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701 | Isis.]
[Illustration: Fig. 211.--Frog amulet.]
[Illustration: Fig. 212.--The _Ûat_, or lotus-column amulet.]
[Illustration: Fig. 213.--An _Ûta_, or sacred eye.]
[Illustration: Fig. 214.--A scarabaeus.]
It is impossible to pass through a gallery of Egyptian antiquities without
being surprised by the prodigious number of small objects in _pietra dura_
which have survived till the present time. As yet we have found neither the
diamond, the ruby, nor the sapphire; but with the |
702 | se exceptions, the domain
of the lapidary was almost as extensive as at the present day. That domain
included the amethyst, the emerald, the garnet, the aquamarine, the
chrysoprase, the innumerable varieties of agate and jasper, lapis lazuli,
felspar, obsidian; also various rocks, such as granite, serpentine, and
porphyry; certain fossils, as yellow amber and some kinds of turquoise;
organic remains, as coral, mother-of-pearl, and pearls; metallic ores and
carbonates, such as hematite |
703 | and malachite, and the calaite, or Oriental
turquoise. These substances were for the most part cut in the shape of
round, square, oval, spindle-shaped, pear-shaped, or lozenge-shaped beads.
Strung and arranged row above row, these beads were made into necklaces,
and are picked up by myriads in the sands of the great cemeteries at
Memphis, Erment, Ekhmîm, and Abydos. The perfection with which many are
cut, the deftness with which they are pierced, and the beauty of the
polish, do hono |
704 | ur to the craftsmen who made them. But their skill did not
end here. With the point, saw, drill, and grindstone, they fashioned these
materials into an infinity of shapes--hearts, human fingers, serpents,
animals, images of divinities. All these were amulets; and they were
probably less valued for the charm of the workmanship than for the
supernatural virtues which they were supposed to possess. The girdle-buckle
in carnelian (fig. 210) symbolised the blood of Isis, and washed away the |
705 |
sins of the wearer. The frog (fig. 211) was emblematic of renewed birth.
The little lotus-flower column in green felspar (fig. 212) typified the
divine gift of eternal youth. The "Ûat," or sacred eye (fig. 213), tied to
the wrist or the arm by a slender string, protected against the evil eye,
against words spoken in envy or anger, and against the bites of serpents.
Commerce dispersed these objects throughout all parts of the ancient world,
and many of them, especially those which rep |
706 | resented the sacred beetle,
were imitated abroad by the Phoenicians and Syrians, and by the craftsmen
of Greece, Asia Minor, Etruria, and Sardinia. This insect was called
_kheper_ in Egyptian, and its name was supposed to be derived from the root
_khepra_, "to become." By an obvious play upon words, the beetle was made
the emblem of terrestrial life, and of the successive "becomings" or
developments of man in the life to come. The scarabaeus amulet (fig. 214)
is therefore a symbol of |
707 | duration, present or future; and to wear one was
to provide against annihilation. A thousand mystic meanings were evolved
from this first idea, each in some subtle sense connected with one or other
of the daily acts or usages of life, so that scarabaei were multiplied _ad
infinitum_. They are found in all materials and sizes; some having hawks'
heads, some with rams' heads, some with heads of men or bulls. Some are
wrought or inscribed on the underside; others are left flat and plain
|
708 | underneath; and others again but vaguely recall the form of the insect, and
are called scarabaeoids. These amulets are pierced longwise, the hole being
large enough to admit the passage of a fine wire of bronze or silver, or of
a thread, for suspension. The larger sort were regarded as images of the
heart. These, having outspread wings attached, were fastened to the breast
of the mummy, and are inscribed on the underside with a prayer adjuring the
heart not to bear witness against the |
709 | deceased at the day of judgment. In
order to be still more efficacious, some scenes of adoration were
occasionally added to the formula: _e.g._, the disc of the moon adorned by
two apes upon the shoulder; two squatting figures of Amen upon the wing-
sheaths; on the flat reverse, a representation of the boat of the Sun; and
below the boat, Osiris mummified, squatting between Isis and Nephthys, who
overshadow him with their wings. The small scarabs, having begun as
phylacteries, ended b |
710 | y becoming mere ornaments without any kind of
religious meaning, just as crosses are now worn without thought of
significance by the women of our own day. They were set as rings, as
necklace pendants, as earrings, and as bracelets. The underside is often
plain, but is more commonly ornamented with incised designs which involve
no kind of modelling. Relief-cutting, properly so called (as in cameo-
cutting), was unknown to Egyptian lapidaries before the Greek period.
