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[ Sphinx-Bild ] The Sphinx image through the ages. Occurrence and meaning. Text and catalogue. Wiebke Rösch-von der Heyde

Hardcover

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The "invention" of the sphinx motif is owed to Ancient Egypt. In a new shape and different context it occurred in Greek antiquity, whence it came to Etruria and Rome as a popular and ambiguous symbol in art and cult. Since then, repeated waves of Egyptian fashions, even Egyptomania, have been washing over the West. While the motif was rare in the Middle Ages, it became very popular in the Renaissance, though altered and enriched. A new floruit emerged with pairs of guardian sphinxes in the 18th century. The summit of popularity was reached in the early 19th century due to Napoleon‘s Egyptian campaign and the deciphering of the hieroglyphs by J.-F. Champollion in 1822. This became superseded by a more moral approach in the mid 19th century and the discovery of Tutankhamen‘s grave in 1929. After this, the motive was dispersed in a wide distribution. The symbolic content reached from wisdom and erudition to stupidity, malice, and corruption, for which the context was decisive [singly, in pairs, multiplied, with(out) attributes]. The contexts of sun, destiny, time, grave, oracle, secret, journey and psychology are constantly recurring.

Content:	750 pages, 26 plates		Cover:	Hardcover
Text:	German		Size:	21,0 x 29,7 cm / DIN A4
Abstracts in other languages:	English		weight:	2.870 g
Keywords:	iconography, sphinx
Ph D thesis	Universität Bremen, 1997		ISBN-13:	978-3-89646-013-4
			ISBN-10:	3-89646-013-7
			Place of Publication:	Rahden/Westf.
Price:	95,80 € (fPr)		Date of Publication:	1999