DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0107
PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 87
if the native Sardinian troops were officered at that time by
Semites. In the foregoing head, as in the heads of all the
Sardinian body-guard of Rameses II. in the great Abu-Sim-
bel tableau, we have, at all events, a purely European type;
and this type, it is to be remem-
bered, dates from about eighty
years earlier than the sculptures
of Medinet-Habu.
We will now pass on to
Greece. As it has already been
said, the only specimens of the
graphic arts of Greece which
time has spared are found on
■ , -i ,, ■• i r • GREEK CHARIOTEER.
painted vases, the earliest being
,, ,, , ., TT . ,, From a " prc-Homcric" vase.
the so-called "pre-Homeric
vases of Athens, which cannot
be less ancient than 1000 b.c, and ma}' be yet older. The
designs are absurdly archaic; but they at all events show us
how barbarous were the beginnings of Greek art when iso-
lated from foreign influences.
Here we have an example of the earliest Greek draughts-
manship which has come down to our time. The subject is
taken from a " pre-Homeric" vase figured in Woltmann's
History of Painting, vol. i. The subject is a charioteer driv-
ing a pair of animals, which may be horses, or giraffes, or
both. The early Greek had, of course, no notion of perspec-
tive ; therefore the chariot-wheels, though intended to be one
on each side of the chariot, are placed in line. Xeither have
the chariot-pole and wheels any connection with the body of
the chariot. As for the expressive countenance and classic
draperies of the noble Athenian, it need scarcely be point-
ed out that they are immeasurably inferior to the poorest
known specimens of Egyptian figure-drawing, being paral-
leled only by the dot-and-line performances of our childhood.
The following funerary scene is also from a vase of pre-
Homeric type, of which an illustration is given in Collig-
non's Arcli'eologic Grecque. In the figure-drawing of this
if the native Sardinian troops were officered at that time by
Semites. In the foregoing head, as in the heads of all the
Sardinian body-guard of Rameses II. in the great Abu-Sim-
bel tableau, we have, at all events, a purely European type;
and this type, it is to be remem-
bered, dates from about eighty
years earlier than the sculptures
of Medinet-Habu.
We will now pass on to
Greece. As it has already been
said, the only specimens of the
graphic arts of Greece which
time has spared are found on
■ , -i ,, ■• i r • GREEK CHARIOTEER.
painted vases, the earliest being
,, ,, , ., TT . ,, From a " prc-Homcric" vase.
the so-called "pre-Homeric
vases of Athens, which cannot
be less ancient than 1000 b.c, and ma}' be yet older. The
designs are absurdly archaic; but they at all events show us
how barbarous were the beginnings of Greek art when iso-
lated from foreign influences.
Here we have an example of the earliest Greek draughts-
manship which has come down to our time. The subject is
taken from a " pre-Homeric" vase figured in Woltmann's
History of Painting, vol. i. The subject is a charioteer driv-
ing a pair of animals, which may be horses, or giraffes, or
both. The early Greek had, of course, no notion of perspec-
tive ; therefore the chariot-wheels, though intended to be one
on each side of the chariot, are placed in line. Xeither have
the chariot-pole and wheels any connection with the body of
the chariot. As for the expressive countenance and classic
draperies of the noble Athenian, it need scarcely be point-
ed out that they are immeasurably inferior to the poorest
known specimens of Egyptian figure-drawing, being paral-
leled only by the dot-and-line performances of our childhood.
The following funerary scene is also from a vase of pre-
Homeric type, of which an illustration is given in Collig-
non's Arcli'eologic Grecque. In the figure-drawing of this