DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0064
32 EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE.
of a very detailed written story, lacking in poetry of form. It is most evident,
that the sculptor did not intend to present graceful and ideal scenes, but
simply strove to make vivid what he daily witnessed, arranging his matter
according to the horizontal and perpendicular lines of the writing. The dread
of destruction of these reliefs doubtless influenced the Egyptian to make
them very low ; and, although architectural harmony of effect was thus secured,
the sculptures necessarily received a sketchy and summary treatment. To
make more emphatic the relief, the artist had recourse to various expedients.
Did he wish to indicate projecting eyebrows, he prolonged them in a slightly
raised line to the car; did he wish to indicate the arm across the chest, he
separated it by two depressions in the body, following the outline of the arm ;
and, finally, what sculpture could not represent, he brought out by color.6?
In executing this multitude of scenes, as we learn from an unfinished tomb
removed to Berlin by Lepsius, the surface to be worked up was first covered
by regular squares in red. In these a scribe sketched in red ochre a few out-
lines of the subjects to be represented. This drawing was then filled out by
an inferior workman, still in red. A more skilful hand then passed over it with
black, correcting any errors, thus preparing it for the sculptor's chisel. Finally,
painting came to complete the work ; the most conspicuous tints being black,
reddish brown, pale brown, yellow, light and dark blue, and green, the parts
intended to be white being left the natural color of the stone. Women, if
Egyptians, always have, as the fairer sex, pale-yellow complexions, and men a
heavier reddish-brown skin. Metals receive also conventional colors, iron
being blue, bronze yellow or red : wood is brown, and, when in logs, a greenish
gray. Animals receive more natural colors ; cows, calves, and asses being rep-
resented as black, brown, and dappled. How cheery must have been the im-
pression on the visitor of the chapels, made by all these familiar scenes so
gayly and harmoniously colored !
Artistic representations of the gods are wanting in the tombs of the Mem-
phitic period, although the names of all the gods worshipped in later times are
met with in the inscriptions of this oldest period.6S But, though not pictured
in the tombs, hybrid forms of the gods existed even then ; as we know from one
of the most ancient reliefs extant, discovered on the peninsula of Sinai/"'
That being a region rich in mines of copper and turquoise, the Egyptian mon-
archs, at different times, sent thither their armies to conquer the opposing
Asiatics. The tradition was, that the precious minerals in this valley owed
their discovery to an inscription written in the rock, not by the hand of man,
but by the god Thoth himself, — the scribe of the gods and the inventor of
many useful arts and sciences, such as speech, writing, music, and astronomy.
This ancient relief at Sinai (Fig. 15) commemorates the bravery of the great
Cheops (Khoofoo of the Fourth Dynasty), and represents the monarch as attack-
ing a fallen Asiatic in the presence of the god Thoth, who has the head of an
of a very detailed written story, lacking in poetry of form. It is most evident,
that the sculptor did not intend to present graceful and ideal scenes, but
simply strove to make vivid what he daily witnessed, arranging his matter
according to the horizontal and perpendicular lines of the writing. The dread
of destruction of these reliefs doubtless influenced the Egyptian to make
them very low ; and, although architectural harmony of effect was thus secured,
the sculptures necessarily received a sketchy and summary treatment. To
make more emphatic the relief, the artist had recourse to various expedients.
Did he wish to indicate projecting eyebrows, he prolonged them in a slightly
raised line to the car; did he wish to indicate the arm across the chest, he
separated it by two depressions in the body, following the outline of the arm ;
and, finally, what sculpture could not represent, he brought out by color.6?
In executing this multitude of scenes, as we learn from an unfinished tomb
removed to Berlin by Lepsius, the surface to be worked up was first covered
by regular squares in red. In these a scribe sketched in red ochre a few out-
lines of the subjects to be represented. This drawing was then filled out by
an inferior workman, still in red. A more skilful hand then passed over it with
black, correcting any errors, thus preparing it for the sculptor's chisel. Finally,
painting came to complete the work ; the most conspicuous tints being black,
reddish brown, pale brown, yellow, light and dark blue, and green, the parts
intended to be white being left the natural color of the stone. Women, if
Egyptians, always have, as the fairer sex, pale-yellow complexions, and men a
heavier reddish-brown skin. Metals receive also conventional colors, iron
being blue, bronze yellow or red : wood is brown, and, when in logs, a greenish
gray. Animals receive more natural colors ; cows, calves, and asses being rep-
resented as black, brown, and dappled. How cheery must have been the im-
pression on the visitor of the chapels, made by all these familiar scenes so
gayly and harmoniously colored !
Artistic representations of the gods are wanting in the tombs of the Mem-
phitic period, although the names of all the gods worshipped in later times are
met with in the inscriptions of this oldest period.6S But, though not pictured
in the tombs, hybrid forms of the gods existed even then ; as we know from one
of the most ancient reliefs extant, discovered on the peninsula of Sinai/"'
That being a region rich in mines of copper and turquoise, the Egyptian mon-
archs, at different times, sent thither their armies to conquer the opposing
Asiatics. The tradition was, that the precious minerals in this valley owed
their discovery to an inscription written in the rock, not by the hand of man,
but by the god Thoth himself, — the scribe of the gods and the inventor of
many useful arts and sciences, such as speech, writing, music, and astronomy.
This ancient relief at Sinai (Fig. 15) commemorates the bravery of the great
Cheops (Khoofoo of the Fourth Dynasty), and represents the monarch as attack-
ing a fallen Asiatic in the presence of the god Thoth, who has the head of an