[Footnote *: 'Scripta Minoa,' p. 59.]
The Mycenaean pottery found at Tell-el-Amarna shows that there was
still an opening in Egypt for the products of AEgean art at least as
late as the reign of Akhenaten; and it is more than probable that
in Egypt many of the _emigres_ of the Minoan _debacle_ found a home.
The art of the reign of Akhenaten is characterized by the somewhat
sudden outburst of a naturalistic style almost entirely foreign to
the Egyptian tradition; and, as Mr. Hall foresaw eleven years ago,
it has been suggested[*] that the naturalism of Tell-el-Amarna
owes some of its inspiration to the influence of the fugitives
who brought with them from Crete the traditions of the great art
of Knossos. Such a suggestion is no longer so improbable as it
seemed to be in 1901, when it was still a tenable theory that the
new development of Egyptian art was due to Mesopotamian influence,
and came from Mitanni with Queen Tyi, the wife of Amenhotep III.
Now that it is certain that Tyi was no Mitannian, but a native
Egyptian, that door is closed, and we must suppose either that
Egyptian art suddenly and spontaneously awakened to a new style of
vision and execution, from which, again, it as suddenly departed,
or else that some foreign influence was working strongly upon the
rigid Egyptian convention, modifying and vivifying it.
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