Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/314

 224 ^ History of Art in Ancient Egypt. stones of which it was composed would seem to be especially well fitted for use in building" those great cities which, after the collapse of the ancient civilization, succeeded each other, under different names, in the neighbourhood of the Memphite necropolis. This casinof seems to have been made of more than one kind of stone, if we may believe an ancient text which has been interpreted by Letronne with the skill and sagacity of which he has given so many proofs.^ The author, named Philo, of a treatise upon the Seven Wonders of the World, tells us that the Egyptians employed upon this work " the most brilliant and varied stones, which were carefully fixed." He mentions as contributing to the splendid result white marble, basalt, porphyry, and a green breccia from Arabia, which must have been what is called verde antique. And as for his white marble, it must have been the white limestone from Mokattam, which, in its best strata, is almost as white and fine in grain as marble. Marble, properly speaking, was only introduced into Egypt by the Greeks, and that in very small quantities, for the use of sculptors. Philo says nothing of granite, but its use was so general that it must have found a place in the scheme of decoration.^ The various kinds of stone must have been so placed as to form zones, and perhaps patterns, of different colours, white, red, black, rose, green, and so on. To form an idea of the effect we must think of Giotto's campanile at Florence and various other Italian buildino-s of the same kind. It has been questioned whether the testimony of this Philo is to be depended upon, as few of those who have busied themselves with the pyramids seem to have laid much stress upon it. It seems to us to be worthy of great respect. We do not know ^ These observations are to be found in one of the early works of Letronne. Their presence is in no way hinted at by the title, which is : Recherches Geographiques et Critiques sur le Livre '■ De mensura orbis terrce^ (8vo. 1844). The treatise, Ilept TMv eiTTa Oeafidrow, may have been written either by Philo of Heraclea or Philo of Byzantium. They both belonged to the third century before our era, but the bombastic style and numerous errors incline us to believe that the little work must have been from the pen of some unknown rhetorician of a later date. 2 These are the words of Philo, which we have translated rather freely : — IIoi/ctAat 8e Kol 7rop(f)vpai Xl6wv (^j'crcts dA.A,r;A.ats €7ri8c8d/x€ra(., kol ra jxev kcmv y Trerpa XevKr, Kat liapfjiapLTYj';' rrj Se AWlottik-tj kol fxeXatva /cat /xera Tavrrjv 6 KaAoi'/x,0'Os aljxaTLTrjs XiOo^' etra ttoikiAos Kat Sta^^Xcopos airb ti}s Apa/3ta? KeKO/xtcr/xeVo?, p. 2,259? A.