EXHIBITION REVIEWS

PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN ART IN EGYPT: AN EXHIBITION AT THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM

BY SIRARPIE DER NERSESSIAN

The exhibition held at the Brooklyn Museum from January 23 to March 9 under the title "Pagan and Christian Egypt" was the first important one of its kind. It revealed to the general public a period of art relatively little known. To the students of Christian art, as well as to those of the late classical period, it furnished a welcome opportunity for further study. The director of the Museum and the curators who were especially responsible for the exhi- bition, Mr. John D. Cooney, Curator of Egyptology, and Mrs. Elizabeth Riefstahl of the Charles Edwin Wilbour Memorial Library, are to be congratulated for their initiative and for the successful achievement of a particularly difficult task. Handicapped by world conditions which did not allow them to draw on foreign collections, they were able to bring to- gether a large number of representative examples of high quality. About three hundred objects were skilfully and beautifully displayed; special mention should be made of the novel and very effective way of showing the coins. All those who have bent over exhibition cases, straining to see the details on the coins placed in these cases, will have welcomed the help offered by the enlarged photographs hanging on the walls.

Every medium was included in the exhibition. As was to be expected the most important paintings, that is, the wall decorations of churches and monas- teries, could not be shown, but there were representa- tive examples of Fayum portraits, tempera panels, painted cartonnages, and, in addition to these works of an early date, three fine manuscripts from the outstanding collection of The Pierpont Morgan Library, which take us down to the tenth and eleventh centuries. The sculpture included works in the round, mostly of the first centuries, limestone stelae and architectural reliefs, wooden carvings, and a small but choice group of ivories. The bronze col- lection gave a good idea of the liturgical objects used in the Coptic church; a censer with New Testa- ment scenes was of particular interest. The textiles formed the most important item of the exhibition. With greater possibilities of choice, Mrs. Riefstahl succeeded in presenting a wide selection of every type of technique and subject matter. If one missed the two fine tapestries of the Dumbarton Oaks Collec- tion, one found however a number of smaller pieces which had not been shown before and which added greatly to our knowledge. To complete the list of the different categories of objects displayed, we should mention the jewelry, ceramics, glass, and the coins, already referred to. It is a pity that the latter have not been included in the Catalogue, but this is the only regret that one can voice concerning this

excellent publication which is abundantly illustrated, and contains precise indications, bibliographical references for each object, and interesting articles by Mr. Cooney and Mrs. Riefstahl.

The organizers of the exhibition had the great wisdom to include pagan works done in Egypt during the first centuries of our era; thus objects which form the immediate background of the Coptic period proper could be studied together with Coptic works and help us to understand them better. There was many an opportunity to observe the gradual changes of style. One might compare, for instance, the fine Fayum portraits of the second century with those of the third century and notice how the style becomes more linear, the attitude more frontal, until in the painted cartonnages of the fourth century the faces stare at us with a fixed gaze, their large eyes sharply outlined with heavy dark lines. Similar changes occur in the limestone heads, the ivories, or the textiles.

Coptic art is not very inventive or imaginative; its appeal resides mainly in its highly decorative char- acter and in the beauty of color displayed especially by the textiles. The range of themes or motives is rather limited, the same combinations occurring again and again on works done in different media. The close connections and interchanges between works in different media appear also in the way in which the technique proper to one work is imitated in another. For instance some textiles, such as the square from the Cooper Union Museum (Cat. no. 206), imitate portrait heads with jeweled frames. The tapestry-woven head from the Detroit Institute of Arts (Cat. no. 231), perhaps the finest in the exhi- bition, is handled in the manner of an impressionistic painting. The striped draperies in later manuscript illumination seem to reproduce woven textiles.

One of the outstanding decorative traits of Coptic art is the tendency to reduce the composition into single units, clearly separated from one another. The whole is thus made up of an aggregate of distinct elements rather than by their fusion or by the sub- ordination of some parts. The gradual steps leading to this new style may easily be observed in the evolu- tion of the rinceau, together with the transformation of natural plant forms into geometric shapes and the loss of plastic feeling. The acanthus spinosus, used in preference to the acanthus mollis, is cut more and more deeply, the lobes of the leaf forming a succes- sion of sharp arrowheads; the surface is a uniform plane, and the contrast of this flat expanse which receives the light evenly with the deep grooves where the shadow is concentrated, results in a vivid effect of black and white. In the scroll, the leaves project- ing from the thin undulating stem often bend and meet at a small central medallion, and the general impression is that of a succession of whorls enclosed in adjoining circles. In the final stages of the evolu- tion the scroll is changed into a row of interlacing circles filled with floral and animal motives or human heads. The desire to break up a continuous design

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Fig. I-New York, Metropolitan Museum: Coptic Textile Medallion,

Third-Fourth Century

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Fig. 2-Santa Fe, Laboratory of Anthropology: Stone Carving, Mountain Sheep, possibly Hohokam Culture

INDIAN ART OF THE UNITED STATES

I66 THE ART BULLETIN

into a series of single elements is quite clear, for even though each unit may interlace with the neighboring ones it is none the less distinct and com- plete in itself.