Scarabaei and the s |
711 | ubjects engraved on them have not as yet been fully
classified and catalogued.[55] The subjects consist of simple combinations
of lines; of scrolls; of interlacings without any precise signification; of
symbols to which the owner attached a mysterious meaning, unknown to
everyone but himself; of the names and titles of individuals; of royal
ovals, which are historically interesting; of good wishes; of pious
ejaculations; and of magic formulae. The earliest examples known date from
the |
712 | Fourth Dynasty, and are small and fine. Sometimes Sixth Dynasty scarabs
are of obsidian and crystal, and early Middle Kingdom scarabs of amethyst,
emerald, and even garnet. From the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty scarabs
may be counted by millions, and the execution is more or less fine
according to the hardness of the stone. This holds good for amulets of all
kinds. The hippopotamus-heads, the hearts, the _Ba_ birds (p. 111), which
one picks up at Taûd, to the south of Thebes, are ba |
713 | rely roughed out, the
amethyst and green felspar of which they are made having presented an
almost unconquerable resistance to the point, saw, drill, and wheel. The
belt-buckles, angles, and head-rests in red jasper, carnelian, and
hematite, are, on the contrary, finished to the minutest details,
notwithstanding that carnelian and red jasper are even harder than green
felspar. Lapis lazuli is insufficiently homogeneous, almost as hard as
felspar, and seems as if it were incapable of b |
714 | eing finely worked. Yet the
Egyptians have used it for images of certain goddesses--Isis, Nephthys,
Neith, Sekhet,--which are marvels of delicate cutting. The modelling of the
forms is carried out as boldly as if the material were more trustworthy,
and the features lose none of their excellence if examined under a
magnifying glass. For the most part, however, a different treatment was
adopted. Instead of lavishing high finish upon the relief, it was obtained
in a more summary way, the |
715 | details of individual parts being sacrificed to
the general effect. Those features of the face which project, and those
which retire, are strongly accentuated. The thickness of the neck, the
swell of the breast and shoulder, the slenderness of the waist, the fulness
of the hips, are all exaggerated. The feet and hands are also slightly
enlarged. This treatment is based upon a system, the results being boldly
and yet judiciously calculated. When the object has to be sculptured in
mini |
716 | ature, a mathematical reduction of the model is not so happy in its
effect as might be supposed. The head loses character; the neck looks too
weak; the bust is reduced to a cylinder with a slightly uneven surface; the
feet do not look strong enough to support the weight of the body; the
principal lines are not sufficiently distinct from the secondary lines. By
suppressing most of the accessory forms and developing those most essential
to the expression, the Egyptians steered clear of t |
717 | he danger of producing
insignificant statuettes. The eye instinctively tones down whatever is too
forcible, and supplies what is lacking. Thanks to these subtle devices of
the ancient craftsman, a tiny statuette of this or that divinity measuring
scarcely an inch and a quarter in height, has almost the breadth and
dignity of a colossus.
The earthly goods of the gods and of the dead were mostly in solid stone. I
have elsewhere described the little funerary obelisks, the altar bases, |
718 | the
statues, and the tables of offerings found in tombs of the ancient empire.
These tables were made of alabaster and limestone during the Pyramid
period, of granite or red sandstone under the Theban kings, and of basalt
or serpentine from the time of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. But the fashions
were not canonical, all stones being found at all periods. Some offering-
tables are mere flat discs, or discs very slightly hollowed. Others are
rectangular, and are sculptured in relief with |
719 | a service of loaves, vases,
fruits, and quarters of beef and gazelle. In one instance--the offering-
table of Sitû--the libations, instead of running off, fell into a square
basin which is marked off in divisions, showing the height of the Nile at
the different seasons of the year in the reservoirs of Memphis; namely,
twenty-five cubits in summer during the inundation, twenty-three in autumn
and early winter, and twenty-two at the close of winter and in spring-time.
In these various p |
720 | atterns there was little beauty; yet one offering-table,
found at Sakkarah, is a real work of art. It is of alabaster. Two lions,
standing side by side, support a sloping, rectangular tablet, whence the
libation ran off by a small channel into a vase placed between the tails of
the lions. The alabaster geese found at Lisht are not without artistic
merit. They are cut length-wise down the middle, and hollowed out, in the
fashion of a box. Those which I have seen elsewhere, and, generall |
721 | y
speaking, all simulacra of offerings, as loaves, cakes, heads of oxen or
gazelles, bunches of black grapes, and the like, in carved and painted
limestone, are of doubtful taste and clumsy execution. They are not very
common, and I have met with them only in tombs of the Fifth and Twelfth
Dynasties. "Canopic" vases, on the contrary, were always carefully wrought.
They were generally made in two kinds of stone, limestone and alabaster;
but the heads which surmounted them were often of |
722 | painted wood. The canopic
vases of Pepi I. are of alabaster; and those of a king buried in the
southernmost pyramid at Lisht are also of alabaster, as are the human heads
upon the lids. One, indeed, is of such fine execution that I can only
compare it with that of the statue of Khafra. The most ancient funerary
statuettes yet found--those, namely, of the Eleventh Dynasty--are of
alabaster, like the canopic vases; but from the time of the Thirteenth
Dynasty, they were cut in compact l |
723 | imestone. The workmanship is very
unequal in quality. Some are real _chefs-d'oeuvre_, and reproduce the
physiognomy of the deceased as faithfully as a portrait statue. Lastly,
there are the perfume vases, which complete the list of objects found in
temples and tombs. The names of these vases are far from being
satisfactorily established, and most of the special designations furnished
in the texts remain as yet without equivalents in our language. The greater
number were of alabaster, |
724 | turned and polished. Some are heavy, and ugly
(fig. 215), while others are distinguished by an elegance and diversity of
form which do honour to the inventive talent of the craftsmen. Many are
spindle-shaped and pointed at the end (fig. 216), or round in the body,
narrow in the neck, and flat at the bottom (fig. 217).
[Illustration: Fig. 215.--Perfume vase, alabaster.]
[Illustration: Fig. 216.--Perfume vase, alabaster.]
[Illustration: Fig. 217.--Perfume vase, alabaster.]
They |
725 | are unornamented, except perhaps by two lotus-bud handles, or two
lions' heads, or perhaps a little female head just at the rise of the neck
(fig. 218). The smallest of these vases were not intended for liquids, but
for pomades, medicinal ointments, and salves made with honey. Some of the
more important series comprise large-bodied flasks, with an upright
cylindrical neck and a flat cover (fig. 219). In these, the Egyptians kept
the antimony powder with which they darkened their eyes |
726 | and eyebrows. The
Kohl-pot was a universal toilet requisite; perhaps the only one commonly
used by all classes of society. When designing it, the craftsman gave free
play to his fancy, borrowing forms of men, plants, and animals for its
adornment. Now it appears in the guise of a full-blown lotus; now it is a
hedgehog; a hawk; a monkey clasping a column to his breast, or climbing up
the side of a jar; a grotesque figure of the god Bes; a kneeling woman,
whose scooped-out body containe |
727 | d the powder; a young girl carrying a wine-
jar. Once started upon this path, the imagination of the artists knew no
limits. As for materials, everything was made to serve in turn--granite,
diorite, breccia, red jade, alabaster, and soft limestone, which lent
itself more readily to caprices of form; finally, a still more plastic and
facile substance--clay, painted and glazed.
