Restoration of 13th centuryEgyptian art
The Egyptian revival was based on the experience of the Pharaonic period in Egypt. The surviving monuments sometimes have no hieroglyphic inscriptions. The substitution of figures in the temples of the Egyptian story as representations of gods, Egyptian writing, Greco-Roman Egyptian creations, sacred texts of the scriptures, and the Qur'anic tradition led to creative interpretations of ancient Egyptian art and architecture through the Egyptian conceptual heritage. Until the 18th century, the Late Antiquity and the Revival saw only a few pieces of ancient Egyptian influence on contemporary Egyptian art and architecture, created before the 15th century. The Nemes headdress of the Sphinx in the Middle Ages is indicative of the Egyptian motif. The Egyptian revival in the Middle Ages was a group of Sphinx sculptures created by the Cosmati of Rome from ancient Egyptian monuments that were lost in the 13th century, around the time when the last person who could read and write hieroglyphics died, around 400/500 AD to 1822 AD.
Many monuments still exist. Many monuments still exist, some of which have always been visible above ground. Over the past 200 years, archaeologists have found a large number of objects buried in graves or left behind in the dwellings. Belief in the afterlife led the Egyptians to decorate their graves with objects, with temples and tombs built of stone to last forever. The materials used to build them varied, the land they cultivated, and the settlements were on the edge of the desert, so there is evidence of funerary beliefs and customs left behind. The Hebrew and Greek literature that became the foundation and cover of Egypt, by Egyptian priests who wrote the chronicles of the Egyptian kings covering around 3100 to 343 BC. The settlements of cities, towns and villages, and even tombs, still contain animal cemeteries and funeral rituals.
Sphinx, Roman, 50-200 CE Arundel Marble
Pasquale Romanus Sphinx
Napoleon's military invasions and the references to Egypt in the Bible, the subsequent victories in Egypt, gave rise to what is called the Egyptian Restoration. The preservation of many ancient Egyptian monuments, with Napoleonic meanings and reasons. The spread of Egyptian art, architecture and the language of Egyptian and Greek texts. The artistic trends in the Egyptian essence, the design and translation of inscriptions and the interpretation of architectural elements. The flourishing Egyptian tradition. The discovery of antiquities and rock temples. Tombs molded in all things ancient Egypt.
The 13th century excavations in search of ancient stones for use as raw materials for their production, as well as the statue of Paschalis Romanus, other 13th century sphinxes also show Cosmati's affinity with ancient Egyptian models, from the Cosmati sphinx wearing a nemes helmet, unlike other ancient sphinxes from the Restoration period and probably earlier. The Sphinx of Viterbo wears a cloth tied over its hair, combining the still posture and front of the Egyptian sphinx with a slightly turned head and natural elements. It is very likely that the sculptors tried to revive the ancient sphinx's form without necessarily recognizing its Egyptian nature. The usually human form is derived from the headband visible from the forehead and front of the ears of the Egyptian sphinx with a human head. The long ponytail down the back of the sphinx is an interpretation of the tail of the nemes headdress or the phoenix and the serpent with the head of a lion. These vibrant artworks and architectures are only a part of what reflects Egypt during the Middle Ages. The imagination embellished with hieroglyphics
