The Great Temple of Amon Karnak, The Hypostyle Hall
Date:
1838
Materials & Techniques:
Watercolor and gouache with scratching out and graphite on moderately thick, slightly textured, beige wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 19 1/4 x 13 inches (48.9 x 33 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.4.1579
Gallery Label:
David Roberts’s The Holy Land, Idumea, Egypt, and Nubia, which appeared in six volumes between 1842 and 1849, is one of the most monumental illustrated travel books of the nineteenth century. This watercolor, dated November 27, 1838, depicting the vast Hypostyle Hall at Karnak built by Seti I and Rameses II, was reproduced as a lithograph in the fourth volume. Roberts frequently exaggerated the scale of the Egyptian ruins by depicting the human figures artificially small, in this case suggesting the fearsome immensity of the temple by playing the unstable masonry off against the seemingly insignificant modern Egyptians who shelter within it. Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)