Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/369

Technical Pkocesses. the eftects of sun and wind than men. Their skins are usually fairer. In northern climates they are whiter, in southern less brown. We are surprised therefore to find that in the small temple at Ipsamboul the carnations of male and female, whether they be kings and queens or gods and goddesses, are all alike of a vivid yellow, not far removed from chrome,^ Those divinities who have the limbs and features of man, such as Amen, Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys, should, we might think, be subject to the same rule as the images of men and women, and in most cases it is so. But, on the other hand, the painter often endows them with skins of the most fanciful and arbitrary hue. At Ipsamboul there is an Amen with a blue skin,- and, again, an Amen and an Osiris which are both o-reen.-^ At Philae we find numerous examples of the same singularity.^ At Kalabche, in Nubia, there are royal figures coloured in the same fashion.^ Exceptional though they may be, these curious representations help us to understand the Egyptian method of looking at colour. They did not employ it like the modern painter, in order to add to the illusion ; they used it decoratively, partly to satisfy that innate love for polychromy which we have explained by the intensity of a southern sun, partly to give relief to their figures, which would stand out more boldlv from the white orround when brilliant with colour than when they had to depend solely upon their slight relief. In the interior of the figure colour was used to distinguish o o the flesh from the draperies, and to indicate those enrichments in the latter which made up the elegance of the Egyptian costume. A good example of this way of using colour is seen in the tomb of Amenophis III., which contains the portrait of Queen Taia reproduced in our Fig. 264.^ ^ There are other exceptions to the ordinary rule. In a fine bas-relief in the LouvTe, representing Seti I. before Hathor, the carnations of the goddess are similar to those of the Pharaoh ; they are in each case dark red (basement room, B, 7). 2 Champolliox, Monuments de VEgypte et de la Xiibie, pi. 11. Blue was the regular colour for Amen when represented with a complete human form ; when he was ram-headed he was generally painted green (see Champolliov, Pantheon Egyptieru^o. i; Pif.rret, Didionnaire Archeologiqiie ; and pi. 2, vol. i. of the present work). — Ed. 3 Ibid. pi. 59. 4 Ibid, plates 71, 76, 78, 91. ^ /^/^_ pi j-^. ® We place this portrait of Taia in our chapter on painting because its colour is exceptionally delicate and carefully managed (see Prisse, text, p. 421). The original is, however, in very low relief, so low that it hardly affects the colour values. VOL. IL XX