DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0091
PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 71
the ancient Egyptian draughtsman. In the history of art, all
is blank between them. "We cannot measure the abyss of
time which separates the one from the other. We only know
that in the meanwhile there had been changes of many kinds
—upheavals and subsidences of land and water; disappear-
ances of certain forms of animal and vegetable life; and the
like. We do not know—we cannot even guess—how long it
had taken the ancient Eg\Tptian to work his way up from
primitive barbarism to that stage of advanced culture at which
he had arrived when we first make his acquaintance on his
native soil. This is about the time of the building of the
Great Pyramid, or nearly six thousand years ago, counting to
this year of grace, 1890. Already he was a consummate
builder, geometrician, and mathematician. Already he was
in possession of a religious literature of great antiquity. He
was master of a highly complicated system of writing; he
had carried the art of sculpture, in the most obdurate mate-
rials, to as high a degree of perfection as was possible with the
tools at his command; and he drew the human figure better
—far better—than he did in those later days when Herodo-
tus and Plato and Strabo visited the Valley of the Xile.
The earliest Egyptian paintings to which it is possible to
assign a date, are executed in tempera upon the Avails of cer-
tain tombs made for the noble personages who were contempo-
rary with King Khufu (better known as Cheops), the builder
of the Great Pyramid. In these paintings we see herdsmen
driving herds of goats, oxen, and asses ; vintagers working the
wine-press; scenes of ploughing, feasting, dancing, boating,
and so forth. There is no attempt at scener\T or background.
The heads are given in profile, but the eyes are given as if
seen frontwise.
The head being in profile, one would expect to see the
body in profile; but this was not in accordance with ancient
Egyptian notions. The artist desired to make as much of
his sitter as possible—to give him full credit for the breadth
of his chest and the width of his shoulders, and to show that
he had the customary allowance of arms and legs; so he
the ancient Egyptian draughtsman. In the history of art, all
is blank between them. "We cannot measure the abyss of
time which separates the one from the other. We only know
that in the meanwhile there had been changes of many kinds
—upheavals and subsidences of land and water; disappear-
ances of certain forms of animal and vegetable life; and the
like. We do not know—we cannot even guess—how long it
had taken the ancient Eg\Tptian to work his way up from
primitive barbarism to that stage of advanced culture at which
he had arrived when we first make his acquaintance on his
native soil. This is about the time of the building of the
Great Pyramid, or nearly six thousand years ago, counting to
this year of grace, 1890. Already he was a consummate
builder, geometrician, and mathematician. Already he was
in possession of a religious literature of great antiquity. He
was master of a highly complicated system of writing; he
had carried the art of sculpture, in the most obdurate mate-
rials, to as high a degree of perfection as was possible with the
tools at his command; and he drew the human figure better
—far better—than he did in those later days when Herodo-
tus and Plato and Strabo visited the Valley of the Xile.
The earliest Egyptian paintings to which it is possible to
assign a date, are executed in tempera upon the Avails of cer-
tain tombs made for the noble personages who were contempo-
rary with King Khufu (better known as Cheops), the builder
of the Great Pyramid. In these paintings we see herdsmen
driving herds of goats, oxen, and asses ; vintagers working the
wine-press; scenes of ploughing, feasting, dancing, boating,
and so forth. There is no attempt at scener\T or background.
The heads are given in profile, but the eyes are given as if
seen frontwise.
The head being in profile, one would expect to see the
body in profile; but this was not in accordance with ancient
Egyptian notions. The artist desired to make as much of
his sitter as possible—to give him full credit for the breadth
of his chest and the width of his shoulders, and to show that
he had the customary allowance of arms and legs; so he