[Ilustration: Fig. 218.--Perfume vase, alabaster.]
[Illustration: Fig. 219.--Vase for antimony powder.]
|
728 |
It was not for want of material that the art of modelling and baking clays
failed to be as fully developed in Egypt as in Greece, The valley of the
Nile is rich in a fine and ductile potter's clay, with which the happiest
results might have been achieved, had the native craftsman taken the
trouble to prepare it with due care. Metals and hard stone were, however,
always preferred for objects of luxury; the potter was fain, therefore, to
be content with supplying only the commonest need |
729 | s of household and daily
life. He was wont to take whatever clay happened to be nearest to the place
where he was working, and this clay was habitually badly washed, badly
kneaded, and fashioned with the finger upon a primitive wheel worked by the
hand. The firing was equally careless. Some pieces were barely heated at
all, and melted it they came into contact with water, while others were as
hard as tiles. All tombs of the ancient empire contain vases of a red or
yellow ware, often m |
730 | ixed, like the clay of bricks, with finely-chopped
straw or weeds. These are mostly large solid jars with oval bodies, short
necks, and wide mouths, but having neither foot nor handles. With them are
also found pipkins and pots, in which to store the dead man's provisions;
bowls more or less shallow; and flat plates, such as are still used by the
fellahin. The poorer folk sometimes buried miniature table and kitchen
services with their dead, as being less costly than full-sized vessels |
731 | . The
surface is seldom glazed, seldom smooth and lustrous; but is ordinarily
covered with a coat of whitish, unbaked paint, which scales off at a touch.
Upon this surface there is neither incised design, nor ornament in relief,
nor any kind of inscription, but merely some four or five parallel lines in
red, black, or yellow, round the neck.
[Illustration: Fig. 220.]
[Illustration: Fig. 221.]
[Illustration: Fig. 222.]
[Illustration: Fig. 223.]
The pottery of the earliest |
732 | Theban dynasties which I have collected at El
Khozam and Gebeleyn is more carefully wrought than the pottery of the
Memphite period. It may be classified under two heads. The first comprises
plain, smooth-bodied vases, black below and dark red above. On examining
this ware where broken, we see that the colour was mixed with the clay
during the kneading, and that the two zones were separately prepared,
roughly joined, and then uniformly glazed. The second class comprises vases
of vario |
733 | us and sometimes eccentric forms, moulded of red or tawny clay.
Some are large cylinders closed at one end; others are flat; others oblong
and boat-shaped; others, like cruets, joined together two and two, yet with
no channel of communication[56] (fig. 220). The ornamentation is carried
over the whole surface, and generally consists of straight parallel lines,
cross lines, zigzags, dotted lines, or small crosses and lines in
geometrical combination; all these patterns being in white wh |
734 | en the ground
is red, or in reddish brown when the ground is yellow or whitish. Now and
then we find figures of men and animals interspersed among the geometrical
combinations. The drawing is rude, almost childish; and it is difficult to
tell whether the subjects represent herds of antelopes or scenes of
gazelle-hunting. The craftsmen who produced these rude attempts were
nevertheless contemporary with the artists who decorated the rock-cut tombs
at Beni Hasan. As regards the period o |
735 | f Egypt's great military conquests,
the Theban tombs of that age have supplied objects enough to stock a museum
of pottery; but unfortunately the types are very uninteresting. To begin
with, we find hand-made sepulchral statuettes modelled in summary fashion
from an oblong lump of clay. A pinch of the craftsman's fingers brought out
the nose; two tiny knobs and two little stumps, separately modelled and
stuck on, represented the eyes and arms. The better sort of figures were
pressed i |
736 | n moulds of baked clay, of which several specimens have been
found. They were generally moulded in one piece; then lightly touched up;
then baked; and lastly, on coming out of the oven, were painted red,
yellow, or white, and inscribed with the pen. Some are of very good style,
and almost equal those made in limestone. The _ûshabtiû_ of the scribe
Hori, and those of the priest Horûta (Saïte) found at Hawara, show what the
Egyptians could have achieved in this branch of the art if they |
737 | had cared
to cultivate it. Funerary cones were objects purely devotional, and the
most consummate art could have done nothing to make them elegant. A
funerary cone consists of a long, conical mass of clay, stamped at the
larger end with a few rows of hieroglyphs stating the name, parentage, and
titles of the deceased, the whole surface being coated with a whitish wash.
