DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0075
BAKUAUAlt AND MKMPIITS.
57
colors
coloring, however, is purely decorative; and, being laid on
in single tints, with no attempt at gradation or shading,
conceals rather than enhances the beauty of the sculp-
tures. These, indeed, are best seen where the color is en-
tirely rubbed off. The tints are yet quite brilliant in parts
of the larger chamber; but in the passage and court-yard,
which have been excavated only a few years and are with
difficulty kept clear from day to day, there is not a vestige
of color left. This is the work of the sand—that patient
laborer whose office it is not only to preserve but to destroy.
The sand secretes and preserves the work of the sculptor,
but it effaces the work of the painter. In sheltered places
where it accumulates passively like a snow-drift, it brings
away only the surface detail, leaving the under
rubbed and dim. But nothing, as I
bad occasion constantly to remark in
the course of the journey, removes
color so effectually as sand •which is
exposed to the shifting action of the
wind.
This tomb, as we have seen, con-
sists of a portico, a court-yard, two
chambers, and a sepulchral vault;
but it also contains a secret passage
of the kind known as a "serdab."
These " serdabs," which are con-
structed in the thickness of the walls and have no
entrances, seem to be peculiar to tombs of the ancient em-
pire (i.e. the period of the pyramid kings); and they contain
statues of the deceased of all sizes, in wood, lime-stone,
and granite. Twenty statues of Ti were here found im-
mured in the "serdab" of his tomb, all broken save one—a
spirited figure in lime-stone, standing about seven feet high,
and now in the museum at Boulak. This statue represents a
fine young man in a white tunic, and is evidently a portrait.
The features are regular; the expression is good-natured;
the whole tournure of the head is more Greek than Egyp-
tian. The flesh is painted of a yellowish brick tint, and
the figure stands in the usual hieratic attitude, with the
left leg advanced, the hands clenched, and the arms
straightened close to the sides. One seems to know Ti so
well after seeing the wonderful pictures in his tomb, that
HEAD OF TI.
57
colors
coloring, however, is purely decorative; and, being laid on
in single tints, with no attempt at gradation or shading,
conceals rather than enhances the beauty of the sculp-
tures. These, indeed, are best seen where the color is en-
tirely rubbed off. The tints are yet quite brilliant in parts
of the larger chamber; but in the passage and court-yard,
which have been excavated only a few years and are with
difficulty kept clear from day to day, there is not a vestige
of color left. This is the work of the sand—that patient
laborer whose office it is not only to preserve but to destroy.
The sand secretes and preserves the work of the sculptor,
but it effaces the work of the painter. In sheltered places
where it accumulates passively like a snow-drift, it brings
away only the surface detail, leaving the under
rubbed and dim. But nothing, as I
bad occasion constantly to remark in
the course of the journey, removes
color so effectually as sand •which is
exposed to the shifting action of the
wind.
This tomb, as we have seen, con-
sists of a portico, a court-yard, two
chambers, and a sepulchral vault;
but it also contains a secret passage
of the kind known as a "serdab."
These " serdabs," which are con-
structed in the thickness of the walls and have no
entrances, seem to be peculiar to tombs of the ancient em-
pire (i.e. the period of the pyramid kings); and they contain
statues of the deceased of all sizes, in wood, lime-stone,
and granite. Twenty statues of Ti were here found im-
mured in the "serdab" of his tomb, all broken save one—a
spirited figure in lime-stone, standing about seven feet high,
and now in the museum at Boulak. This statue represents a
fine young man in a white tunic, and is evidently a portrait.
The features are regular; the expression is good-natured;
the whole tournure of the head is more Greek than Egyp-
tian. The flesh is painted of a yellowish brick tint, and
the figure stands in the usual hieratic attitude, with the
left leg advanced, the hands clenched, and the arms
straightened close to the sides. One seems to know Ti so
well after seeing the wonderful pictures in his tomb, that
HEAD OF TI.