EGYPT AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE ORIENTAL

IMAGINARY IN CHILE.

a) Category of submission: Research Article

b) Title: EGYPT AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE ORIENTAL IMAGINARY IN CHILE.

c) Author(s): Mauricio Baros

d) Word length: 4262 words

e) Fonts used in file: Times New Roman (10)

f) Date of submission: 22 January 2009

g) Address: Avda Condell 535. Depto 503. Providencia. Santiago. CHILE

Name of Institution : UNIVERSIDAD DE CHILE

Name of Department : Centro de Estudios Arabes

Full Postal Address : Avda Condell 535. Deto 503. CP: 7500890. PROVIDENCIA. SANTIAGO.

CHILE

E-Mail Address : mbaros@puc.cl

Telephone Number : 56997300085

Fax Number:

Abstract. After Chilean independence in XIX, a general openness to the European culture occurs. In

this period arrived painters, writers, scientists and architects. With them arrived many stylistic

possibilities that had a central role in the new image of the country. Architecture was the social face of

this change. Eclecticism was the style of that period: neoegyptian, neoislamic, neogreeks, neogothics, etc.

Egyptian style had a special interest because the contact established between chilean travellers with

Egypt. This “eclectism” allowed the construction of a new architectonic imaginary, and it constituted

another way of the cultural European domination. Travellers, paintings, albums, catalogues that arrived to

Chile had the “orientalist” perspective that domained the European imaginary. The dynamics of this

orientalist view turned to be a perfect way to see the cultural landscape of our country. This “stylistic

orientalism” will be transformed in an “American criollism” that appears as the reverse face of the

orientalistic view in our continent.

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EGYPT AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF ORIENTAL ARCHITECTURAL

IMAGERY IN CHILE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The influence of Egypt in our culture cannot be treated as a separate topic from the “Orientalism” that

impregnated our country for a large part of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth

century. Under this perspective, to talk of Egypt is to talk of the relations that took place between Chile

and orientalism. However, Egypt as a culture becomes paramount in order to understand and exemplify

the relations that took place between both nations, and how the mechanisms of orientalism operated in our

medium.

If we understand Orientalism as a discourse in the words of Edward Said:

If we take the end of the nineteenth century as an aproximate starting point, orientalism can be

discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient—dealing with it

by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it,

ruling over it: in short, orientalism as a western style for dominating, restructuring, and having

authority over the Orient.’(Said,1979, p.3)

We can understand then “Orient” as a construction, so a well done construction that it is possible of

extrapolating to other realities

As concept, the Orient is kaleidoscopic both in terms of this limits, and in terms of its

inexhaustible possibilities. Its component parts are few, but they can be fashioned into a infinity

of permutations to express our multifold phantasms (Hentsch, 1992, p.x)

Then we can establish that this was the construction of a complex discourse, which although in certain

aspects subscribes to the ideas of orientalism, in others it moves away from them. This is due to the fact

that orientalism generally operated on consolidated cultural realities, whether passive, active, submissive,

dominant, or however you wish to call them, but whose cultural appearance was historically defined. This

is a situation that did not occur in a large part of Spanish America, let alone in Chile.

Said says that the nations are “narrations.” If we begin with the basic idea that Chile was newly born as a

“nation” after independence from the Spanish Crown, we can then say that Chile it was begun to be

written and to be narrated. Considering this, the presence of a discourse, regardless of its ideology, is

much more significant because it is being written on a blank page (Here I am referring specifically to

what concerns artistic representation in our country. This does not include the construction of mentality in

our society). With this metaphoric figure I am referring to the new image, a new lanscape, understand as a

“group of values ordered in a vision” (Cauquelin, 2000,p.16), that the country will search for during the

entire century in order to replace the colonial image which had prevailed for almost three centuries. It is

for this reason that that the orientalist discourse in Chile will acquire diverse nuances, according to how it

is presented, transmitted and assimilated in our reality.

Within the scope of this discussion we will examine only two points of view or “views” as they are

called, with respect to the construction of this discourse in Chile. Views that while reductive, serve the

instrumental purpose of broaching the subject. To one view we designate the name Romantic and to the

other Picturesque.

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The former is a view that is related with a sector of the Chilean elite who have the control of the country

in their hands and, who, above all, want to be seen as being modern without really being so. It is a view

that prioritizes appearance over essence. Given that this group has the money and the power to do so, they

dress modern according to the niche they choose and that they find available in their area of the current

fashion market, with this being the principal driving force for the transmission of images at this level. The

free disposition of choice transforms into stylish eclecticism that characterizes the urban passage of the

principal Chilean cities in the nineteenth century and in which the images of the orient come from.