These are simulacra of votive cakes intended for the eternal nourishment of
the Double. Many of the vases buried in t |
738 | ombs of this period are painted to
imitate alabaster, granite, basalt, bronze, and even gold; and were cheap
substitutes for those vases made in precious materials which wealthy
mourners were wont to lavish on their dead. Among those especially intended
to contain water or flowers, some are covered with designs drawn in red and
black (fig. 221), such as concentric lines and circles (fig. 222),
meanders, religious emblems (fig. 223), cross-lines resembling network,
festoons of flowers |
739 | and buds, and long leafy stems carried downward from
the neck to the body of the vase, and upward from the body of the vase to
the neck. Those in the tomb of Sennetmû were decorated on one side with a
large necklace, or collar, like the collars found upon mummies, painted in
very bright colours to simulate natural flowers or enamels. Canopic vases
in baked clay, though rarely met with under the Eighteenth Dynasty, became
more and more common as the prosperity of Thebes declined. The he |
740 | ads upon
the lids are for the most part prettily turned, especially the human
heads.[57] Modelled with the hand, scooped out to diminish the weight, and
then slowly baked, each was finally painted with the colours especially
pertaining to the genius whose head was represented. Towards the time of
the Twentieth Dynasty, it became customary to enclose the bodies of sacred
animals in vases of this type. Those found near Ekhmîm contain jackals and
hawks; those of Sakkarah are devoted to s |
741 | erpents, eggs, and mummified rats;
those of Abydos hold the sacred ibis. These last are by far the finest. On
the body of the vase, the protecting goddess Khûit is depicted with
outspread wings, while Horus and Thoth are seen presenting the bandage and
the unguent vase; the whole subject being painted in blue and red upon a
white ground. From the time of the Greek domination, the national poverty
being always on the increase, baked clay was much used for coffins as well
as for canopic |
742 | vases. In the Isthmus of Suez, at Ahnas el Medineh, in the
Fayûm, at Asûan, and in Nubia, we find whole cemeteries in which the
sarcophagi are made of baked clay. Some are like oblong boxes rounded at
each end, with a saddle-back lid. Some are in human form, but barbarous in
style, the heads being surmounted by a pudding-shaped imitation of the
ancient Egyptian head-dress, and the features indicated by two or three
strokes of the modelling tool or the thumb. Two little lumps of clay s |
743 | tuck
awkwardly upon the breast indicate the coffin of a woman. Even in these
last days of Egyptian civilisation, it was only the coarsest objects which
were left of the natural hue of the baked clay. As of old, the surfaces
were, as a rule, overlaid with a coat of colour, or with a richly gilded
glaze.
[Illustration: Fig. 224.--Glass-blowers from Twelfth
Dynasty tomb.]
[Illustration: Fig. 225.--Parti-coloured glass vase, inscribed Thothmes
III.]
[Illustration: Fig. 226.--Part |
744 | i-coloured glass vase.]
[Illustration: Fig. 227.--Parti-coloured glass vase.]
[Illustration: Fig. 228.--Parti-coloured glass goblets of Nesikhonsû.]
Glass was known to the Egyptians from the remotest period, and glass-
blowing is represented in tombs which date from some thousands of years
before our era (fig. 224). The craftsman, seated before the furnace, takes
up a small quantity of the fused substance upon the end of his cane and
blows it circumspectly, taking care to keep i |
745 | t in contact with the flame,
so that it may not harden during the operation. Chemical analysis shows the
constituent parts of Egyptian glass to have been nearly identical with our
own; but it contains, besides silex, lime, alumina, and soda, a relatively
large proportion of extraneous substances, as copper, oxide of iron, and
oxide of manganese, which they apparently knew not how to eliminate. Hence
Egyptian glass is scarcely ever colourless, but inclines to an uncertain
shade of yell |
746 | ow or green. Some ill-made pieces are so utterly decomposed
that they flake away, or fall to iridescent dust, at the lightest touch.
Others have suffered little from time or damp, but are streaky and full of
bubbles. A few are, however, perfectly homogenous and limpid. Colourless
glass was not esteemed by the Egyptians as it is by ourselves; whether
opaque or transparent, they preferred it coloured. The dyes were obtained
by mixing metallic oxides with the ordinary ingredients; that is |
747 | to say,
copper and cobalt for the blues, copperas for the greens, manganese for the
violets and browns, iron for the yellows, and lead or tin for the whites.
One variety of red contains 30 per cent of bronze, and becomes coated with
verdegris if exposed to damp. All this chemistry was empirical, and
acquired by instinct. Finding the necessary elements at hand, or being
supplied with them from a distance, they made use of them at hazard, and
without being too certain of obtaining the |
748 | effects they sought. Many of
their most harmonious combinations were due to accident, and they could not
reproduce them at will. The masses which they obtained by these
unscientific means were nevertheless of very considerable dimensions. The
classic authors tell of stelae, sarcophagi, and columns made in one piece.
Ordinarily, however, glass was used only for small objects, and, above all,
for counterfeiting precious stones. However cheaply they may have been sold
in the Egyptian mar |
749 | ket, these small objects were not accessible to all the
world. The glass-workers imitated the emerald, jasper, lapis lazuli, and
carnelian to such perfection that even now we are sometimes embarrassed to
distinguish the real stones from the false. The glass was pressed into
moulds made of stone or limestone cut to the forms required, as beads,
discs, rings, pendants, rods, and plaques covered with figures of men and
animals, gods and goddesses. Eyes and eyebrows for the faces of statue |
750 | s in
stone or bronze were likewise made of glass, as also bracelets. Glass was
inserted into the hollows of incised hieroglyphs, and hieroglyphs were also
cut out in glass. In this manner, whole inscriptions were composed, and let
into wood, stone, or metal. The two mummy-cases which enclosed the body of
Netemt, mother of the Pharaoh Herhor Seamen, are decorated in this style.