This tendency to separate a composition into small parts which can be easily apprehended appears also in the geometric ornament. The broken fret is used in preference to the continuous one. The interlaced designs are very simple; the most common type is that of looped lines forming a hexagon; the repetition of these hexagons produces an all-over pattern in which each unit is once again distinct and inde- pendent from the others.

A number of questions are aroused in one's mind by most of these objects, and we realize how much work needs to be done before we can get a clear and complete picture of Coptic art. Iconographic studies should be among the first. In the numerous textiles with pagan subjects, students of late classical art will undoubtedly discover many an interesting example, even though the themes may be deformed. The syncretism that one finds in the religion of the first centuries appears also in the works of art. A lime- stone stela from the Walters Art Gallery is a note- worthy example (Cat. no. 34). On a couch flanked by two Anubis jackals, a woman and man are shown reclining as on the Roman sarcophagi. To the right stands a figure in the orans pose. One might suppose that we have here the intrusion of a Christian ele- ment, but this seems doubtful in view of examples such as the stela from the Brooklyn Museum with an orans figure standing between two Anubis jackals (Cat. no. 35). These stelae, and similar ones in the Museum of Alexandria, will have to be taken into consideration when one examines the problem of whether the orans type is of Christian or pagan origin. Even if we leave out of the discussion the bronze statue of Berlin, the so-called praying boy, which has been variously interpreted, several pagan works with an orans figure are already known: we need only mention here the engraved gem from Berlin published by Furtwfingler and the marble relief discovered at Nemea, on the site of the temple of Zeus (see Dom Cabrol, Dictionnaire d'archekologie et de liturgie, s.v. "orant," x112, 2294-97).

The limestone relief from the Brooklyn Museum of a nude youth crowned with a laurel wreath (Cat. no. 36) should, I believe, be separated from the group of orans figures. I do not think that the right arm has been lowered to make room for the laurel branch held in the right hand, as is stated in the catalogue. I should be inclined to see in this example the representation of a victor and compare it with the textile roundel from the Kelekian collection (Cat. no. 188). This figure is also nude, except that he has a mantle thrown over the shoulder; he raises the right arm and holds a small branch in the left hand. On the Brooklyn relief the left hand touches the wreath and, so far as one can tell from the some- what crude carving, the youth seems to be holding the wreath as if he had just placed it on his head.

Pagan and Sasanian motives are also combined. On a roundel from the Textile Museum of the District of Columbia (Cat. no. 214), the tree springing from a vase and flanked by confronted lions is treated like

the tree of life; the stylization of the floral motives recalls the Sasanian rock reliefs or silver plates. Two busts in medallions, similar to the representations of the sun and the moon on late classical works, are inserted in the foliage of the tree.

Students of Christian iconography will also find interesting material. The rider piercing a human figure--man or woman-has been identified by Mr. Cooney as St. Sisinnios and the identification seems very probable (Cat. no. 58) (Fig. 3). Sisinnios is represented in this attitude in a number of examples, the most important of which is the fresco at Bawit. But the possibility that the rider might be Solomon cannot be entirely excluded until we know more about the iconography of this theme, for Solomon appears thus even more frequently than St. Sisinnios. The rider saint is a favorite type in Coptic art and several other examples were to be seen in the exhibi- tion, some of which are not quite clear. Is the rider represented on the roundel from the Cooper Union Museum a king or a saint (Cat. no. 252) (Fig. 2)? The small circle which he holds in his hand might be the crown of martyrdom, as in the portrait of St. Phoebammon at Bawit, and the sceptre imitates the sceptre cross, but one would have to find a satis- factory explanation for the two men standing at the sides and the lion trampled by the horse. Whatever the identification may be, saint or king, the composi- tion is clearly influenced by Sasanian examples.

Together with the rider saints one would have to study the standing figures piercing a dragon with their lance. We have such an example in the silk fragment from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Cat. no. 258). Mrs. Riefstahl identifies this figure as St. Michael, and the same identification is proposed by Kendrick for the companion piece in the Victoria and Albert Museum. A larger fragment is preserved in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Athens and, in the catalogue of the Coptict extiles there (T& Koir- TLK& a/x aTLa TO7 -

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,re~Xi v, Athens, 1932, pp. 184-85, fig. 158), Miss Apostolakis suggests that the figure represents Christ and compares it with the examples of Christ treading on the aspis and the basilisk. But if the omission of wings makes the identification as St. Michael some- what uncertain, it is equally difficult to recognize the figure of Christ in view of the absence of the nimbus. It would seem to me that we have a saint here, an iconographic type comparable to the rider saint slaying a dragon with his lance and holding a cross in the other hand.

