DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69400#0041
HIS WORK
25
we find pathos, despair, and that silent grief
which “whispers to the o’er-fraught heart and
bids it break.”
We enter a great Egyptian temple where
darkness and gloom, oppressive in their in-
tensity, are only relieved by the gleam of moon-
light seen through a distant doorway, and by
a single lamp which makes the surrounding
shadows more deep. In the foreground is a
pillar with hieroglyphics inscribed upon it, its
capital lost in the darkness gives a strange sense
of awe, but the pervading influence, the power
of the scene, is the apprehension of death which
seems to rest over the mighty columns, which
fills the great temple, which bows to the earth
Pharaoh himself, for it is his first-born who lies
dead before him. Priests and musicians are
gathered round lamps standing on the floor.
The priests are chanting their prayers, and the
musicians are touching strange-looking instru-
ments. The entire effect is gloomy and awe-
inspiring in the extreme. The colouring is
sombre with its inimitable use of greens and
browns. The surroundings fitly prepare us for
the central group of four persons who cluster
round the figure of the desolate king. It is one
of the extraordinary effects of this picture that
25
we find pathos, despair, and that silent grief
which “whispers to the o’er-fraught heart and
bids it break.”
We enter a great Egyptian temple where
darkness and gloom, oppressive in their in-
tensity, are only relieved by the gleam of moon-
light seen through a distant doorway, and by
a single lamp which makes the surrounding
shadows more deep. In the foreground is a
pillar with hieroglyphics inscribed upon it, its
capital lost in the darkness gives a strange sense
of awe, but the pervading influence, the power
of the scene, is the apprehension of death which
seems to rest over the mighty columns, which
fills the great temple, which bows to the earth
Pharaoh himself, for it is his first-born who lies
dead before him. Priests and musicians are
gathered round lamps standing on the floor.
The priests are chanting their prayers, and the
musicians are touching strange-looking instru-
ments. The entire effect is gloomy and awe-
inspiring in the extreme. The colouring is
sombre with its inimitable use of greens and
browns. The surroundings fitly prepare us for
the central group of four persons who cluster
round the figure of the desolate king. It is one
of the extraordinary effects of this picture that