2-913-580 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Crystal Palace at Sydenham - the Egyptian Avenue: Colossal Figures from Aboo Simbel, 1854. Replicas of Ancient Egyptian scuptures from the temple of Abu Simbel, on display in South London. 'All Egyptian sculpture and architecture were noticeable alike for massiveness and grotesqueness. But the massive and the grotesque united are not enough to constitute "the grand." There must be some high...idea and sentiment conveyed by the vast blocks...there must be either exquisite proportion and physical beauty, or exquisite imitation. Neither of these classes of interest is attached to the abnormal and idol-like figures...sixty five feet in height...The originals of the two figures...were cut in the solid rock, and excavated by Rameses the Great...The heads of the figures were modelled by Mr. Joseph Bonomi, from a cast made by him during his ten years' investigatory residence in Egypt'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.