While speaking of textiles in the Athens Museum, I should like to mention the large hanging

(A. Apos-

tolakis, op. cit., pp. 83-84, figs. 45-47 and Pl. I), of which the fine head from the Metropolitan Museum is undoubtedly a fragment (Cat. no. 183) (Fig. I). The upper part of the Athens piece is intact: on the left there is a head with a crenellated crown, on the right a head with a leafed diadem and, in the middle, a narrow band with the names EIPHNH and MOYCHC. A third head, also in Athens but in a separate frag- ment, fits the lower left side, and the rays radiating from this head indicate clearly that it represents the sun. This corroborates the identification as Luna of the Metropolitan fragment, which originally must

EXHIBITION REVIEWS 167

have formed the lower right side of the textile in Athens.

Among the objects with Christian subjects the wooden panel from the Kevorkian collection is one of the most curious (Cat. no. 78). The foliage which fills the entire field left free by the figures may be compared with the stucco reliefs of Deir es Suryani, but the iconography is very unusual; the gesture of Abraham, his headdress, the oblong shape of his nimbus, the angel on one side and the hand of God on the other, have no close parallels so far as I know. The large roundel from the same collection (Cat no. 234) is an interesting example of a theme which is probably pagan, but which recalls very vividly the composition of the Massacre of the Innocents.

The dating of Coptic works presents one of the most difficult problems. The organizers of the exhibition have proceeded with great sagacity and discernment; only occasionally does one find oneself in diagree- ment with them. The small ivory relief of a nude woman from the Walters Art Gallery (Cat. no. IoI) should be placed earlier than the fifth century. We rarely see at this late date such delicacy of carving, such an elegant form, or this type of face; the work is still very close to late classical examples. On the other hand, a date later than the seventh century seems more probable for the ivory from the same collection representing a Sasanian king (Cat. no. 107). The pose of the seated figure, the treatment of the drapery, the manner of carving, the facial type, are all reminiscent of silver plates of the post- Sasanian period. Comparison with the ivory relief of the Virgin and Child from the Walters Art Gallery (Cat. no. io8), as well as with the Morgan manu- scripts, also indicates a later date for this work, which seems to have been done in the ninth century at the earliest.

The Antioch mosaics will certainly prove to be very valuable for the dating of the textiles. To note only one of the features which they have in common, we may mention the treatment of the border, fairly narrow in the earlier examples, increasing in width and occupying most of the field as we come to works of a later date. The mosaics of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and those of the Great Mosque at Damascus offer interesting parallels for the floral designs. One is more and more impressed by the existence of a kind of decorative koine in the entire Eastern Mediterranean. Comparative studies of the works produced within the borders of the Roman and Byzantine empires, as well as those of the neighbor- ing countries such as Persia and Armenia, are indis- pensable if we wish to understand not only the con- nections between these arts but the specific char- acter of each. The Islamic element is also very important, though in dealing with Muslim art of the first centuries of the Hegira we are in the presence of highly eclectic works, and it is often difficult to determine if certain features which we associate with Muslim objects are characteristic of this art or whether they are borrowed from models which have disappeared.

In this review we have been able to touch only a few of the many problems which this exhibition sets before us. But even this brief survey may serve to

show the interest of the exhibition and the necessity of further study in the field of Coptic art.

WELLESLEY COLLEGE

INDIAN ART OF THE UNITED STATES: AN EXHIBITION AT THE

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

BY GEORGE C. VAILLANT

The Museum of Modern Art still carries on its brilliant policy of showing the relationship of art to the modern world. Last winter the Museum pre- sented the achievements of the North American Indians, past and present, in a notable show as- sembled and installed under the direction of Rene d'Harnoncourt of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior, and of Frederic H. Douglas of the Denver Art Museum. Sincerity, understanding, and expression of the social and emotional content of Indian art were attained through the medium of sensitive showmanship. The atmosphere of the Museum of Modern Art stimu- lated these two directors to a magnificent achieve- ment.

The content of the show comprised the cream of the great Museum collections in the United States, supplemented and enriched by work of present-day Indians and by examples recently bought by private individuals. Many centuries of patient work on the part of the Indians and a century and a half of no less assiduous collecting by American whites have produced a notable assemblage, exhibited with that sure sense of intrinsic values which Mr. d'Harnon- court possesses to an extraordinary degree. The visitor becomes keenly conscious of his Indian heritage, of the presence of a truly continental American art, one which we may hope some day to rival.

The exhibition was arranged on three floors; be- ginning at the top, the visitor passed in review Indian art before white contact. On the second floor he found the art of the existing tribes, and on the ground floor Indian art adapted to our modern white culture. An infinite variety, and at the same time a universal harmony, makes this art significant and important.

The American Indians were not unified politically, linguistically, racially, or economically. Before white contact, they had no tools of steel or iron-they were neolithic in the technical sense. In the variety and scope of their achievements, they far surpassed the New Stone Age peoples of Europe, Asia, or Africa. The different media used by the Indians make one strongly conscious of the direction which society and economics give to art.

In the prehistoric section a few cases sampled the work of Eskimo hunters, pre-agricultural people in Maine, and the fishermen and shell-fish gatherers of the West Coast. Then came a room devoted to the builders of the burial mounds of southern Ohio dating from Iooo A.D. Here were shown tiny pipes, cun-