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Obelisk: A History
The many meanings of obelisks across nearly forty centuries, from Ancient Egypt (which invented them) to twentieth-century America (which put them in Hollywood epics). Nearly every empire worthy of the name--from ancient Rome to the United States--has sought an Egyptian obelisk to place in the center of a ceremonial space. Obelisks--giant standing stones, invented in Ancient Egypt as sacred objects--serve no practical purpose. For much of their history their inscriptions, in Egyptian hieroglyphics, were completely inscrutable. Yet over the centuries dozens of obelisks have made the voyage from Egypt to Rome, Constantinople, and Florence; to Paris, London, and New York. New obelisks and even obelisk-shaped buildings rose as well--the Washington Monument being a noted example. Obelisks, everyone seems to sense, connote some very special sort of power. This beautifully illustrated book traces the fate and many meanings of obelisks across nearly forty centuries--what they meant to the Egyptians, and how other cultures have borrowed, interpreted, understood, and misunderstood them through the years. In each culture obelisks have taken on new meanings and associations. To the Egyptians, the obelisk was the symbol of a pharaoh's right to rule and connection to the divine. In ancient Rome, obelisks were the embodiment of Rome's coming of age as an empire. To nineteenth-century New Yorkers, the obelisk in Central Park stood for their country's rejection of the trappings of empire just as it was itself beginning to acquire imperial power. And to a twentieth-century reader of Freud, the obelisk had anatomical and psychological connotations. The history of obelisks is a story of technical achievement, imperial conquest, Christian piety and triumphalism, egotism, scholarly brilliance, political hubris, bigoted nationalism, democratic self-assurance, Modernist austerity, and Hollywood kitsch--in short, the story of Western civilization.
- GenresHistoryArtArchitecture
384 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 11, 2009
Much of OBELISK: A HISTORY deals primarily with Egyptian obelisks and their effect throughout the centuries, as those obelisks came to be distributed around the world.
When the Romans conquered Egypt, they brought back obelisks, both as visible signs of their conquest and as complements to the highly syncretic Roman religion, especially since the sun and other obelisk-elements played a key role in both Egyptian and Roman worship.
After the fall of Rome, many obelisks, both in Egypt and in Rome, fell or were otherwise damaged, and only a resurgence of interest in the middle ages and renaissance brought their history back to life.
The popes in particular were eager to have obelisks as symbols of their power, and there is a fascinating chapter on moving the Vatican obelisk, which was a major engineering feat at the time. The book, in fact, is as much about engineering as it is about obelisks’ symbolic value or attitudes toward them. But don’t worry – the engineering descriptions are strictly meant for the layman.
An ongoing problem was reconciling the pagan origins of obelisks with Christianity, which was compounded by scholars’ inability to read hieroglyphics until Champollion’s discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799. Most were simply rededicated to Christian saints or reigning popes. There was also no shortage of scholars eager to supply fanciful interpretations of the figures on obelisks.
The book takes us through papal, French, British, and American acquisitions of obelisks and the Egyptian craze of the 19th century to the present, when obelisks acquire Freudian and modernist associations.
I recommend this book highly to anyone who wants to learn new things about something they’ve probably never thought about before.
When the Romans conquered Egypt, they brought back obelisks, both as visible signs of their conquest and as complements to the highly syncretic Roman religion, especially since the sun and other obelisk-elements played a key role in both Egyptian and Roman worship.
After the fall of Rome, many obelisks, both in Egypt and in Rome, fell or were otherwise damaged, and only a resurgence of interest in the middle ages and renaissance brought their history back to life.
The popes in particular were eager to have obelisks as symbols of their power, and there is a fascinating chapter on moving the Vatican obelisk, which was a major engineering feat at the time. The book, in fact, is as much about engineering as it is about obelisks’ symbolic value or attitudes toward them. But don’t worry – the engineering descriptions are strictly meant for the layman.
An ongoing problem was reconciling the pagan origins of obelisks with Christianity, which was compounded by scholars’ inability to read hieroglyphics until Champollion’s discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799. Most were simply rededicated to Christian saints or reigning popes. There was also no shortage of scholars eager to supply fanciful interpretations of the figures on obelisks.