Except the headdress of the effigy and some minor details, these cases are
gilded all over; the texts and the |
751 | principal part of the ornamentation
being formed of glass enamels, which stand out in brilliant contrast with
the dead gold ground. Many Fayûm mummies were coated with plaster or
stucco, the texts and religious designs, which are generally painted, being
formed of glass enamels incrusted upon the surface of the plaster. Some of
the largest subjects are made of pieces of glass joined together and
retouched with the chisel, in imitation of bas-relief. Thus the face,
hands, and feet of |
752 | the goddess Ma are done in turquoise blue, her headdress
in dark blue, her feather in alternate stripes of blue and yellow, and her
raiment in deep red. Upon a wooden shrine recently discovered in the
neighbourhood of Daphnae,[58] and upon a fragment of mummy-case in the
Museum of Turin, the hieroglyphic forms of many-coloured glass are inlaid
upon the sombre ground of the wood, the general effect being inconceivably
rich and brilliant. Glass filigrees, engraved glass, cut glass, solde |
753 | red
glass, glass imitations of wood, of straw, and of string, were all known to
the Egyptians of old. I have under my hand at this present moment a square
rod formed of innumerable threads of coloured glass fused into one solid
body, which gives the royal oval of one of the Amenemhats at the part where
it is cut through. The design is carried through the whole length of the
rod, and wherever that rod may be cut, the royal oval reappears.[59] One
glass case in the Gizeh Museum is entir |
754 | ely stocked with small objects in
coloured glass. Here we see an ape on all fours, smelling some large fruit
which lies upon the ground; yonder, a woman's head, front face, upon a
white or green ground surrounded by a red border. Most of the plaques
represent only rosettes, stars, and single flowers or posies. One of the
smallest represents a black-and-white Apis walking, the work being so
delicate that it loses none of its effect under the magnifying glass. The
greater number of thes |
755 | e objects date from, and after, the first Saïte
dynasty; but excavations in Thebes and Tell el Amarna have proved that the
manufacture of coloured glass prevailed in Egypt earlier than the tenth
century before our era. At Kûrnet Murraee and Sheikh Abd el Gûrneh, there
have been found, not only amulets for the use of the dead, such as
colonnettes, hearts, mystic eyes, hippopotami walking erect, and ducks in
pairs, done in parti-coloured pastes, blue, red, and yellow, but also vases
of |
756 | a type which we have been accustomed to regard as of Phoenician and
Cypriote manufacture.[60] Here, for example, is a little aenochoe, of a
light blue semi-opaque glass (fig. 225); the inscription in the name of
Thothmes III., the ovals on the neck, and the palm-fronds on the body of
the vase being in yellow. Here again is a lenticular phial, three and a
quarter inches in height (fig. 226), the ground colour of a deep ocean
blue, admirably pure and intense, upon which a fern-leaf patte |
757 | rn in yellow
stands out both boldly and delicately. A yellow thread runs round the rim,
and two little handles of light green are attached to the neck. A miniature
amphora of the same height (fig. 227) is of a dark, semi-transparent olive
green. A zone of blue and yellow zigzags, bounded above and below by yellow
bands, encircles the body of the vase at the part of its largest
circumference. The handles are pale green, and the thread round the lip is
pale blue. Princess Nesikhonsû had |
758 | beside her, in the vault at Deir el
Baharî, some glass goblets of similar work. Seven were in whole colours,
light green and blue; four were of black glass spotted with white; one only
was decorated with many-coloured fronds arranged in two rows (fig. 228).
The national glass works were therefore in full operation during the time
of the great Theban dynasties. Huge piles of scoriae mixed with slag yet
mark the spot where their furnaces were stationed at Tell el Amarna, the
Ramesseum, |
759 | at El Kab, and at the Tell of Eshmûneyn.
[Illustration: Fig. 229.--Hippopotamus in blue glaze.]
[Illustration: Fig. 230.--Glazed ware from Thebes.]
[Illustration: Fig. 231.--Glazed ware from Thebes.]
The Egyptians also enamelled stone. One half at least of the scarabaei,
cylinders, and amulets contained in our museums are of limestone or schist,
covered with a coloured glaze. Doubtless the common clay seemed to them
inappropriate to this kind of decoration, for they substitut |
760 | ed in its place
various sorts of earth--some white and sandy; another sort brown and fine,
which they obtained by the pulverisation of a particular kind of limestone
found in the neighbourhood of Keneh, Luxor, and Asûan; and a third sort,
reddish in tone, and mixed with powdered sandstone and brick-dust. These
various substances are known by the equally inexact names of Egyptian
porcelain and Egyptian faïence. The oldest specimens, which are hardly
glazed at all, are coated with an ex |
761 | cessively thin slip. This vitreous
matter has, however, generally settled into the hollows of the hieroglyphs
or figures, where its lustre stands out in strong contrast with the dead
surface of the surrounding parts. The colour most frequently in use under
the ancient dynasties was green; but yellow, red, brown, violet, and blue
were not disdained.[61] Blue predominated in the Theban factories from the
earliest beginning of the Middle Empire. This blue was brilliant, yet
tender, in im |
762 | itation of turquoise or lapis lazuli. The Gizeh Museum
formerly contained three hippopotamuses of this shade, discovered in the
tomb of an Entef[62] at Drah Abû'l Neggeh[63] One was lying down, the two
others were standing in the marshes, their bodies being covered by the
potter with pen-and-ink sketches of reeds and lotus plants, amid which
hover birds and butterflies (fig. 229). This was his naïve way of depicting
the animal amid his natural surroundings. The blue is splendid, and we |
763 | must
overleap twenty centuries before we again find so pure a colour among the
funerary statuettes of Deir el Baharî. Green reappears under the Saïte
dynasties, but paler than that of more ancient times, and it prevailed in
the north of Egypt, at Memphis, Bubastis, and Sais, without entirely
banishing the blue. The other colours before mentioned were in current use
for not more than four or five centuries; that is to say, from the time of
Ahmes I. to the time of the Ramessides. It wa |
764 | s then, and only then, that
_ûshabtiû_ of white or red glaze, rosettes and lotus flowers in yellow,
red, and violet, and parti-coloured kohl-pots abounded. The potters of the
time of Amenhotep III. affected greys and violets. The olive-shaped amulets
which are inscribed with the names of this Pharaoh and the princesses of
his family are decorated with pale blue hieroglyphs upon a delicate mauve
ground. The vase of Queen Tii in the Gizeh collection is of grey and blue,
with ornaments i |
765 | n two colours round the neck. The fabrication of many-
coloured enamels seems to have attained its greatest development under
Khûenaten; at all events, it was at Tell el Amarna that I found the
brightest and most delicately fashioned specimens, such as yellow, green,
and violet rings, blue and white fleurettes, fish, lutes, figs, and bunches
of grapes.[64] One little statuette of Horus has a red face and a blue
body; a ring bezel bears the name of a king in violet upon a ground of
lig |
766 | ht blue. However restricted the space, the various colours are laid in
with so sure a hand that they never run one into the other, but stand out
separately and vividly. A vase to contain antimony powder, chased and
mounted on a pierced stand, is glazed with reddish brown (fig. 230).
