Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/346

 316 Painting in Egypt. wander if they became too enamoured of it for its own sake." Fixed rules were laid down for them : the glory of the reigning monarch had to be perpetuated, and it was done in the same way generation after generation. What the Egyptian artist had to do he did well, and we can not but admire the ingenuity with which he showed as much as possible in one picture, and, although trammelled by ab- surd conventional rules, made a really picturesque effect. Egyptian paintings must, in fact, be looked upon as picture- Tjt Fig. 116. — Hunters bringing home Game. Egyptian Painting. writing, and the pictures are nothing more than enlarged hieroglyphics. 2. Oreeh Painting. It was in Greece that painting first became an inde- pendent art : although practised in Assyria at a very early date, it was there purely accessory to architecture, and occupied only a subordinate position. Although we are unfortunately unable to refer to any existing specimens,