The book takes us through papal, French, British, and American acquisitions of obelisks and the Egyptian craze of the 19th century to the present, when obelisks acquire Freudian and modernist associations.
I recommend this book highly to anyone who wants to learn new things about something they’ve probably never thought about before.
July 2, 2014
Obelisks are seriously - Everywhere. Even in Sydney you will find various obelisks both grand and unassuming. One in the city is used as a cover-up for a sewerage system! I found this book extremeley interesting because it gives us an insight not only into the traditions, beliefs and history of Ancient Egypt, but also brings to our attention just how much of the new world and the western world feels the need to legitimise itself through the use of allusions to a more distant past.
I adore books like this, where through the medium of the history of an object we can get a glimpse into wider histories of Egypt, Rome and the New World's relationship to the ancient past. Informative and interesting.
I adore books like this, where through the medium of the history of an object we can get a glimpse into wider histories of Egypt, Rome and the New World's relationship to the ancient past. Informative and interesting.
September 14, 2024
This book originated in an effort to write about the moving of the Vatican Obelisk in 1586, but it broadened into an effort to capture the entire history of this style of monument. While it covers some topics in more depth than others, it's always lively and informative.
Chapter One is about the original obelisks, in ancient Egypt. As an Egyptophile, I wouldn't mind having a little more detail here, but all the important points—when and how the obelisk form developed, its significance as a religious symbol, the hypotheses about how obelisks were quarried and transported, and the origins of each surviving major individual obelisk—are covered. Chapter Two describes the Roman removal of obelisks from Egypt, with interesting details on how the Romans interpreted the monuments' religious meaning and incorporated it into their new settings.
The next several chapters discuss how obelisks were understood and re-erected in Renaissance and Baroque Europe. Given the book's origins, and that the authors are all scholars specializing in the Renaissance, it's not surprising that this part of the story is covered in disproportionate detail, but it's certainly an interesting part. It was a surreal period in the history of things Egyptian, when antiquarians were fascinated by an ancient Egypt that they knew little about, and the obelisks in Rome were about the only link between the real thing and the Greco-Roman-inspired Egyptomaniac fantasies the antiquarians conjured. While the book is well illustrated throughout, the elaborate obelisk-related engravings from this era are truly spectacular.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Roman penchant for carting off Egyptian obelisks came back into vogue, bringing obelisks to Paris, London, and New York, while people also began to make new monuments in obelisk-shape. These latter-day obelisks are more numerous than the roving Egyptian originals but receive much less attention in the book. But the final chapters do have a wide-ranging discussion of the meanings modern people have imputed to obelisks, from tedious Freudianism to New Age mysticism, though their most long-standing meaning, as a symbol of state power, has never gone away.
Chapter One is about the original obelisks, in ancient Egypt. As an Egyptophile, I wouldn't mind having a little more detail here, but all the important points—when and how the obelisk form developed, its significance as a religious symbol, the hypotheses about how obelisks were quarried and transported, and the origins of each surviving major individual obelisk—are covered. Chapter Two describes the Roman removal of obelisks from Egypt, with interesting details on how the Romans interpreted the monuments' religious meaning and incorporated it into their new settings.
The next several chapters discuss how obelisks were understood and re-erected in Renaissance and Baroque Europe. Given the book's origins, and that the authors are all scholars specializing in the Renaissance, it's not surprising that this part of the story is covered in disproportionate detail, but it's certainly an interesting part. It was a surreal period in the history of things Egyptian, when antiquarians were fascinated by an ancient Egypt that they knew little about, and the obelisks in Rome were about the only link between the real thing and the Greco-Roman-inspired Egyptomaniac fantasies the antiquarians conjured. While the book is well illustrated throughout, the elaborate obelisk-related engravings from this era are truly spectacular.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Roman penchant for carting off Egyptian obelisks came back into vogue, bringing obelisks to Paris, London, and New York, while people also began to make new monuments in obelisk-shape. These latter-day obelisks are more numerous than the roving Egyptian originals but receive much less attention in the book. But the final chapters do have a wide-ranging discussion of the meanings modern people have imputed to obelisks, from tedious Freudianism to New Age mysticism, though their most long-standing meaning, as a symbol of state power, has never gone away.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews