entryway, are topped with human heads wearing a striped nemes--the traditional cloth head covering reserved for the pharaoh.  Time has not been kind to these sentinels.

Montparnasse: Clue

Silent
Enduring
Temples.
Luxor via Solomon's Temple.
But, in Paris.

Montparnasse: Answer

Egyptian-style Mausolea in the Montparnasse Cemetery, 3, boulevard Edouard Quinet. 
14th arrondissement. Metro: Raspail

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

Nestled in the "Little Cemetery," located across the rue Émile Richard from the main section of the Cimetière Montparnasse, these stately mausolea can be found in an early 20th-century grouping of Jewish burials. The mausolea are family tombs--with several generations resting beneath.

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

Find them by walking down the rue Émile Richard from the boulevard Edouard Quinet. Turn left at "Porte 4."

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

Why Egyptian-style mausolea for Jewish Parisians? Diana Muir Appelbaum, in writing about the adoption of Egyptian-style architecture for synagogues (Appelbaum 2012), suggests that adopting the architecture of ancient Egypt was a way of expressing "Jewish ancientness" and a sense of national identity, as Ancient Egyptian architecture was believed to evoke the ancient city of David and Solomon. Early in the 19th century, there was an idea that the Temple of Solomon had been built in the Egyptian style and even by the turn of the 20th century, Jewish synagogues were discussed as being built in a "Judeo-Egyptian style."

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

This extraordinary tomb (25th Division) bears no family name, but it is one of the most impressive. Shaped like a pylon, it features a concave cavetto cornice with stylized lotus petals. Below the cornice, the lintel is decorated with the winged solar disk--but with the Star of David replacing the sun.

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

Remnants of Nile Blue paint still survive on the stylized lotus petals decorating the cornice. 

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

Horus, with his wings outstretched, protects the tomb and its occupants. 

Saint-Sulpice: Clue

On a small cobbled street,
one eyes Saint-Sulpice.
The other, whose gaze fixes forward,
spies the Musée du Luxembourg. 

Saint-Sulpice: Answer

Pair of Sphinxes, c. 1780. 6, rue Férou. 

6th arrondissement. Metro: Saint-Sulpice

Photo: Phillip Townsend and Maura Gleeson

The lure of the artistic riches of Rome attracted both artists and art enthusiasts during the eighteenth century. Of course, ancient Rome had enjoyed its own version of "Egyptomania," with genuine Egyptian works brought to Rome, which--in turn--inspired ancient Roman copies and interpretations. Undoubtedly, Rome was the source for these wonderful gatepost sphinxes. 

Phillip catching the mood. Photo: Phillip Townsend and Maura Gleeson

The Hôtel de Luzy was built for a popular actress of the time, known as "Mademoiselle Luzy," c. 1770, and these guardian sphinxes on her entry gateposts have been dated to around 1780 (Humbert 1998). 

Photo: Phillip Townsend and Maura Gleeson

They are in the classic form of an Egyptian sphinx as Pharaoh: body of a lion topped by a human head wearing a striped nemes: head gear specific to the pharaoh. It covers the entire back of the head, while its flaps extend over the lion's shoulders.  

Photo: Phillip Townsend and Maura Gleeson

Perhaps the creation of Egyptianizing sphinxes like these inspired the acquisition of authentic Egyptian sphinxes, like this example from 399-380 BCE. The Louvre Museum acquired this ancient sphinx representing the Pharaoh Hakoris in 1807. Both the ancient and French examples provided a 'sphinx-checklist' for artists to work from: a muscular lion's body lying in with its forelegs extended; a lion's tail curled up around its haunches; and a human head wearing a striped nemes.

Almost at Le Bon Marché: Clue

Exit the gateway and cross the street,
turn back around to see two different styles meet.
Underneath the wings of an eagle and above the mane of a lion,
lies the fountain that you seek. 

Almost at Le Bon Marché: Answer

Fontaine de Fellah 
(Fountain of the Water-bearer), 1806-09 
(statue replaced by a copy in 1844). 

42, rue de Sèvres. 7^th arrondissement. 
Metro: Vaneau

You have to do it! Maura, walking like an Egyptian.
Photo: Phillip Townsend and Maura Gleeson

This fountain was built soon after Napoleon Bonapartre returned to France in 1799 from a military campaign in Egypt. (The campaign was actually a disaster, but since there was no CNN, the failure was kept under wraps for years.) All things Egyptian became wildly in style. Thus, this fountain on the rue de Sèvres looks like an Egyptian gateway, or pylon, with a concave "cavetto cornice" at the top—much like the pylon/gateway of the Temple of Dendur shown in this nineteenth-century watercolor by Frederick Arthur Bridgman and now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art - The Temple of Dendur, showing the Pylon. 

Slyly, the eagle of Napoleon—with its wings outstretched—occupies the space normally filled by the winged sun disk of the sun god, Horus. 

