Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/176

 1=^2 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. lintels without it.^ It first appears at about the time of the twelfth dynasty, according to Mariette, but its form was at first more simple. There were no 2trcEi, and the wings were shorter, and pendent instead of outstretched.- Towards the eighteenth dynasty it took the shape in which it is figured in our illustrations, and became thenceforward the Egyptian symbol /^r excellence. In the more richly decorated buildings, such as the Ramesseum, we sometimes find cartouches introduced between the vertical grooves of the cornice (Fig. 135). In the representations of architecture on the painted walls the upper member of the cornice as usually constituted, is often surmounted by an ornament composed of the ur^us and the solar disk, the latter being upon the head of the former (Fig. 136). This addition gives a richer I'lG. 135. — Cornice of the Ramesseum. Description, ii. 30. Fig. 136. — Cornice of a ooden pavilion ; from Prisse. and more ample cornice, which the Ptolemaic architects carried out in stone. It is not to be found thus perpetuated in any Pharaonic building, but the same motive occurs at Thebes, below the cornice, and its existence in the bas-reliefs shows that even in early times it was sometimes used. Perhaps it was confined to those light structures in which complicated forms were easily carried out. This cornice seemed to the Egyptians to be so entirely the proper termination for their rising surfaces, that they placed it at 1 The history and signification of this symbol were treated by Brugsch in a paper entitled : ''Die Sa^i^^e von der gefliigelten Sonneiischeibe nach alt yEgyptischen Quellen da7s;esti'Ilt." '^ In this restricted and comparatively mean form the emblem in question is found at Ikni-Hassan. (Lepsius, Denki/iukr, part ii. pi. 123.)
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