(Sole ́1997: 32). Only a month after his arrival in Egypt, in August 1798, he
organized the group of scientists, the Commission of Sciences and Arts, into
an organization mirroring the Institute of France, L’Institut de l’Egypte (the
Institute of Egypt) (Cronin 1971: 151–3; Murat & Weill 1998; Sole ́1997: 39).
There were four sections: industry, science and mathematics, health and,
Wnally, art and literature. Laboratories, workshops, libraries and studios
were set up in an elegant Cairo palace (Fagan 1975: 69).Voyage dans la
Basse et la Haute E ́gypte(A Journey through Lower and Upper Egypt) was
one of the many works produced by the Institute of Egypt. It was published
only four years after the arrival of the French in Egypt by the artist in charge
of surveying antiquities, Vivant Denon (1747–1825). The book proved to be
extremely successful. It went through forty-eight French editions in the
nineteenth century, and was translated into English and German (Gran-
Aymerich 1998: 76), inducing what has been called ‘Egyptomania’ (JasanoV
2005: 221). The book portrayed the past as the main component of the
Egyptian landscape. Denon dedicated his work to Napoleon.
To relate the greatness of your name to the splendour of Egyptian monuments is to
associate the glorious facts of our century to those extraordinary historical periods. It
is also to breathe life into the centres of Sesostris and Mendes. You as conqueror, you
as benefactor.
(Denon 1802: vii). 4Denon explained his own work as a service to his fatherland (patrie), to all
French citizens and European intellectuals (1802: xxiii). In his text, he clearly
connected Egyptian to Greek and Roman archaeology. He also regarded
Egyptian monuments as intimately linked to the Enlightened concepts of
beauty and timelessness. With reference to Hermopolis, for example, he stated:
Eventually I saw the portico of Hermopolis. The large masses of ruins gave me theWrst
image of the splendour of Egyptian colossal architecture. Over each block which
composed the building the words posterity and eternity seemed to be engraved...
After Denderah (Tintyris) I thought that it was not only in the Doric, Ionic and
Corinthian orders where one canWnd beauty in architecture. The Beauty is every-
where there is harmony among the diVerent parts...Twenty times I have been to
Denderah, and each time I have been conWrmed in the same opinion: the decoration
of the temple of Isis represents sciences and arts joined by good taste.
(Denon 1802: xiv–xv).Egypt was proposed as the origin of Greek architecture. Jean-Franc ̧ois
Champollion (1790–1832), who deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs in 1822,
4 Unless otherwise stated, all texts were translated into English by the author.74 Early Archaeology of Great Civilizations