Another, in the shape of a mitred hawk, is blue picked out with black
spots. It belonged of old to Ahmes I. A third, hollowed out of the body of
an energetic little hedgehog, is of a changeable green (fig. |
767 | 231). A
Pharaoh's head in dead blue wears a _klaft_[65] with dark-blue stripes.
[Illustration: Fig. 232.]
Fine as these pieces are, the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of the series is a statuette
of one Ptahmes, first Prophet of Amen, now in the Gizeh Museum. The
hieroglyphic inscriptions as well as the details of the mummy bandages are
chased in relief upon a white ground of admirable smoothness afterwards
filled in with enamel. The face and hands are of turquoise blue; the head-
dress is yell |
768 | ow, with violet stripes; the hieroglyphic characters of the
inscription, and the vulture with outspread wings upon the breast of the
figure, are also violet. The whole is delicate, brilliant, and harmonious;
not a flaw mars the purity of the contours or the clearness of the lines.
[Illustration: Fig. 233.--Interior decoration of cup, Eighteenth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 234.--Lenticular vase, glazed ware, Saïte.]
[Illustration: Fig. 235.--Chamber decorated with tiles in step |
769 | pyramid of
Sakkarah.]
Glazed pottery was common from the earliest times. Cups with a foot (fig.
232), blue bowls, rounded at the bottom and decorated in black ink with
mystic eyes, lotus flowers, fishes (fig. 233), and palm-leaves, date, as a
rule, from the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, or Twentieth Dynasties. Lenticular
ampullae coated with a greenish glaze, flanked by two crouching monkeys for
handles, decorated along the edge with pearl or egg-shaped ornaments, and
round the body with |
770 | elaborate collars (fig. 234), belong almost without
exception to the reigns of Apries and Amasis.[66] Sistrum handles, saucers,
drinking-cups in the form of a half-blown lotus, plates, dishes--in short,
all vessels in common use--were required to be not only easy to keep clean,
but pleasant to look upon. Did they carry their taste for enamelled ware so
far as to cover the walls of their houses with glazed tiles? Upon this
point we can pronounce neither affirmatively nor negatively; th |
771 | e few
examples of this kind of decoration which we possess being all from royal
buildings. Upon a yellow brick, we have the family name and _Ka_ name of
Pepi I.; upon a green brick, the name of Rameses III.; upon certain red and
white fragments, the names of Seti I. and Sheshonk.
[Illustration: Fig. 236.--Tile from step pyramid of Sakkarah.]
Up to the beginning of the present century, one of the chambers in the step
pyramid at Sakkarah yet retained its mural decoration of glazed w |
772 | are (fig.
235). For three-fourths of the wall-surface it was covered with green
tiles, oblong in shape, flat at the back, and slightly convex on the face
(fig. 236). A square tenon, pierced through with a hole large enough to
receive a wooden rod, served to fix them together in horizontal pyramid of
rows.[67] The three rows which frame in the doorway are inscribed with the
titles of an unclassed Pharaoh belonging to one of the first Memphite
dynasties. The hieroglyphs are relieved in |
773 | blue, red, green, and yellow,
upon a tawny ground. Twenty centuries later, Rameses III. originated a new
style at Tell el Yahûdeh. This time the question of ornamentation
concerned, not a single chamber, but a whole temple. The mass of the
building was of limestone and alabaster; but the pictorial subjects,
instead of being sculptured according to custom, were of a kind of mosaic
made with almost equal parts of stone tesserae and glazed ware.
[Illustration: Fig. 237.--Tile inlay, Te |
774 | ll el Yahûdeh.]
[Illustration: Fig. 238.--Tile inlay, Tell el Yahûdeh.]
[Illustration: Fig. 239.--Inlaid tiles, Tell el Yahûdeh.]
