Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/373

 The Tomb under the New Empire. 283 laid flat upon the carefully-prepared surfaces of white stucco. In these sealed-up caverns, in which the air is constantly warm and dry, the pictures have preserved their freshness of tint in the most startling fashion. And to obtain all this harmonious effect no light but an artificial one was available. It was by the smoky glare of torches, or by the flickering flame of little terra-cotta lamps, suspended from the roof by metal threads, that the patient artists of Egypt drew these masterly contours, and elaborated the exquisite harmony of their colour compositions. Egyptian art Fig. 181. — The smaller sarcophagus-chamber in the tomb of Rameses VI. (From Horeau, pi. 21.) ^ never reached greater perfection than in these characteristic productions of its genius, and yet no human eye was to enjoy them after that day upon which the final touch was to be given to their beauties, upon which they were to be inclosed in a night which, it was hoped, would be eternal. But yet all this work was not labour lost. These pictures, in which the details change continually from one tomb* to another, were all inspired by a single desire, and all tended to the same 1 Panorama de PEgypte et de la Nubie, folio.