Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/121

 The Egyptian Orders. 99 their vertical section ofters curvilinear forms, and they are pro- vided with capitals. Singularly enough, they are so far from being a development from the pier that they do not even distantly resemble it. They may fairly be compared, however, with a type of column which we have already noticed in speaking of the ephemeral wooden or metal architecture whose forms have been preserved for us in the bas-reliefs of the Ancient Empire (see Fig. 54).^ The shaft is formed of four bold vertical ribs, cruciform in plan, and bound together at the top by narrow fillets. The re-entering angles between the ribs are deep. The horizontal section of the capital is similar to that of the shaft, from which it seems to burst ; T////////y;f.y/////:y^/yy Fig. 76. — Column from Beni-IIa<^an ; from Lepsius. it then gradually tapers to the top, where it meets the usual quadrangular abacus (Fig. 76). If four stems of lotus, each ending in an unopened bud, be tied together immediately beneath the point where the stem joins the. bud, something bearing a rude resemblance to this column will be formed, and to the imitation of such a faggot its origin has often ^ Mariette has shown this clearly in his Voyage dans la Hante-Egypie (p. 52). " This light column or shaft was not abandoned, it reappeared in stone .... it reappeared to give birth to the great faggot-shaped column which rivalled the pier in size, solidity, and weight. This column, with its capital in the shape of a lotus-bud or flower, is seen in its full development at Kamak. at Luxor, and in the first temple of the New Empire."