Although French fascination with Egyptian material culture is often dated to the nineteenth century, ancient Egyptian gems, architectural fragments, and small statues were already avidly collected in the eighteenth century. For some, the display and close study of small Egyptian works of art in private cabinets served to develop discernment, the formal properties illuminating historical moeurs, techniques, and artistic exchanges otherwise unknowable from then-untranslated hieroglyphs. Others, however, dismissed these objects as fetishes and idols, produced under the control of priests and despots for ritual devotion. Escalating prejudices in Europe toward the peoples and objects of Africa was fundamental to this latter attitude. Yet, the bigoted language also illuminates the fraught boundaries perceived between connoisseurship and idolatry, both predicated on the focused attention toward material objects. This essay addresses the implication of ancient Egyptian sculpture in these period debates, and demonstrates the impact of these biases on art histories of sculpture.

中文翻译：

---

洞察力还是奉献：埃及与十八世纪法国的雕塑政治

尽管法国人对埃及物质文化的迷恋往往可以追溯到十九世纪，但古埃及宝石、建筑碎片和小雕像早在十八世纪就已经被热衷于收集。对于一些人来说，在私人橱柜中展示和仔细研究埃及小型艺术品有助于培养洞察力，其形式属性阐明了历史摩尔、技术和艺术交流，否则从当时未翻译的象形文字中是无法得知的。然而，其他人则将这些物品视为拜物教和偶像，是在牧师和暴君的控制下为仪式奉献而生产的。欧洲对非洲人民和物体的偏见不断升级是后一种态度的根本原因。然而，这种偏执的语言也阐明了鉴赏家和偶像崇拜之间令人担忧的界限，两者都基于对物质对象的集中注意力。本文讨论了古埃及雕塑在这些时期争论中的含义，并论证了这些偏见对雕塑艺术史的影响。