Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Drawing of Champollion
9:46am

I just finished reading Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion, by Andrew Robinson. I found it fascinating and especially recommend it if you're trying to learn hieroglyphs. The process by which his predecessor Young began, and Champollion advanced and made usable is most intriguing.

The book includes a portrait of Champollion, which I used to draw by:

"I have seen roll through my hand the names of ages whose history is totally beyond recall, the names of gods who have lacked altars for fifteen centuries, and I have picked up hardly daring to breath, fearing to reduce it to power, one little scrap of papyrus..." --letter from Champollion to his brother describing the Egyptian museum in Turin (Torino) November 1824. (Quoted in _Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion_, by Andrew Robinson (Oxford 2012), page 151)


Version for 4x6 inches without the quote.


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