- CONTENTS
- Preface
Addenda
Introductory & historical
Fecundity Figures
Appendix
Abbreviations and references
Sources of Figures
Index
Formerly known as 'Nile gods', fecundity figures personifications
of aspects of non-sexual fertility have a significant role
in the sophisticated iconography of ancient Egypt. In his pioneering
study, first published in 1985, John Baines introduces new approaches
to Egyptian art and symbolic classification through a study of
this distinctive genre.
Part 1 analyses the definition of Egyptian personifications, whose
role has parallels in many cultures. The focus is on 'formal'
personifications abstractions in language that are names
of deities, such as 'Order' or 'Food'. Emblematic personifications
are their visual counterparts, signs in the script for concepts
like 'Life' that become actors with added human limbs.
Part 2 investigates fecundity figures. Their form and its meaning
are analysed, as well as the range of their names. the two principal
scene types in which they occur, bringing offerings and the heraldic
'uniting of the Two Lands', are reviewed separately.
An excursus studies the principle of artistic decorum through
the distribution and compatibility of scene and figure types including
emblematic personifications. This concept has been very influential
in Egyptology since it was introduced in Fecundity figures.
The concluding chapter reviews abnormal contexts for fecundity
figures, bringing together and extending the findings of the two
parts. An appendix presents and analyses the patterning of colour
on fecundity figures in the context of cross-cultural issues in
colour classification.
John Baines is Professor of Egyptology, University of Oxford. He has also translated Heinrich Schäfer's Principles of Egyptian Art
446pp. 199 figs. cl 0 9000416 78 5 $99 / £45 (2001)
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SOME COMMENTS BY REVIEWERS
"The book will undoubtedly become both a stimulus
to thought and a valued work of reference for Egyptologists and
historians of ancient art." TLS
"I recommend this book highly to all others as well; for,
the insightful comments that Baines presents challenge us with
a method of interpretation that can only lead to much fruitful
discussion of Egyptian iconographic forms." JARCE
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