By Mursi Saad El-Din James Stevens Curt is an Egypt enthusiast with a difference. He is not a traveller who writes an account of his visit to the country, nor a letter writer, novelist or poet. Going on his book on Egypt, without previous knowledge, I should say he is a kind of art historian of the country -- or rather its various eras. This can be ascertained first from the title of the book, The Egyptian Revival, and secondly from its actual topic and the author's treatment of it, pursuing a recurring theme in the unfolding of art and taste not only in Egypt but also, through the influence Egyptian art exercised at various points, in Greece, Rome and through European art from the Renaissance to the present. In all the book contains 203 illustrations and 12 figures. But it is in the author's exposition of the book's central premise that the value of his work resides. Basically, he refutes the idea that the revival in Egyptian architecture was a short-lived episode in the saga of eclectic revivals following the Napoleonic campaign. He demonstrates his conviction that this interest in the art and architecture of ancient Egypt and its range of manifestations spans a much greater length of time, leading the reader back through the centuries to the rise of Hellenistic culture in the land of the Pharaohs and those of Asia Minor. Egyptian antiquities first arrived in Europe because they were associated with the growing cult of Nilotic deities, but many objects -- obelisks included -- merely sought to show how Egypt had been subjugated by Rome. It was in the flowering of culture resulting from the Romans' beginning to worship Egyptian deities that the revival took root, with Egyptian elements playing a role of immense importance in Roman craftsmanship throughout the world. Egyptian elements were also of immense importance during Roman times. Many obelisks graced the squares and public circles of Rome, which reflected the esteem in which Egyptian objects were held. The traditional Western view of Rome as a purely classical place is skewed, the author argues, because it does not take into account the role of Egyptian art and architecture in its formation. Curt believes that the remarkable spread of the Egyptian belief system was Alexander the Great, who by adopting the ancient deities after conquering Egypt gave them a new and potent influence throughout the Hellenistic world. Unlike most conquerors, perhaps, Alexander did not seek to impose own culture on existing indigenous civilisation but rather, like Napoleon so many centuries after him, brought along scholars and scientists to explore, record and make use of existing knowledge. And this contributed enormously to Greek culture. The Egyptian influence in art and architecture persisted through history -- well into the early Renaissance, when it influenced Christian art and architecture across Europe. Notably, Egyptianised architecture became fashionable in England, where many famous houses still show the traces of the revival in question: the war memorial at Hyde Park Corner, Adelaide House, and many others. "Throughout the ages and especially in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries," Curt writes, "Egyptian art and architecture have inspired designers. The perceptive observer will not fail to notice the recurring Egyptianisation in Western art and architecture, especially in Neoclassical works. Egypt has been a continuously attractive source of ideas, and a quarry from which designers have taken motifs from classical times to the present."