The most frequent item in the scheme of decoration was a roundel moulded of
a sandy frit coated with blue or grey slip, upon which is a cream-coloured
rosette (fig. 237). Some of these rosettes are framed in geometrical
designs (fig. 238) or spider-web patterns; some represent open flowers. The
central boss is in relief; the petals and tracery are enc |
775 | rusted in the
mass. These roundels, which are of various diameters ranging from three-
eighths of an inch to four inches, were fixed to the walls by means of a
very fine cement. They were used to form many different designs, as
scrolls, foliage, and parallel fillets, such as may be seen on the foot of
an altar and the base of a column preserved in the Gizeh Museum. The royal
ovals were mostly in one piece; so also were the figures. The details,
either incised or modelled upon the clay |
776 | before firing, were afterwards
painted with such colours as might be suitable. The lotus flowers and
leaves which were carried along the bottom of the walls or the length of
the cornices, were, on the contrary, made up of independent pieces; each
colour being a separate morsel cut to fit exactly into the pieces by which
it was surrounded (fig. 239). This temple was rifled at the beginning of
the present century, and some figures of prisoners brought thence have been
in the Louvre col |
777 | lection ever since the time of Champollion. All that
remained of the building and its decoration was demolished a few years ago
by certain dealers in antiquities, and the _débris_ are now dispersed in
all directions. Mariette, though with great difficulty, recovered some of
the more important fragments, such as the name of Rameses III., which dates
the building; some borderings of lotus flowers and birds with human hands
(fig. 240); and some heads of Asiatics and negro prisoners (fig. |
778 | 241).[68]
The destruction of this monument is the more grievous because the Egyptians
cannot have constructed many after the same type. Glazed bricks, painted
tiles, and enamelled mosaics are readily injured; and in the judgment of a
people enamoured of stability and eternity, that would be the gravest of
radical defects.
[Illustration: Fig. 240.--Relief tile, Tell el Yahûdeh.]
[Illustration: Fig. 241.--Relief tile, Tell el Yahûdeh.]
[55] Works on scarabaei are the Palin coll |
779 | ection, published in 1828; Mr.
Loftie's charming _Essay of Scarabs_, which is in fact a
catalogue of his own specimens, admirably illustrated from drawings by
Mr. W.M.F. Petrie; and Mr. Petrie's _Historical Scarabs_,
published 1889.--A.B.E.
[56] These twin vases are still made at Asûan. I bought a small specimen
there in 1874.--A.B.E.
[57] The sepulchral vases commonly called "canopic" were four in number,
and contained the embalmed viscera of the mummy. T |
780 | he lids of these
vases were fashioned to represent the heads of the four genii of
Amenti, Hapi, Tûatmûtf, Kebhsennef, and Amset; i.e. the
Ape-head, the Jackal-head, the Hawk-head, and the human head.--A.B.E.
[58] The remains of this shrine, together with many hundreds of beautiful
glass hieroglyphs, figures, emblems, etc., for inlaying, besides
moulds and other items of the glassworker's stock, were discovered by
Mr. F. Ll. Griffith at Tell Gemayemi, about eq |
781 | uidistant from the
mounds of Tanis and Daphnae (Sân and Defenneh) in March 1886. For a
fuller account see Mr. Griffith's report, "_The Antiquities of Tell
el Yahudîyeh," in Seventh Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund_.
--A.B.E.
[59] Some of these beautiful rods were also found at Tell Gemayemi by Mr.
F. Ll. Griffith, and in such sound condition that it was possible to
cut them in thin slices, for distribution among various museums.--
A.B.E.
[60] That |
782 | is, of the kind known as the "false murrhine."--A.B.E.
[61] The yellows and browns are frequently altered greens.--A.B.E.
[62] One of the Eleventh Dynasty kings.
[63] There is a fine specimen at the Louvre, and another in the museum at
Leydeu.--A.B.E.
[64] For an account of every stage and detail in the glass and glaze
manufactures of Tell el Amarna, see W.M.F. Petrie's _Tell el
Amarna_.
[65] _Klaft, i.e._, a headdress of folded linen. The beautiful
little |
783 | head here referred to is in the Gizeh Museum, and is a portrait
of the Pharaoh Necho.--A.B.E.
[66] _Apries_, in Egyptian "Uahabra," the biblical "Hophra;"
_Amasis_, Ahmes II.; both of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty.--A.B.E.
[67] Some specimens of these tiles may be seen in the Egyptian department
at the British Museum.--A.B.E.
2.--WOOD, IVORY, LEATHER, AND TEXTILE FABRICS.
[Illustration: Fig. 242.--Spoon.]
Objects in ivory, bone, and horn are among the rarities |
784 | of our museums; but
we must not for this reason conclude that the Egyptians did not make ample
use of those substances. Horn is perishable, and is eagerly devoured by
certain insects, which rapidly destroy it. Bone and ivory soon deteriorate
and become friable. The elephant was known to the Egyptians from the
remotest period. They may, perhaps, have found it inhabiting the Thebaid
when first they established themselves in that part of the Nile Valley, for
as early as the Fifth Dynast |
785 | y we find the pictured form of the elephant in
use as the hieroglyphic name of the island of Elephantine. Ivory in tusks
and half tusks was imported into Egypt from the regions of the Upper Nile.
It was sometimes dyed green or red, but was more generally left of its
natural colour. It was largely employed by cabinet makers for inlaying
furniture, as chairs, bedsteads, and coffers. Combs, dice, hair-pins,
toilette ornaments, delicately wrought spoons (fig. 242), Kohl bottles
hollowed o |
786 | ut of a miniature column surmounted by a capital, incense-burners
in the shape of a hand supporting a bronze cup in which the perfumes were
burned, and boomerangs engraved with figures of gods and fantastic animals,
were also made of ivory. Some of these objects are works of fine art; as
for instance at Gizeh, a poignard-handle in the form of a lion; the plaques
in bas-relief which adorn the draught-box of one Tûaï, who lived towards
the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty; a Fifth Dynasty |
787 | figure, unfortunately
mutilated, which yet retains traces of rose colour; and a miniature statue
of Abi, who died at the time of the Thirteenth Dynasty. This little
personage, perched on the top of a lotus-flower column, looks straight
before him with a majestic air which contrasts somewhat comically with the
size and prominence of his ears. The modelling of the figure is broad and
spirited, and will bear comparison with good Italian ivories of the
Renaissance period.
[Illustration |
788 | : Fig. 243.--Wooden statuette of officer, Eighteenth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 244.--Wooden statuette of priest, Eighteenth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 245.--Wooden statuette of the Lady Naï.]