The later is a view that whilst referred to as “picturesque” is more surreptitious. It appears more in

structural as opposed to obvious elements, and operates on the mechanisms of representation more than

the forms themselves. As a result, it acts on the forms of the representation of reality that exist under the

prism (perspective) of the illustrated view that was being given in a large part of the non-European world.

In reality, both outlooks are “illustrated” only that the first seeks “to civilize”, in the sense of bringing

“civilization” and progress to these nations, and the second rather “to register” the reality for numerous

ends that are required, economic exploitation, scientific exploration, etc.

In the first case the protagonists are the self same Chilean society, who enter in contact with the Orient

and Orientalism be it through travel or through the influence of drawings, photographs, stories, etc. In the

second case the protagonists are principally foreigners who visit our country during this period. That is to

say, it is constructed in two intersecting views. Firstly, the view that Chile directs towards what it believes

and discovers as “the Orient” and, in second place, the view that foreigners - under the filter of

orientalism - give to our reality.

Egypt: Admiration and Fear of an Emerging Society.

As we have said, Egypt turns out to be a perfect reference point for this ambivalent attitude that the

nineteenth century Chile would have towards the “oriental” countries that are more well-known or closer

to our reality: principally, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Algiers, and Morocco.

The comments that we can rescue from both the intellectuals of our era and the few travellers who went

through Egypt show a tendency that is clearly polarized and ambivalent. On one hand is the admiration

that is awakened in Ancient Egypt, regarding which is no lack of flattery, as appeared in chilean

magazines of that time:

Of all the ancient civilizations, the most artistic and original is the Egyptian nation. (Barrera,

1926)

It is true that the marvels of art rose up wherever the majestic footprint (of Eygpt – Translator’s

note) its mark, and that the opulent Thebas, Memphis and Sais, even today raise their

pyramidical crests to bear witness to its power and magnificence”( Anales de la Universidad de

Chile, 1845)

On the other hand, there is a more contemporary Egypt that these intellectuals were getting to know, with

regard to which there are also two stances.

Ignominious comments regarding the ancient urban city-centres of Egyptian cities such as Cairo and

Alexandria and eulogies for what was considered the “European” contribution to these cities, as we can

see in the next example.

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Ricardo Gonzalez Cortés, President of the Association of Architecs of Chile, in a trip to Europe in 1925,

visits Egypt, and published in a national magazine commentaries of its trip:

In New Cairo buildings are constructed based on a perfect and logically studied regulatory plan;

its beautiful perspectives seduce and attract, and its avenues and side streets form an intelligent

network that reveals the intervention of people who are technically prepared in the subject

matter. (González Cortes,1925)

Ancient Cairo offers nothing more to the traveller than a hard and gruelling contrast. There, in its

narrow, torturous alleyways, devoid of light and paving; with incomprehensible, heterogeneous

buildings that astonish the expert eye due to their inexplicable equilibrium, always on the margin

of all the known laws of stability. (González Cortes,1925)

This admiration on one hand and this negative vision on the other can be extrapolated to the general

relation that our country would establish with the oriental countries but also to the ambivalent relation

that the orientalist discourse would have in our field that is illustrated through these two views that we

shall examine forthwith.

Figure 1,2. Baquedano Square. Santiago. Obelisk built (1944) by Ricardo Gonzalez Cortes after

his trip to Egypt.

The Romantic View

We understand this view as that through which imagery was usually constructed during the Nineteenth

century. It is the view that constructed its discourse with orientalist forms rather than with the ideas that

supported them. Their principal vehicles of transmission were of two kinds, primarily catalogues,

travelogues, texts and drawing manuals that arrived to our country, be it on a personal basis or order, and

that had distinctive objectives, some of these for enjoyment of diffusion in elite social circles, and others

as drawing manuals principally for the formation of the diverse disciplines that were beginning with the

creation of the first universities. Such as the case of the creation of the artistic disciplines in the

Universidad de Chile.

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However, all of these had a similar impact in the fields of Art and Architecture. They made up a

repository of images, from which models could be extracted indistinctly whether it be for a house, a

monument or for a tomb. It was in this way that these forms based on the “orient” began to appear in our

urban landscape and amongst which the Egyptian style occupied a predominant role as is well

demonstrated by the quantity of works inspired in the language of Ancient Egypt.

Figure 3,4,5. Tombs in Egyptian style at the Cemetery of Santiago de Chile, s.XIX.

