Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/388

 356 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. Side by side with the paintings which deal with Hving form we find those painted ornaments which cover with their varied tints all the surfaces which are not occupied by the figure. This system of ornament went through a continual process of enrichment and complication. Its appearance in the early centuries is well shown in our two Plates, III. and IV. ; the first shows the upper, the second the lower part of the western wall in the tomb of Ptah- hotep at Sakkarah. They confirm the ideas of Semper as to the origin of ornament.^ That writer was the first to show that the basket-maker, the weaver, and the potter, originated by the mere play of their busy hands and implements those combinations of line and colour which the ornamentist turned to his own use when he had to decorate walls, cornices, and ceilings. The industries we have named are certainly older than the art of decoration, and ^f^w^T^ ^n ^ ^- j K c=-j n »r^^^sg J'lG. 282. — Vultures on a ceiling. the forms used by the latter can hardly have been transferred from it to mats, woven stuffs, and earthen vessels. In the regularity with which the lines and colours of early decoration are repeated it is easy to recognize the enforced arrangement of rushes, reeds, and flaxen threads, while chevrons and concentric circles are the obvious descendants of the marks traced by the finger or rude implement of the potter upon the soft clay. In these examples the intentions of the decorator are easily grasped. He has begun with a ground of rush- work, like that which is also found in the tomb of Ti.- In the compartments ^ Semper (G.), Der Stilin den Technischen und Tektonischen Kmisiefi, oder Praktische Aisthetik. Munich, 1860-3, 2 vols. 8vo, with 22 plates, some coloured, and numerous engravings in the text. ^ Prissk, Histoire de rA?i Egyptien. text, p. 418.