Photo: Phillip Townsend and Maura Gleeson

At the bottom of the fountain, on the outside of the basin, is a head of a lion with a spout, giving access to the water. Water also poured from the pitchers held by the bare-chested figure wearing an Egyptian nemes, or headdress. 

Photo: Phillip Townsend and Maura Gleeson

But this is not a French copy of an ancient Egyptian statue. It is a French copy

of an ancient Roman statue carved in the style of Ancient Egypt. The figure in the fountain duplicates an ancient Roman sculpture made during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian (76-138 CE), like this example that was exhibited in Paris at the time of the Fountaine de Fellah's creation and is now in the Vatican Museum in Rome. 

The original shows Antinous, a favorite of Hadrian’s, who drowned in the Nile River. 

Phillip and Maura felt like cognoscenti when they spotted this version (one of a pair) by Pierre-Nicolas Beauvallet, c. 1807, now in the Musée Marmottan. 

Unfortunately, the construction of the Metro so close to the fountain has made for continual problems and sadly it was decided recently to turn off the water. 

Photo: Phillip Townsend and Maura Gleeson

la Villette: Clue

 I have eight lions and am surrounded by water.
You will find one flower blooming at my center.

la Villette: Answer

Fontaine aux Lions de Nubie 
(Nubian Lion Fountain), 1811. 

Moved in 1867 to the south end of the 
Parc de la Villette. 

19th arrondissement. Metro: Porte de Pantin

Photo: Anita Braham, Bree Tramontana, & Dustin Beck

Originally part of Napoleon Bonaparte's plan to more efficiently supply water to Parisians, this fountain was originally situated in what is now the Place de la République. It was later moved, in 1867, to the Parc la Villette to serve as a water trough for animals during the time when the park was used as the city's cattle market and slaughterhouse. 

Photo: Bree Tramontana, Anita Braham, & Dustin Beck

The crouching lions, paired for a total of eight, are made of cast iron and shown in sphinx-like positions, with their front legs extended and parallel and with their tails curled around their backsides. 

They recall the ancient Egyptian lions originally from the large Ancient Roman complex of Isis that were later installed on the stairway of the Capitoline Hill in Rome. In 1588, they were outfitted with piping and their transformation into water-spouts was complete. 

Musée de Picardie, Amiens

These famous Capitoline lions spouting water were known in France well before the creation of the Nubian Lion Fountain, as they had impressed French artists studying and working in Rome. The Laundresses (c. 1758-60), attributed to Hubert Robert (1733-1808), demonstrates an early French interest in this ancient feline bubbler.

Germany in Paris: Clue

A hidden treasure lies behind two green doors; 
it's so divine if you arrive just in time, 
you might catch a glimpse of the superfine. 

Germany in Paris: Answer

Entry Portico, Hôtel Beauharnais, c. 1807. 

78, rue de Lille. 7th arrondissement. 

Metro : Musée d’Orsay or Assemblée Nationale

Photo: Emily Reed and Becca Barton

Now the entrance to the German Embassy, this imposing Egyptianizing portico is normally inaccessible behind these green doors. But the ever-intrepid Emily and Becca were there just as a car was exiting the embassy, facilitating this rare view of the portico.

Triumph! Photo: Becca Barton and Emily Reed

You can spy the massive portico through the doors, with its cavetto cornice with rearing uraeus and solar disk, supported by columns with lotus capitals. Images in sunken relief of the enthroned goddess Mut flank the stairway. The marble sculptures of Antinous, now at the Musée Marmottan (see Almost at Le Bon Marché: Answer) are thought to have originally been installed in the niches visible on the sides of the portico (Humbert 1998). 

Concorde: Clue & Answer

Sitting at the cross of nature and construction,
of the new and the old,
marking the base of monumental Paris
there stands a petrified sun ray
crowned with gold,
grounding the meeting of Egypt and France:
a constant in the whirl of shifting surroundings.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Obelisk from the ancient Egyptian 

Temple of Luxor, 1250 BCE. 
Place de la Concorde.

8th arrondissement. Metro: Concorde

Photo: Lindsay Persohn and Anna Ross

Certainly the oldest monument in Paris to be seen outside of the Louvre Museum, this obelisk was originally part of a pair that formed the entryway to the temple complex at Luxor, created under pharaoh Ramses II. It was a gift from the viceroy of Egypt to king Charles X in 1831 and was finally transported to Paris and installed in the Place de la Concorde by 1837. 

Photo: Lindsay Persohn and Anna Ross

Weighing over 220 tons and measuring 75 feet tall, the obelisk presented extraordinary challenges in both transport and installation. Pictographs (which Todd Porterfield has likened to nineteenth-century hieroglyphics; Porterfield 1998) on the pedestal chronicle the technology amassed to achieve this feat of engineering.

Photo: Lindsay Persohn and Anna Ross

The obelisk was placed where the guillotine had stood during the French Revolution. Its presence signaled the replacement of bloodshed during the Reign of Terror with the enduring brilliance of  French civilization.               