The orientalism that was transmitted through this view is a more superficial orientalism, a more epidermal

orientalism, if it could be referred to in that manner. An orientalism of forms, of ways, of gestures, of the

exterior, of appearances. It is an orientalism that appealed more to the emotions than to a deeper more

reflexive understanding, and this remains clearly demonstrated in the eclecticism of the chosen repertoire.

With the arrival of one of the first foreign painters in Chile, Raymond Monvoisin in 1843, an exposition

was held of his main works among which was “Ali Baja y La Vasiliki” which soon became the piece that

generated the most admiration from the Chilean society, so much so that subsequently a pamphlet on the

painting was produced. “The lavish exoticism of Ali-Baja, soon caused a stir in Santiago” (James, 1949)

Figure 6. Ali Baja y La Vasiliki. Monvoisin, 1833

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Monvoisin had had, as his biographies relate, an orientalist period, as had occurred with the majority of

the French painters. He knew Delacroix personally and therefore, it is no surprise that his view arrived

strongly loaded with the intention that we see reflected in many orientalist topics that, here in Chile, were

translated to our reality

A second case in a different environment was brought about by the visit of the Aspillaga family to the

premiere of the opera Aida in Cairo in 1871. They were so amazed, as much by the ‘mise-en-scene’ as by

the opera itself, they wanted to reproduce it on the Chilean coast in the 6th

region in a scenographic

dwelling in front of the sea, which was later destroyed in the flames of a blazing fire.

Figure 7. Egyptian Style house at the beach of Tanume (1906). Sixth region, Chile.

It is necessary to note that the most epidermal orientalist view occurred principally in the new social class

that emerged in the nineteenth century as a result of mining wealth. It is these new rich, who, in a more

audacious fashion, dared to use a stylistic language, which, without doubt, resulted somewhat strange in a

country so distant from this reality. This is a new class without a clear social profile who, given this fact,

have greater freedom to resort to the imagery that they desired.

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In both cases, we find ourselves with an attitude, which prioritizes the emotional, and the superficial over

the rational. In this sense, the oriental switches to become part of the game of gestures and appearances

that structures a certain culture. A final expression of this attitude can be found in the parties that the

Chilean society regularly held in the two principal residences of “oriental” style that existed in Santiago

in that time, the Alhambra Palace and Concha Cazotte Palace.

These parties have always been used as an example of the ethos of the eighteenth century elites of our

country, regarding whom we will give an explication later after having examined the second view.

The Picturesque View

This second view relates to other vehicles of transmission whose protagonists were principally foreign

travellers and whose aim was to “illustrate” and “depict” the diverse countries and nations that they

visited. This type of learned visitor had a more extensive record than the aforementioned. There had been

a diverse variety of visitors who had travelled around our country and who had tried to construct a visual

register of it. However, it is only as from the nineteenth century that the action of these travellers would

have a deeper impact, given that, in the majority of cases, visits involved a longer stay in our territory

which permitted a more complete vision of the reality that they wanted to register. Especially important

was their work that took place in a time when the new nation was outlining a new cultural landscape.

Many of them formed a part of scientific expeditions whose register aimed to be the most complete,

comprehensive and truthful possible, however, not exempt from certain nuances that we now wish to

discuss.

Of these travellers, the one who had the had the most impact in the nineteenth century was without doubt

Johann Moritz Rugendas, a German painter who visited not only Chile but also many other Latin

American countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Mexico.

Initially, Rugendas came to the continent on a scientific mission. Given this, it would be all too easy to

classify him as just another travelling scientist who passed through our territory. However, the situation is

not so simple, with him there was a fundamental change whereby he went from a pseudoscientific view to

a completely picturesque one, far removed from reality.

The first thing to observe is that Rugendas, as with all European artists, was well versed in the forms of

registry that were given at the time as well as the pictorial styles present in the European continent.

What catches the attention about Rugendas is that there is a transition in his work, from comprehensive,

naturalist, taxonomic descriptions towards a growing interest in human forms. Human forms portrayed in

a way that is not dissimilar to how the principal orientalists would have portrayed them. However, this

presents an ambivalent situation. On one hand, we can argue that a classification exists in the way these

themes are portrayed but what also appears predominant is certain identification with determined human

forms. An assimilation of “something already seen” or known in what he was finding in our continent. An

example of this is the paintings of women and rural inhabitants.

There are innumerable works in which the painter portrays these so-called “tapadas”, where it is

impossible not to make a comparison with the registers that the orientalists were making of women in the

orient.

