Egypt is here personified by a mysterious youthful male figure, all but his face and upper body swathed in drapery, leaning on a sphinx. The drapery also forms a hood, falling over one eye. Marochetti was one of a number of sculptors commissioned by the Crystal Palace Company to create colossal personifications of countries and cities, to decorate the upper terrace, overlooking the gardens of the Crystal Palace, at Sydenham. After the palace had served its original purpose, of housing the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, it was dismantled, and re-erected, between 1852 and 1854, with significant modifications at Sydenham, where it became a universal museum and pleasure garden. It was intended by the company to be a "Palace of the People". Sculpture, consisting mainly of plaster casts and models of historical and contemporary work, was a major feature of the interior, but the terrace sculptures and some of those around the ponds in the lower gardens, were remarkable for having been site specific creations. It is probable that the rather international cast of sculptors, who were brought in to create them, was the choice of the Italian expatriate sculptor Raffaelle Monti, who, in the early stages was responsible for sculpture in the palace. Amongst the sculptors for the terrace figures we find the Frenchman, Antoine Etex, the German Von der Launitz, the Belgian, Geefs, and the American, Hiram Powers. Monti himself sculpted four figures. Monti, was a great admirer of Marochetti, who received a commission for four figures, Egypt, Greece, Turkey and India. His figure of Turkey is the only one of the series still standing on the terrace, where the palace once stood, though in a fairly lamentable state. . The materials in which these sculptures were created remains in some cases a mystery. It is known for example that the four statues by John Bell were made by Blashfields in their weather-resistant terracotta. In fact, Bell's Australia was at the time, supposed to be the largest work created in one piece in this material. Egypt appears to be made of some sort of composite material, possibly cement, and has lasted much better than the figure of Turkey. Marochetti's figures of India and Greece have disappeared, and there is no visual record of them. Egypt and Antoine Etex's Marseilles were purchased at one of the auctions after the fire, which destroyed the palace in 1936, by Robert Heber-Percy, known as "The Mad Boy". They were set up by him at Faringdon Park, the country house, which he had shared with his lover, Gerald, Lord Berners, the painter, poet and composer.
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