Chronologie de la construction du Musée - Invisu

Concours pour le musée des Antiquités égyptiennes du Caire : chronologie des sources
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première année, en tout cas, par des concurrents absolument pas familiarisés avec les plus élémentaires
systèmes de construction, pas plus qu’avec les principes de base du dessin. On a dit que le génie
local est représenté, et si c’est le cas, peut-être certaines de ces étranges propositions peuvent y être
associées.
Au milieu de cette déprimante collection de médiocrités, il est aisé de sélectionner rapidement
quelques projets qui sont aussi bons que les autres sont sans intérêt :
n°8, français [J. Deperthes], joliment dessiné, a le grand mérite d’exprimer le plan en façade. “The
set No. 8, charmingly drawn is, we may suppose, the work of a Frenchman. It has the great merit of
expressing in its façade the chief characteristics of the plan. The entrance hall consists of three parallel
vaulted halls, and these are again continued as exhibition galleries. The ends of these vaulted halls rule
the design of the façade, where they appear with the entrance-doors below and the rest of their section
filled with a grille of stone-work. The wing walls of the façade are without openings. Suggestions for
the introduction of coloured faïence are shown, but with great restraint. It is doubtful whether the
plan would make a good museum, but the design has great merits and is charmingly drawn.”
L’écueil sur lequel tant de concurrents se sont eux-mêmes sabordés a été l’effort infructueux d’user
des détails pris dans le style de l’ancienne Égypte. Ramsès et ses amis et ennemis courent sur les
façades de ces projets, environnées d’obélisques ; en fait, si ces constructions étaient réalisées, elles
constitueraient une collection sans intérêt de fausses antiquités à l’extérieur, alors que les intérieurs en
contiendraient des vraies. Et ceci malgré le fait que quelques uns de ces dessins sont admirablement
rendus, avec un soin immense.
n°17, situé non loin du n°8, du style de l’ancienne Égypte, avec tant de colonnes qu’il reste peu
de place pour exposer les œuvres. “Not far from the set of drawings No. 8 is an example of a makebelieve
Egyptian temple, and in No. 17, in the ancient Egyptian Style, the columns are so numerous
that there would be but little place left for exposing the antiquities.”
n°9, probablement italien, vaste plan d’église, proche de celui de San Gallo pour Saint-Pierre de
Rome. “In No. 9, which is probably the work of an Italian, we have a vast church plan, not unlike that
of San Gallo for St. Peter’s at Rome.”
n°5 [serait Ashbee d’après Ezio], trop excentrique et mauvais de plan, avec écriture en anglais et
une touche de Queen Anne, jugé irréalisable et laid, carrément détesté par le critique. “perhaps one
of the most curious sets of drawings in the ground-floor rooms is one numbered 5, which altogether
departs from any known types, and there is no reason why the architect should not make such a
departure; but in the present case it is done with so much eccentricity and so bad a plan that the
experiment can hardly be justified. The writing on the drawings is in English, and a touch of Queen
Anne leads us to suppose that they come from England. Across the whole width of the site runs a
long and somewhat narrow gallery. This is absolutely plain and unadorned outside except for a roundtopped
door in the middle and towers at either end. Behind this is set a vast rotunda. Alternatives
are given for the treatment of this space. In one alternative it is covered by a dome with an elaborate
copper lantern on the top. In the other the walls of the rotunda are carried up to a considerable height,
and on the exterior are subdivided into many faces by tall pilaster buttresses, on the top of which
stands a figure painted green, which we must suppose to be intended for bronze. The roof is flat, and
the structure looks exactly like a gas-holder. Within, the flat roof is supported by a lofty stone pillar in
the middle, after the manner of a Chapter House. It would be difficult to imagine a room more ugly
or more ill-suited for the purpose of a museum. There is unquestionable skill in the design, eccentric
and unsuitable as it may be.”
n°21 de mérite considérable, mais le plan souffre de longs couloirs de communication. “The design
numbered 21 has considerable merits, but the plan suffers in consequence of long narrow corridors
of communication – very ill-lit – being used to join the Exhibition galleries. The galleries themselves
would surely form the best corridors. The same faults may be found in several of the projects, large
wall-surfaces being thereby completely thrown away.”
n°27 palais de nuits orientales. “In design No. 27 we are wafted away from ancient Egypt and find
ourselves before such an Eastern Palace as springs up suddenly in «the Arabian Nights.» A vast courtyard
is surrounded by the Exhibition galleries. A dome, rising far into the air and surrounded by many
pinnacles, surmounts the entrance, to retrieve the dullness of the walls on either side, which are not
pierced by windows; some very slim arcades are introduced which lead nowhere in particular.”
n°28 [Drevet et Arnaud] admiré pour la facilité brillante où excellent tant nos voisins français,
prodigieux pylônes. “On the first landing of the staircase hangs the set of drawings already mentioned,