DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3720#0230
COLOURED HIEROGLYPHS. 213
On the same principle wooden objects were coloured yellow
plants and bronze objects, green; edifices, temples, &c, blue
objects of earthenware, red; and iron the same colour
glass, blue, with red below, to show the liquid it con-
tained. But on the coffins and tablets the colouring is by no
means so regular. Sometimes the garments are all green, and
at others a kind of confusion of colours takes place, all colours
being indifferently applied to the objects.1 Oa certain tablets
and other objects on which the hieroglyphs were executed in
less detail, the second manner was used, as on a tablet of the
twelfth dynasty;2 on another of the thirteenth dynasty, they
are green;:l and. on a third of the nineteenth dynast}r,
yellow.4
The beautiful appearance which the tombs presented, and the
gay and artistic effect produced by lines of pure hieroglyphs,
appropriately coloured with simple colour, to imitate the objects
they represent, will be admirably seen in the plate M. Lepsius
Las given of part of the tomb, now at Berlin, of Mer,5 a
prince, son of Cheops. Alphabetic writing, compared with it, is
as mean and tasteless as the Frank dress compared with the
Oriental costume. A style fainter in its tone will be seen0
on another tomb ; others at Ibsamobul show the style of colour
prevalent during the nineteenth dynasty. This forms the
class called by Champollion pure hieroglyphics. It is evident,
that so elaborate a system of writing was not calculated for
monuments, unless they were of the greatest importance, as
they are a series of small illuminations. Consequently, for the
books or rolls of papyri and other objects, such as sarcophagi
and tablets, another kind of hieroglyphs, to which the term
» Grammaire Egyptienne, fo. Paris, 1836, p. V.
S Sharpe, Eg. Inscr. PI. 7. 3 lb. 15. • lb. 1.
5 Lepsius, Denkmiiler, Abtk. ii. Bl. 19, 20. ° lb. Bl. 90.
On the same principle wooden objects were coloured yellow
plants and bronze objects, green; edifices, temples, &c, blue
objects of earthenware, red; and iron the same colour
glass, blue, with red below, to show the liquid it con-
tained. But on the coffins and tablets the colouring is by no
means so regular. Sometimes the garments are all green, and
at others a kind of confusion of colours takes place, all colours
being indifferently applied to the objects.1 Oa certain tablets
and other objects on which the hieroglyphs were executed in
less detail, the second manner was used, as on a tablet of the
twelfth dynasty;2 on another of the thirteenth dynasty, they
are green;:l and. on a third of the nineteenth dynast}r,
yellow.4
The beautiful appearance which the tombs presented, and the
gay and artistic effect produced by lines of pure hieroglyphs,
appropriately coloured with simple colour, to imitate the objects
they represent, will be admirably seen in the plate M. Lepsius
Las given of part of the tomb, now at Berlin, of Mer,5 a
prince, son of Cheops. Alphabetic writing, compared with it, is
as mean and tasteless as the Frank dress compared with the
Oriental costume. A style fainter in its tone will be seen0
on another tomb ; others at Ibsamobul show the style of colour
prevalent during the nineteenth dynasty. This forms the
class called by Champollion pure hieroglyphics. It is evident,
that so elaborate a system of writing was not calculated for
monuments, unless they were of the greatest importance, as
they are a series of small illuminations. Consequently, for the
books or rolls of papyri and other objects, such as sarcophagi
and tablets, another kind of hieroglyphs, to which the term
» Grammaire Egyptienne, fo. Paris, 1836, p. V.
S Sharpe, Eg. Inscr. PI. 7. 3 lb. 15. • lb. 1.
5 Lepsius, Denkmiiler, Abtk. ii. Bl. 19, 20. ° lb. Bl. 90.