Volume II Part 29 (1/2)

[346] _Ibid_ pl 117

[347] See the Ethiopians in the painting from the tomb of Rekmara, which is reproduced in WILKINSON, vol i plate 2

But although the Egyptian painter made no attempt to imitate the hues of nature in their infinite variety, we find a curious effort in certain Theban paintings to reproduce one of those modifications of local tone which were to attract so many artists of later times The flesh tints are brohere they are uncovered, and light yellohere they are veiled; the painter thus atteh the semi-transparence of fine linen[348]

[348] LEPSIUS, _Denkmaeler_, part iii pl 216

This is, however, but an isolated atteyptian painting, and of its conventionalcolour The observations we have made apply equally justly to coloured bas-reliefs and to paintings properly speaking The latter are only found in the toures which coraved upon the walls in some fashi+on before they are touched with colour, and the office of the painter was restricted to filling in the prepared outlines with colour It is the same, as a rule, with the steles; but a few exist upon which the painter has had the field to himself The papyri, too, were illustrated by the artist in colour Those elaborate examples of the _Ritual of the Dead_, which come from the tombs of princes and of rich subjects, are full of carefully executed vignettes (Figs 97 and 184, Vol I)

It is easy to understand why the painter reserved himself for the tomb The pictures upon the external walls of the telare of a southern sun; so too, at least for a part of the day, were those upon the walls of the courtyards, and upon the shafts of their surrounding columns Even in the interior ht from the claustra of the attic, others would be subject to friction fro by itself would be unfitted for such situations It would either have its effect destroyed by the direct light, or its colours dulled and daures carved in the substance of the walls would have a very different duration When their colours paled with time, a few strokes of the brush would be sufficient to renew their youth, and the co result than could be obtained by the use of the latter alone

[Illustration: FIG 264--Portrait of Queen Taia From Prisse]

With the toes of te sun were to be feared Its doors were to be ever closed, and the scenes which were entrusted to its walls were to have no spectator but the deadOsiris To carry out the whole ith the brush was quicker than to associate that instrument with the chisel, and we need therefore feel no surprise that s are in no way inferior to the sculptural works of the same period; the outlines of both must, in fact, have been traced by the same hands The wielders of the chisel and brushmore than journeymen or artisans; the true artist was he who traced upon the wall the outline which had afterwards to be filled in either in relief or in colour

We should have liked to have reproduced the best of these paintings with all their richness and variety of tint, but we had no original studies of which we could reat advantages to be gained by copying the plates of Champollion, of Lepsius, or of Prisse The processes which they were compelled to employ have in many cases visibly affected the fidelity of their transcriptions We have therefore felt ourselves compelled, much to our disappointment, to trust almost entirely to black and white We have, however, been careful to preserve the relative values of the different tones Those who have seen Egyptian paintings in the original, or even in the copies which hang upon the staircase of the Egyptian museum in the Louvre, will be able to restore their true colours to our engravings without difficulty; the flesh tints, light or dark according to circumstances, the blackness of the hair, the whiteness of linen cloth and of the more brilliant colours, the reds and blues which adorn certain parts of the draperies and certain details of furniture and jewellery, h less numerous than we could have wished, will help the reader to restore the absent colour Plate II, in the first voluood idea of the scale of tints used in the painted bas-reliefs of the temples; we have every reason to believe it accurate[349] The plate which faces page 334 is a faithful reproduction of a fragment in the Louvre It coance and refinement of the contours which the painter had to fill up The colour has faded, but thepoint in all these pictures is the outline, in which alone real artistic talent and inventive power are displayed Finally, our Plates III and IV, drawn and coloured frooin, represent the polychromatic decoration of the Ancient Empire as it was left by those who decorated the tomb of Ptah-hotep In this case at least we know that we possess the true value of the tones brought together by the artist, for the mastaba in question is one of those which the desert sands have most completely preserved

[349] The materials for this plate were borrowed froypte_ In the complete copies of that work the plates were coloured by hand, with extreme care, after those fine water-colours the most important of which are now in the _Cabinet des Estampes_ of the _Bibliotheque Nationale_ The colours thus applied are far nearer the truth than those of the chroraphs in ure_

In the ures in relief It is not till we reach the first Theban Empire, in the tos in which the brush alone has been used

[Illustration: FIG 265--Painting at Beni-Hassan Champollion, pl

374]

We have already described the style and character of the paintings at Beni-Hassan In most cases the outlines prepared for the painter do not differ from those meant for the sculptor

We have already reproducedto shohether they are paintings or bas-reliefs Their execution is als 25, 26, 31, Vol II) It is the sa scenes which we take froue are represented (Figs 265 and 266), and with the char hisat Beni-Hassan Champollion, pl

371]

[Illustration: FIG 267--Painting at Beni-Hassan Champollion, pl

359]

Even at Beni-Hassan, however, there are a few paintings in which the peculiar and distinguishi+ng characteristics of that art are to be found The group of singers and e is an instance in point Two of the heads are shown in full face, a viehich we hardly ever meet with in the bas-reliefs The hair and the draperies are also treated in a fashi+on quite different from that of sculpture, at least in the case of the two ht

Their twisted tresses seeetic movements of their heads, which they seem to sway in time to the music of the flute, which is also marked by the hands of two ive a strong relief to the oval contours of the two faces which look out of the picture The execution of the drapery is governed by the saested by lines at slight intervals

[Illustration: FIG 268--Painting at Beni-Hassan Champollion, pl

377 _ter_]

[Illustration: FIG 269--Painting at Thebes Fro at Thebes Fros I know of nothing which is more truly pictorial in character than this picture A careful study of it ht well lead us to believe that its painter deliberately set himself to cast off traditional methods, and to obtain all the effect that the skilful use of colour can give But the seed thus cast did not spring up Theban painting is not an advance upon that of Beni-Hassan It hardly ever attempts the full face It is only here and there that we can point to a work in which the brush seems to have dwelt upon a few details that would be rendered in a more su 270, who coeum at Abd-el-Gournah as the A 24, is one of these rare instances The hair, plaited into narrow tresses and retained in place by a long comb, is carried out with quite unusual care The areolae of the breasts are very clearly marked, a detail which Prisse says he never met with elsewhere[350]

[350] PRISSE, _Histoire de l'Art egyptien_, text, p 424