Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/387

Ornament. ODD intentions of the artist. The Egyptian seems to have enjoyed a laugh at the expense of his trembHng enemies. Not content with thus treading upon them at every step he took, he added insult to injury by making them grotesque (Fig. 279). The same spirit may be recognized in those figures of Bes which are so numerous in our museums. It was by mere exaesreration of certain not uncommon features that the fio^ure of this paunchy dwarf was arrived at. His animal grin, beady eyes, flat nose, thick lips, and pendent tongue, his short legs and salient buttocks, make up a sufficiently droll personality (Figs. 2 So and 281). The comic intention is ver}* marked in a composition repro- duced by Prisse, in which a person of proportions rather less curtailed than those of the ordinar)- Bes, but endowed with the features, the head-dress, and the lion-like tail of that god, is shown playing upon a cithara.^ These productions were not always decent. The Turin papyrus contains a long priapic scene. ^ 4. Ornavicnt. In the painted decorations with which the Egyptians covered every available surface, the figure played a more important part than in the case of any other people. But yet the multiplication of historical, religious, and domestic scenes, the countless groups of gods, men, and the lower animals, had their limits. However great their development might be, these traditional themes could only supply a certain number of scenes, which required, more- over, to be framed. Again, there were certain surfaces upon which the Egyptians did not, as a rule, place figures, either because they would be seen with difficulty, or, as in the case of ceilings, because taste warned them that it would be better to treat such a surface in some other fashion. Between the loftv roofs of the hypostyle halls and the sky which covers our heads the Egyptian decorator established a relationship which readilv commends itself to the mind. The ceilings of the temples at Thebes had generally a blue ground, upon which vultures with their great wings outspread, floated among golden stars (Figs. 192 and 282). ' Prisse, Histoire dc f E^^yptc. text. p. 146.