"By effacing the bloody memories hanging over the 

Place de la Concorde, by uniting the urban plan, and by propagating a rationale for imperialism in the Near East, 

the obelisk would provide post-Revolutionary France with a 

          monument that could last. It offered modern France an ideological center by which the country could not only survive but flourish." 

                                                          ~ Todd Porterfield (Porterfield 1998)

Rosetta: Clue

You will find no compass, but I point towards the sky.
Like Rosetta, I am made of stone.

Rosetta: Answer

Tomb of Jean-François Champollion, 1832. 
Père Lachaise Cemetery, avenue des Accacias. 

20th arrondissement. Metro : Père Lachaise or Philippe Auguste

Photo: Anita Braham, Bree Tramontana, & Dustin Beck

A gifted linguist, Jean-François Champollion is credited with figuring out how to fully decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone, which had been unearthed by Napoleon's expedition in 1799. Champollion died as a relatively young man at the age of 41, following an expedition to Egypt to study hieroglyphs in situ.

It was during this fatal trip that the viceroy of Egypt offered France the obelisk from Luxor that now stands in the Place de la Concorde. Accordingly, Champollion's own tomb is marked by a simple obelisk. You can find its location by typing Champollion's name into this interactive map of Pere-Lachaise Cemetery.

Photo: Bree Tramontana, Anita Braham, & Dustin Beck

A modern admirer has carefully tied this wonderful blue fiance scarab (a popular amulet in ancient Egypt and symbol of rebirth) to the fencing around Champollion's tomb.  

Photo: Bree Tramontana, Anita Braham, & Dustin Beck

Cairo-on-Seine: Clue

The cow ears of a goddess,
the stupendous nose of a painter,
and cobras flanking the sun, all point to Cairo
near the Nile.

Cairo-on-Seine: Answer

2, place du Caire, 1828. 2nd arrondissement. Metro: Sentier

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

The Nile runs right into Cairo: the rue de Nil (that is) runs into the place du Caire and this amazing building facade from 1828.

It's all here, from the columns with lotus-petal capitals:

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

To the cavetto cornice topping the entrance to the shopping passage "du Caire." Its solar disk is quite splendid as it also contains an uraeus -- the symmetrically rearing cobras that were a symbol of both the sun-god Re and adopted as part of the pharaoh's regalia. 

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

Three fantastic reliefs depicting the head of the goddess Hathor (recognizable by her distinctive cow-like ears) festoon the center of the building. They are direct descendants of  the Hathor-capitals of the Great Temple at Dendera (54-20 BCE), recorded in Dominique-Vivant Denon's influential book with lavish engravings, Description de l'Égypte (Description of Egypt), produced following the Napoleonic expedition to Egypt. 

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

Denon wrote that "Dendera . . . taught me that it was not at all in the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders alone that one ought to seek the beauties of architecture. . ." 
(Paris, Ottawa, and Vienna 1994)

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

At the very summit of the building, there is another cavetto cornice with a string of incised Egyptianizing images, including the falcon-god Horus. The most extraordinary is this caricature of the painter Henri-Auguste Bougenier (1799-1866), who was renown for the phenomenal size of his nose. 

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

Student Devotion: Clue

I have wings, but do not fly. 
I represent the sun, but do not shine. 

Student Devotion: Answer

 Tomb of Gaspard Monge, after 1818. 
Père Lachaise Cemetery, on the Ronde Point Casimer Perier. 

20th arrondissement. Metro : Père Lachaise or Philippe Auguste

Gaspard Monge (1746–1818), an esteemed mathematician and educator, joined the scientific team that accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt in 1798.  Not only was he a professor of geometry at the École polytechnique, but he was a highly skilled draftsman, and, thus, a much-valued member of the team. 

Dustin provides a sense of scale for Monge's magnificent mausoleum. Photo:  Bree Tramontana and Anita Braham

The mausoleum was erected by Monge's students in honor of their teacher; their dedication ("to G. Monge/the students of the École polytechnique") is inscribed on its walls. The mausoleum's design was by Dominique-Vivant Denon, the head of Napoleon's scientific expedition. 

You can find the location of the tomb in Père Lachaise by typing Monge's name into this interactive map of the cemetery. 

Photo:  Bree Tramontana, Anita Braham & Dustin Beck

Monge's tomb is crowned with an Egyptian-style pylon--a post and lintel gateway topped with a cavetto cornice. The lintel bears Monge's name and an expansive solar disk stretches across the cornice (Anita noted that the sun disk appears to have been recently repaired as two different colors of stone are visible.) A portrait bust occupies the interior.

Photo:  Bree Tramontana, Anita Braham & Dustin Beck

In  commemoration of the bicentennial of the French Revolution in 1989, Monge's remains were moved to the Pantheon, a burial reserved for notables who have made exceptional contributions to French history and civilization.