Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/74

52 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. we possess no relic from that past, we can diYine its character to some extent from the impression which it made upon the taste and fancy of latter ages. Certain effects of which the artists of Memphis were very fond can only be explained by habits con- tracted during a long course of centuries. In the forms and motives employed by Egyptian architects we shall find more than one example of these survivals from a previous stage of develop- ment, such as forms appropriate to wood or metal employed in stone, and childish methods of construction perpetuated without other apparent cause. § 2. Alaterials. In our explanation of the general character of Egyptian archi- tecture we have already enumerated the principal materials of which it disposed, and pointed out the modifications arising from the choice of one or another of those materials. We should not here return to the subject but for a misconception which has gained a wide acceptance. People have seen a few granite obelisks standing in two or three of the European capitals, and they have too often jumped to the conclusion that the Egyptians built almost exclusively in granite. The fact is that there is but one building in Egypt the body of which is of granite, and that is the ancient temple at Gizeh which is called the Temple of tJie Sphinx (Figs. 202 and 203, vol. i.). Even there the roof and the casing of the walls was of alabaster. Granite was employed, as a rule, only where a very choice and expensive material was required. It was brought into play when certain parts of a building had to be endowed with more nobility and beauty than the rest. Thus there are, in the great temple at Karnak, a few small rooms, called The Grange Chamber's (Fig. 215, H, vol. I.), in which the material in question has alone been employed. Elsewhere in the same building it was only used incidentally. In the pyramid of Cheops the lining of the Grand Gallery is of granite.^ In many of the Theban temples it was employed for the bases of columns, thresholds, jambs, and lintels of doors. It was also used for isolated objects, such as ^ It is of Mokattam limestone (see vol. i., p. 223). M. Perrot probably meant to refer to the two ii]jper " chambers," botli of which are lined with granite. — Kd.