Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/27

 Egvftiax Plans. system is easily seen. Unless he had placed his trees in the fashion shown in the cut, he would not have been able to give a true idea of their number and of the shade which they were calculated to afford. The process which we have just described is the dominant process in Egyptian figuration. Here and there, as in Fig. i, it is combined with the vertical section. This combination is conspicuous in the plan found at Tell-el-Amarna, from which we have restored the larger of the two villas which we illustrate farther on. In this plan, as in the case of the Theban house figured on page 3. the artist has been careful to shovv that m Ml**^ i Fig. 3. — Egyptiau plan of a villa ; from Wilkinion, vol. i. p. 377. there was no want of provision in the house ; the wall of the store-room is omitted, and the interior, with its rows of amphorae, is thrown open to our inspection. No scale is given in any of these plans, so that we are unable to determine either the extent of ground occupied by the build- ings and their annexes, or their absolute height. But spaces and heights seem to have been kept in just proportion. The Egyptian draughtsman was prepared for the execution of such a task by education and the traditions of his art, and his eye seems to have been trustworthy. Accustomed as we are to accuracy and exactitude in such matters, these Egvptian plans disconcert us at first by their