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Figure 8, 9,10. Egyptian Women, Lane; Chilean woman, Prior; Peruvian woman, Rugendas

Another interesting case is that of the rural human forms, which are not only perfectly assimilated with

the oriental forms in their attire, but also in the attitudes of leisure and languor in which they tend to

appear.

We can observe still another absence in the annals of Orientalist art: the absence of scenes of

work and industry (Nochlin, 1989, p.39)

Figure 11,12. Jeunne Arabe. Delacroix (1832) and Gaucho federal, Monvoisin (1842)

However, this is not all, this practice occurs in a first phase. Notwithstanding, with Rugendas the same

thing that happened with Monvoisin, and the orientalists in general, also occurred; that is, the transfer of

the orientalist topics to the Chilean reality. By topics we refer to those archetypical oriental topics as

referred to by John MacKenzie in Orientalism. History, Theory and the arts:

Visions of Orient were highly selective, creating oriental archetypes through which the

‘Otherness’ of eastern peoples could be ready identified Tyranny, cruelty, laziness, lust,

technical backwardness, languid fatalism and cultural decadence generally offered a justification

for imperial rule and a programme for its reforming zeal (McKenzie, 1995, p. 46)

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These archetypes discovered in Rugendas a literal translation in the hunting scenes, the rural scenes, and a

theme that appeared to be of special interest which is the topic of the abduction and capture of women

The interest for this later theme reaffirms McKenzie’s thesis about them being a clear indication of the

worries of a sexual nature that the European felt regarding gender problems.

The ethnic diversity of oriental paintings conveys a set of racial concepts, particularly through

the juxtaposition of black and lighter-skinned people, while the treatment of women is the

clearest indicator of attitudes toward women in the nineteenth century (McKenzie, 1995, p. 46)

On the other hand, these Works give ground to the thesis of the hegemony of the European over the non-

European and the racial and gender differentiation that was common in orientalism.

Another element in favour of the argument of “orientalisation” in the view of Rugendas is that a large part

of these works finally fall in a process of construction that distances them completely from the scientific

view that the painter initially intended upon his arrival to our continent. His principal works were made

up of true narrations or imagery discourses that were already distant from reality and that appeared tinged

and filtered by the orientalist outlook. In the case of Rugendas this functioned in two ways.

During his jaunts around Europe Rugendas had direct contact with Delacroix who without doubt he

admired and who left a clear impression on his work:

Retrouvé chez moi Rugendas (1) avec ses portefeuilles que j'ai vus avec plaisir, mais avec encore

plus de fatigue. Mornay y assistait aussi. Il me demande de lui faire un petit tableau au sujet de la

scène qui suit la bataille de Coutras: Henri IV dans la maison, etc ( Journal de Eugène Delacroix,

1932)

Much of his work consisted of sketches or rough draughts that he finished in Europe, in a completely

imaginary way, as is shown in a letter sent by his friend Carmen Arriagada where she states that:

With regards to the question you asked me on whether I known the surname of the people who

have abducted the Indians. About 8 years ago they took from the outskirts of this village one

Miss Salcedo and from Chillan two females, daughters of a Mrs Carrasco: however, I don’t

remember the father’s name. They remain at your disposal these three people who, with the

greatest of pleasure, I will be guardian of whichever you choose.” (Pinochet de la Barra, 1989)

With this Rugendas made another of his numerous paintings dedicated to the “captives.” This is to say

that what Rugendas was portraying was the reality that his own desires wanted to mould on the canvas,

and because of this his subjects are closer to literature than to reality.

Another interesting fact is that of the engravings as a large part of them were finished in Engelmann

lithographic print house. Engelmann also worked with Delacroix and many other orientalists, which is

why his images ended up having the same structure as the orientalist pictures.

So, this second view is more structural, it does not operate as superficially over the forms but rather

through the mechanisms and methods of construction of reality, and for this reason it is more important.

Therefore, by being less apparent it operates and is functional not only for the construction of the

orientalist discourse, but also for any other discourse that is presented in a similar situation. It constitutes

a method of transmission, the establishment of a hegemonic view, wherein the mechanism of montage of

this view takes precedence over the content that is desired to be shown. It is precisely this mechanism of

montage that is represented as the principal tool for placing the orientalist discourse in our medium.

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What took place, therefore, can be described as an orientalisation of the view which, in the case of the

current historic situation in Chile, would turn out to be extremely important as, on the basis of this view

the cultural landscape of a new nation would be built. Furthermore, it would be imprinted in such a

fashion that it is still a source of revision and the foundation of many of the present day texts that are

written about this period in our country.

