Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

Columns in the Temple of Seti I, B.C. 1370, at Abydos.

The temples of Egypt from the XVIIIth dynasty to the Roman Period vary greatly in detail, but the general plan is always the same. The great temples of Karnak (see Plate XXX), Luxor, Abydos (see Plate XI), etc., awe the spectator by their size and majestic dignity; the smaller temples of the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods are less grand, but are much more graceful buildings. The severity of the interiors of the older buildings is moderated by the reliefs and

[graphic][merged small]

inscriptions with which walls, pillars, pilasters, architraves, etc., are covered profusely, and the bright colours, reds, blues, greens, and yellows, in which many of the painted scenes were executed, added greatly to their general effect. The massive square pillars were replaced in later times by pillars with

eight sides, and the whole character of the simple round column was changed when its shaft was made to resemble a papyrus or lotus stalk, and its upper part was sculptured in the form of the flower of either plant. Both pillars and pilasters were sometimes decorated with figures of Osiris, cut on the front face in high relief, as at Abu-Simbel, and the capitals were often sculptured in the form of the head of Hathor (the Cow-goddess), surmounted by a sistrum. The

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

pillar with the Hathor-headed capital was suggested by the pole, or small tree trunk, surmounted by the head of a bull, ox, or cow, which the primitive Egyptians set up over the graves of their chiefs, a custom which survives to the present day among certain of the tribes of Central Africa. Every temple had a sacred lake within its precincts, just as every large house possessed

a garden with an ornamental lake in it.
also was surrounded by
a girdle wall, which was
usually made exceedingly
strong and was provided
with fortified gateways.
The space between the
temple buildings and this
wall was occupied by gar-
dens and storehouses for
the property of the priests,
and also by the dwellings
of private folk. Thus the
girdle wall of the temple
actually enclosed a small
city, which in cases of
popular panic or invasion
became a city of refuge.

Painting and sculpture. The Egyptians, from the IVth dynasty downwards, were in the habit of painting the basreliefs in their temples and tombs, and also their statues, and they seemed. to have relied greatly upon paintings in bright colours to enhance the effect of the work of the sculptor. The earliest wall decoration consists of series of figures of men, animals, etc., traced or cut in outline, or sculptured in low relief, on tolerably smooth slabs of limestone; sometimes the surfaces of the slabs were prepared with a sort of limewash, and the paintings painted upon it. The skill of the painter, even in

Each temple

[graphic]

the remote period of the Painted IVth dynasty, is marvel

portrait statue of An-kheft-ka, a royal kinsman.

IVth dynasty, about B.C. 3700.

lous, and the accuracy with [Northern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 1, No. 33.1

which he represented every detail and characteristic of animate and inanimate objects is beyond praise. At all periods, however, general scenes are more or less hard, a fact due to want of perspective. The Egyptians loved colour, and they used it wherever it could possibly be employed. A striking instance of this is afforded by the elaborately painted papyri of the Book of the Dead, which when once buried in the tomb were intended to be seen by no other eye than that of the spirit of the deceased!

[graphic][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The wall sculptures were of two kinds, the bas-relief

and the sunk relief. In the bas-relief the sculpture is raised a little above the surface of the slab, and in the sunk relief it is a little below. The sunk relief is one of the most characteristic features of Egyptian sculpture. Of the first kind there are many examples in the Egyptian Galleries of the British Museum, especially in the Vestibule at the north end of the Northern Gallery, where the slab from the tomb

« PreviousContinue »