4. THE BEAUTY OF THE CITY.
The City of the Horizon of Aton was now a place of surpassing beauty. Eight or nine years of lavish expenditure in money and skill had transformed the fields and the wilderness into as fair a city as the world had ever seen. One of the nobles who lived there, by name May, describes it in these words: “The mighty City of the Horizon of Aton, great in loveliness, mistress of pleasant ceremonies, rich in possessions, the offering of the sun being in her midst. At the sight of her beauty there is rejoicing. She is lovely and beautiful: when one sees her it is like a glimpse of heaven.”
Carved Wooden Chair, the designs partly covered with gold-leaf.
There was almost constant music in her streets, and the scent of flowers was wafted upon every breeze. Besides the temples and public buildings the city was adorned with numerous palaces, each standing in fair gardens. One of these mansions,[70] represented in the tomb of Meryra, seems to have constituted a happy combination of comfort and simplicity, as may be seen from its pictures. One entered a walled court, and so passed to the main entrance of the house. A portico, the roof of which was supported by four decorative columns festooned with ribbons, sheltered the elaborate doorway from the sunshine. Passing through this doorway, from the top of which a row of cobras gleamed down upon one, a pillared hall was reached; and beyond this the visitor entered the great dining-hall. Twelve columns supported the ceiling, which was probably painted with flights of birds; and under a kind of kiosk in the middle of the hall stood the dining-table and several comfortable arm-chairs, cushioned in bright colours. Beyond this hall there was a court, at the back of which were several chambers, one being a bedroom, as a great cushioned bedstead clearly shows. The owner’s womenfolk probably occupied another portion of the building not shown in the representations.
The palace of Ay, Akhnaton’s father-in-law, was a more pretentious building. It was entered by a fine doorway which led into a court. A second door gave entrance to the large, pillared dining-hall, and through this one passed into a court from which bedrooms and boudoirs led off. In one of these rooms two women, clad in airy garments, are seen to be dancing with one another, while a man plays a harp. In another room a girl likewise dances to the strains of a harp, while a servant dresses the hair of one of the gentlemen of the household. Other rooms contain lutes, harps, and lyres, as well as objects of the toilet. A little court is now reached, where fragrant flowers grow, and tanks of water, sunk in the decorated pavement, give a sense of coolness to the air. Beyond this are more apartments, and finally the kitchens are reached. Throughout the house stand delicate tables upon which jars of wine or dishes of fruit are to be seen; and cushioned arm-chairs, with footstools before them, are ready for the weary. Servants are seen passing to and fro bearing refreshments, or stopping to dust the floor, or again idly talking in the passages.
Akhnaton’s palace is not very clearly shown in the tomb reliefs or paintings, but portions of it were found in the modern excavations on the site[71]. Like all the residential buildings of the period, it was an airy and light structure made of brick. The walls, ceilings, and floors were covered with the most beautiful paintings; and delicate pillars, inlaid with coloured glass and stone, or covered with realistically painted vines and creepers, supported the light roofs of its halls. Portions of the pavement are still preserved, and the visitor to the site of the city may still see the paintings there depicted. A young calf, frisking in the sunlight, gallops through a field of red poppies; wild geese rise from the marshes and beat their way through the reeds, disturbing the butterflies as they do so; amidst the lotus-flowers resting upon the rippling water the sinuous fish are seen to wander. These are but fragments of the paintings which once delighted the eyes of the Pharaoh, or brought a sigh to the lips of his queen.
The art of the painter of this period excels in the depiction of animal and plant life. The winding, tangled stems and leaves of vines were carefully studied; the rapid motions of animals were correctly caught; and it has been said that in these things the artists of Akhnaton were greater than those in any other Oriental art[72]. Sculpture in the round, too, reached a pitch of excellence never before known. The statue of Akhnaton illustrated opposite is the work of one who may rank with Donatello, if not with Cellini.
Akhnaton.
(From a statuette in the Louvre.)
It is possible that Auta, the chief sculptor of Queen Tiy,[73] is the creator of this statue, and perhaps also of the head, probably, of Akhnaton’s daughter shown opposite next page. In the tomb of Huya there is a scene representing this artist seated in his studio giving the final touches to a statue of Princess Baketaton. He sits upon a low stool, palette in hand, and, as was the custom, colours the surface of the statue. Unlike the stiff conventional poses of earlier work, the attitude of the young girl is easy and graceful. One hand hangs by her side: in the other she holds a pomegranate, which she is about to raise to her lips. Auta’s assistant stands beside the figure, and near by two apprentices work upon objects of less importance, their chisels on a table by their side.
Works such as these which Auta and his companions were turning out are permanent memorials of the reign of Akhnaton, which will carry his name through the years until, as he would say, “the swan turns black and the crow turns white.” There must surely come a time, and soon, when the art of Egypt will receive more attention; and one may then hear Akhnaton’s name coupled with that of the Medici as the patron, if not the teacher, of great masters. It was he who released them from convention, and bade their hands repeat what their eyes saw; and it was he who directed those eyes to the beauties of nature around them. He, and no other, taught them to look at the world in the spirit of life, to infuse into the cold stone something of the “effulgence which comes from Aton”; and, if these few treasures which have survived the utter wreck of the City of the Horizon have put one’s heart to a happy step, it was Akhnaton who first set the measure.