The lure of Egypt.

THE EGYPTIAN REVIVAL: ANCIENT EGYPT AS THE INSPIRATION FOR DESIGN MOTIFS IN THE WEST

By James Stevens Curl. Abingdon: Routledge. 2005. [pounds sterling]80 (paperback [pounds sterling]27.50)

This is the second time that Curl's book on the history and influence of Egyptian and Egyptianesque design has been republished in a fully revised version, and this latest edition is as fascinating and provocative as its predecessors. Curl's argument is that Egyptian motifs were absorbed into Greek and then Graeco-Roman culture at least from the era of Alexander the Great, and can be traced almost continuously ever since; his vigorous and scholarly narrative is particularly valuable in uncovering unexpected fusions of ideas and images throughout history, and in challenging the conventional impression that the Egyptian revival somehow belongs to the 1800s and the 1920s alone.

Many additions have been made to the earlier versions of this book: in particular, there are lengthy new sections on the fate of antique obelisks in Rome and on Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, as well as several interesting insertions on funerary architecture, one of the author's specialities. There are more than a hundred new illustrations, including two colour sections, and the glossary has been greatly enhanced. Curl is especially enjoyable on the subject of the various revivals of early nineteenth-century England, and among the various details now added is a reference to a favourite local curiosity of my own, the bizarre former synagogue in Canterbury--a miniature Egyptian temple in concrete not far from the cathedral precincts. It went up at the same time as Butterfield's St Augustine's College on the other side of the city, and I would love to know how contemporary architects debated this clash of revived civilisations. Curl, who has made the anti-Pugin rant into something of a hallmark, would not. I am sure, have been on the side of the angels; and The Egyptian Revival will make us Goths all realise how much we have lost by supporting the winning team.

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