Final Commentary

We have seen then how the orientalist imagery whilst finding in Egyptian imagery a perfect reference

point for the ambivalent attitude that prevailed in the Chilean society for a large part of the nineteenth and

twentieth centuries proves representative of the attitude which was generally given between our country

and the orient and orientalism.

To finalise we want to present an argument, which in our judgement, could shed light on the ambivalent

attitude that we have spoken of. This ambivalence encountered its foundation in the process that the self

same Chilean society was experiencing during the nineteenth century. Chilean society found itself facing

a profound division between “being” and “appearing to be”.

On one hand it wanted to “appear modern”, but without actually being so. The reason for this is that

Chile, unlike other Latin American countries had a process of independence that was less revolutionary

that its neighbours. This is due to the fact that while it is true that the independence from the Spanish

Crown took place, the power remained in the hands of the same landowning elite that had formed in

colonial times. These elite based their wealth on agricultural exploitation, facing this situation they were

not interested in early industrialization, a process that was delayed until almost the end of the century. In

this scenario, the country did not modernise at the expected rate, however, it wanted to appear modern. It

is here that the oriental imagery played a significant role. The admiration that Monvoisin’s Ali Baja

inspired is no more than an expression of a society that wanted to see itself dressed in the luxurious finery

that the painting portrayed, that is to say, everything operating at a level of appearance and superficiality

that began with attire, continued at home and finished in the city, and that constituted a perfect scene to

represent the montage of a situation that was not so real.

Considering this, the distancing and the apprehension toward everything that was believed to represent

the past is understandable, the delays, the old way of doing things. Our country was still without an

established artistic and architectural physiognomy, the social and political instability, which still ruled in

some Latin American countries, made the idea of revolution a sentiment that was close to the reality that

was actually being lived. What was feared was that the social and political chaos that could provoke a

revolutionary movement could distance us from the road to progress being dictated by Europe, which was

such a desired goal. That is to say, social chaos as a sentiment was something that was present in

nineteenth century society, and therefore, any element associated with it was viewed with profound

revulsion. It is because of this that the orient, in some cases, represented the fear of all this. What is

curious is that there was definitely no fear of external chaos, a fear based on change, but rather the

reflection of an internal situation from which an escape was sought.

In our country since immemorial times certain patterns of common behaviour exist, certain ancient social

practices that are frequently associated with realities seen in oriental countries. Therefore it was not a case

of trying to hide something exterior, a situation of change, but rather something that had been part of our

own idiosyncrasies, the images of the orient seen and brought by orientalism were the reflection of a

situation that existed in our country and our continent, a situation that we wanted to distance ourselves

from and that we wanted to eradicate so as to at least appear completely “modern”. From this oriental

from it was not a distant, exotic reflection but rather a reflection of us ourselves.

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González Cortes, R. (1925); Desde El Oriente, Revista el Arquitecto, 8.

Hentsch, T.(1992): Imagininig the Middle East. Montreal: Black Rose Books

James, D. (1949). Monvoisin. Buenos Aires: Emece Editores.

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Lopez, V. (1845); General results on how ancient civilizations have contributed to human civilization.

Thesis read in the Faculty of Humanities. Anales de la Universidad de Chile, 305-350

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University Press.

Nochlin, Linda. (1989): The Politics of Vision. New York: Harper&Row, Publishers

Pinochet de la Barra, O. (1989); Carmen Arriagada: Cartas de una mujer apasionada. Santiago: Editorial

Universitaria.

Said, E. (1990); Orientalismo. Madrid: Libertarias

Image captions

Figure 1-5. Photographs of the author

Figure 6. www.palaciocousino.co.cl/ galeria.html

Figure 7. Pereda B, Pereda F, Cáceres M. Tanume, Levantamiento de una ruina. Revista ARQ 42, 64-69

Figure 8. Lane, E. (1860/2003). Manners and Customs of the Modern Egytians. Cairo: American

University in Cairo Press

Figure 9. Prior M. (1991) Reportaje a Chile. Santiago: Museo Historico Nacional

Figure 10. Diener, P. (2002). Rugendas e o Brasil. Sâo Paulo: Capivara

Figure 11. Daguerre de Hureaux (2000). Delacroix, Voyage au Maroc. Paris: Bibliothèque de l’Image

Figure 12. James, D. (1949). Monvoisin. Buenos Aires: Emece Editores

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