Discernment or Devotion: Egypt and Sculptural Politics in Eighteenth-Century France

Although French fascination with Egyptian material culture is often dated to the nineteenth century, ancient Egyptian gems, architectural fragments, and small statues were already avidly collected in the eighteenth century. For some, the display and close study of small Egyptian works of art in private cabinets served to develop discernment, the formal properties illuminating historical moeurs, techniques, and artistic exchanges otherwise unknowable from then-untranslated hieroglyphs. Others, however, dismissed these objects as fetishes and idols, produced under the control of priests and despots for ritual devotion. Escalating prejudices in Europe toward the peoples and objects of Africa was fundamental to this latter attitude. Yet, the bigoted language also illuminates the fraught boundaries perceived between connoisseurship and idolatry, both predicated on the focused attention toward material objects. This essay addresses the implication of ancient Egyptian sculpture in these period debates, and demonstrates the impact of these biases on art histories of sculpture.