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Lot Essay
Edfu is on the west bank of the Nile, close to the old boundary between Egypt and Nubia, a little further north than Philae. The great sandstone temple, dedicated to Horus, is the most complete of all the temples of Egypt. Girault de Prangey selects a capital, one of two that he photographed here. Again he uses a similar method, this time keeping the carved slab supported by the column horizontal with the frame, allowing us to see that it is carved with hieroglyphs.
In each of these daguerreotypes the capital is represented as an isolated piece of sculpture. The light hits only the capital and the background is dark, creating a very modern effect, not dissimilar to that used today by many photographers for reproducing works of sculpture in books and catalogues. The combined effect of seeing them together begins to reveal how the artist was working to assemble a catalogue of different examples. He also does this with other elements, most exhaustively in his series on the minarets of Cairo.
In each of these daguerreotypes the capital is represented as an isolated piece of sculpture. The light hits only the capital and the background is dark, creating a very modern effect, not dissimilar to that used today by many photographers for reproducing works of sculpture in books and catalogues. The combined effect of seeing them together begins to reveal how the artist was working to assemble a catalogue of different examples. He also does this with other elements, most exhaustively in his series on the minarets of Cairo.