Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/370

 22S A History of Art in Axciext Eovrr, vD J We find, too, that in pictures in which people of different races are brought together, the artist employs different tones to mark their varied hues. In a tomb at Abd-el-Gouriiah, in which the construction of a building is represented, the workmen, who are doubtless slaves or prisoners of war, have not all skins of one colour ; some are light yellow, some light red, while others are reddish-brown. We are led to believe that this is not merely the result of caprice on the part of the painter, by the fact that the men with the light yellow skin seem to have more hair on their chests and chins than the others. They come, no doubt, from northern latitudes, whose inhabitants are more hairy than the southerners.^ The negroes are made absolutely black, ^ the Ethiopians very dark brown. -'^ But although the Egyptian painter made no attempt to imitate the hues of nature in their infinite variety, we find a curious effort in certain Theban paintings to reproduce one of those modifications of local tone which were to attract so many artists of later times. The flesh tints are brown where they are uncovered, and light yellow where they are veiled ; the painter thus attempting to show the warm skin shining through the semi-transparence of fine linen,'* This is, however, but an isolated attempt, and it does not affect the truth of our description of Egyptian painting, and of its conventional methods of usinof colour. The observations we have made apply equally justly to coloured bas-reliefs and to paintings properly speaking. The latter are only found in the tombs. In the temples the figures which compose the decoration are always engraved upon the walls in some fashion before they are touched with colour, and the office of the painter was restricted to filling in the prepared outlines with colour. It is the same, as a rule, with the steles ; but a few exist upon which the painter has had the field to himself. The papyri, too, were illustrated by the artist in colour. Those elaborate examples of the Ritual of the Dead, which come from the tombs of princes and of rich subjects, are full of carefully executed vignettes (Eigs. 97 and 184, Vol. I.). . It is easy to understand why the painter reserved himself for 1 Lepsius, Denkmceler, part iii. pi. 40, cf. pi. 116. - Ibid. pi. 117. ^ See the Ethiopians in the painting from the tomb of Rekmara, which is re])roduced.in Wilkinson, vol. i. plate 2. Lepsius, Denkmcrlei; part iii. pi. 216.