The Sphinx, Giza

Date1880s

MediumAlbumen print from collodion negative

Credit LineGift of Margaret A. Carver in memory of Charles H. Carver, Emory '39

Dimensions8 5/16 x 10 13/16 in. (21.1 x 27.5 cm)

Object number1984.011.022

Label Text"You dare not mock at the Sphinx."

Alexander Kinglake, Eothen, 1844

While tourists might claim to be unimpressed by the pyramids, even the most cynical among them seems to have been moved by the sight of the Sphinx. Gustave Flaubert confessed to have felt giddy when faced with its "terrifying stare." To the ancient Egyptians the Sphinx, with the body of a lion and the head of a king, was a protective figure, the guardian deity of the necropolis. Early Greek visitors who confused the Egyptian "living statue" with their own figure of a lioness with a woman's head are responsible for its reputation as a baleful monster.
Exhibition HistoryThe Fascination With The East: Early Photographs of Egypt (travelling show), Emory University Museum of Art and Archaeology, November 18, 1986 - February 28, 1987; Louisiana Arts and Sciences Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, September 19 - December 31, 1987; Red Mountain Museum, Birmingham, Alabama, April 10 - May 8, 1988
Along the Nile, Michael C. Carlos Museum, May - September 1993; June - September 1994
Souvenirs of the Nile: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Egypt, Michael C. Carlos Museum, July 1 - September 24, 2000
Published ReferencesMonique Seefried and Mary Cozine Woodward, The Fascination with the East: Early Photographs of Egypt (Atlanta: Emory University Museum of Art and Archaeology, 1987), 7.

ProvenanceEx coll. Maria Hersey (1843-1927), Portland, Maine. Thence by descent.

Status

Not on view

Collections