Egypt produces few trees, and of these few the greater number are useless
to the sculptor. The two which most abound--namely, the date palm and the
dôm palm--are of too coarse a fibre for carving, and are too unequal in
texture. Some varieties of the sycamore and acacia are the only t |
789 | rees of
which the grain is sufficiently fine and manageable to be wrought with the
chisel. Wood was, nevertheless, a favourite material for cheap and rapid
work. It was even employed at times for subjects of importance, such as Ka
statues; and the Wooden Man of Gizeh shows with what boldness and amplitude
of style it could be treated. But the blocks and beams which the Egyptians
had at command were seldom large enough for a statue. The Wooden Man
himself, though but half life-size, co |
790 | nsists of a number of pieces held
together by square pegs. Hence, wood-carvers were wont to treat their
subjects upon such a scale as admitted of their being cut in one block, and
the statues of olden time became statuettes under the Theban dynasties. Art
lost nothing by the reduction, and more than one of these little figures is
comparable to the finest works of the ancient empire. The best, perhaps, is
at the Turin Museum, and dates from the Twentieth Dynasty. It represents a
young |
791 | girl whose only garment is a slender girdle. She is of that
indefinite age when the undeveloped form is almost as much like that of a
boy as of a girl. The expression of the head is gentle, yet saucy. It is,
in fact, across thirty centuries of time, a portrait of one of those
graceful little maidens of Elephantine, who, without immodesty or
embarrassment, walk unclothed in sight of strangers. Three little wooden
men in the Gizeh Museum are probably contemporaries of the Turin figure.
|
792 | They wear full dress, as, indeed, they should, for one was a king's
favourite named Hori, and surnamed Ra. They are walking with calm and
measured tread, the bust thrown forward, and the head high. The expression
upon their faces is knowing, and somewhat sly. An officer who has retired
on half-pay at the Louvre (fig. 243) wears an undress uniform of the time
of Amenhotep III.; that is to say, a small wig, a close-fitting vest with
short sleeves, and a kilt drawn tightly over the hips, |
793 | reaching scarcely
half-way down the thigh, and trimmed in front with a piece of puffing
plaited longwise. His companion is a priest (fig. 244), who wears his hair
in rows of little curls one above the other, and is clad in a long
petticoat falling below the calf of the leg and spreading out in front in a
kind of plaited apron. He holds a sacred standard consisting of a stout
staff surmounted by a ram's head crowned with the solar disc. Both officer
and priest are painted red brown, wi |
794 | th the exception of the hair, which is
black; the cornea of the eyes, which is white; and the standard, which is
yellow. Curiously enough, the little lady Naï, who inhabits the same glass
case, is also painted reddish brown, instead of buff, which was the
canonical colour for women (fig. 245). She is taken in a close-fitting
garment trimmed down the front with a band of white embroidery. Round her
neck she wears a necklace consisting of a triple row of gold pendants. Two
golden bracel |
795 | ets adorn her wrists, and on her head she carries a wig with
long curls. The right arm hangs by her side, the hand holding some object
now lost, which was probably a mirror. The left arm is raised, and with the
left hand she presses a lotus lily to her breast. The body is easy and well
formed, the figure indicates youth, the face is open, smiling, pleasant,
and somewhat plebeian. To modify the unwieldy mass of the headdress was
beyond the skill of the artist, but the bust is delicately |
796 | and elegantly
modelled, the clinging garment gives discreet emphasis to the shape, and
the action of the hand which holds the flower is rendered with grace and
naturalness. All these are portraits, and as the sitters were not persons
of august rank, we may conclude that they did not employ the most
fashionable artists. They, doubtless, had recourse to more unpretending
craftsmen; but that such craftsmen were thus highly trained in knowledge of
form and accuracy of execution, shows ho |
797 | w strongly even the artisan was
influenced by the great school of sculpture which then flourished at
Thebes.
This influence becomes even more apparent when we study the knick-knacks of
the toilet table, and such small objects as, properly speaking, come under
the head of furniture. To pass in review the hundred and one little
articles of female ornament or luxury to which the fancy of the designer
gave all kinds of ingenious and novel forms, would be no light task. The
handles of m |
798 | irrors, for instance, generally represented a stem of lotus or
papyrus surmounted by a full-blown flower, from the midst of which rose a
disk of polished metal. For this design is sometimes substituted the figure
of a young girl, either nude, or clad in a close-fitting garment, who holds
the mirror on her head. The tops of hair-pins were carved in the semblance
of a coiled serpent, or of the head of a jackal, a dog, or a hawk. The pin-
cushion in which they are placed is a hedgehog or |
799 | a tortoise, with holes
pierced in a formal pattern upon the back. The head-rests, which served for
pillows, were decorated with bas-reliefs of subjects derived from the myths
of Bes and Sekhet, the grimacing features of the former deity being carved
on the ends or on the base. But it is in the carving of perfume-spoons and
kohl-bottles that the inventive skill of the craftsman is most brilliantly
displayed.
[Illustration: Fig. 246.--Spoon.]
[Illustration: Fig. 247.--Spoon.]
[I |
800 | llustration: Fib. 248.--Spoon.]
[Illustration: Fig. 249.--Spoon.]
[Illustration: Fig. 250.--Spoon.]
[Illustration: Fig. 251.--Spoon.]
[Illustration: Fig. 252.--Spoon.]
[Illustration: Fig. 253.--Spoon.]
Not to soil their fingers the Egyptians made use of spoons for essences,
pomades, and the variously-coloured preparations with which both men and
women stained their cheeks, lips, eyelids, nails, and palms. The designer
generally borrowed his subjects from the fauna or flo |
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