This enchanted tour of Egyptian art by one of its early explorers is one of the most beautiful modern works on ancient Egyptian art. Prisse d'Avennes' monumental work, first published in Paris over a ten-year period between 1868 and 1878, includes the only surviving record of many lost artifacts.
''None of Prisse's contemporaries had the skill or endurance to bring such an endeavor to such a brilliant end. He was far ahead of his time in his awareness of the vulnerability of the monuments and the need to protect them and to record them. His were the first reliable drawings of Egyptian...