Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/173

Monumental Details. 149 lower part of the wall is thus formed into a stereobate (Fig. 131). At another point in the circumference of this temple there is a stereobate of a more complicated description. It is terminated above by a cornice-shaped moulding like that just described, but it rests upon two steps instead of one (Fig. 132). By this it appears that the Egyptian architects understood how to add to apparent solidity of their buildings by expanding them at their junction with the ground. This became a true continuous stylobate, carrying piers, in peripteral temples like that at Elephantine (Fig. 230, 'ol. I.). In the latter building its form is identical with that which we have just described. We have now to describe an arrang-ement which, though rare in the Pharaonic period, was afterwards common enough. The portico which stretches across the back of the second court in the Ramesseum is closed to about a third of its heisfht bv a kind of pluteus (Fig. 133).^ This barrier formed a sort cf tablet, sur- rounded by a fillet, and crowned by a cornice of the usual type, between each pair of Osiride piers. In the Ptolemaic temples the lower part of the portico was always closed in this fashion. It constitutes the only inclosure in front of the fine hypostyle hall at Denderah. We have now studied buildings in sufhcient number to become familiar with the Egyptian Goi'gc. As early as the Ancient Empire the architects of Egypt had invented this form of cornice. and used it happily upon their massive structures. It is composed of three elements, which are always arranofed in the same order. In the first place there is the circular moulding or torus with a carved ribbon twistinof about it. This moulding occurs at the edge where two faces meet in most Egyptian buildings. It serves to o-ive firmness and accent to the ansrles and, when used at the top of the wall, to mark the point where the wall ends and ^ The Description de FEgypte indicates the existence of this pluteus both in the Ramesseum (vol ii. pi. 29) and at Medinet-Abou (vol. ii. pi. 7, Fig. 2). Photographs do not show a trace of it, but many parts of those buildings had disappeared before the beginning of the present century. There is no reason to suppose that the Ramesseum underwent any modification after the temiination of the Theban supremacy. In his restoration of Dap-el- Bahari, ^L Brune has introduced a similar detail, which he would assuredly not have done unless he had found traces of it under the portico. Unfortunately his restoration is on a ver}' small scale. That at Dayr-el-Bahari must have been the earliest example of such an arrangement.