Writing was sometimes put directly upon wood. Such is the case with the fragment of board from Egypt mentioned above. The lawyer's tablet (No. 612*), of about the fifth century A.D., which deals with loans, etc., has the surface specially whitened for the writing and a space for keeping the pen. Parts of the two outer leaves, which contained between them eight inner leaves, are shown in the Case.
(604) B.M. Inscr., 323; (605) Journ. Hell. Stud., XXVIII. (1908), p. 123; cf. Dumont, Inscriptions céramiques, p. 405 (5); (608) Cat. of Sculpt., III., 2192; (610) B.M. Papyri, ccclvi.
On Greek education generally, see Freeman, Schools of Hellas, and the select bibliography there given. For ancient books, cf. E. M. Thompson, Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography. For relics of Graeco-Egyptian school-life, see Journ. Hell. Stud., loc. cit.
Fig. 241.—Roman Inkpots (No. 612). Ca. 1:2.
Painting.—Adjoining the objects connected with writing, are illustrations of the art of painting in Roman times. They include a series of ancient colours, pestles and mortars, some paintings on wood, one, painted by the encaustic process, enclosed in its ancient wooden frame. The colours, as may be seen, were kept in a dry condition, and had to be pounded with pestle and mortar before they were mixed for the use of the artist. A good number of ancient colours are shown here, the blue (silicate of copper) being particularly prominent. The six saucers (No. 613), found together in a tomb of the Roman period at Hawara, Egypt, contain water-colour paints. These are dark red (oxide of iron), yellow (ochre, oxide of iron), white (sulphate of lime), pink (organic colour, probably madder, in sulphate of lime), blue (glass coloured by copper), red (oxide of lead). The saucers were found piled by the side of the owner's body. Pestles and mortars for pounding the colours are shown in the Case. A favourite form of pestle is that which resembles a bent leg or thumb, such as the one from Rhodes (No. 614), inscribed with what is probably the owner's name. Near it is the terracotta figure of a dwarf (No. 615), seated (apparently in a violent passion) before a pestle and mortar. We may imagine that he is a slave set to mix his master's colours.
The methods of painting illustrated here are two, viz., painting on a dry ground in water-colours, and what is known as "encaustic" painting. For the first, water-colours were used, and the ground material was generally a thin piece of wood, whitened to receive the colours. Egypt has furnished many examples of this kind of painting. Among them is the portrait of a woman from the Fayum, wearing a fillet (No. 616). This no doubt comes from a mummy of the Roman period, such as the one exhibited in Case 72 next the entrance to the Gold Room Corridor, which has a similar painted portrait (in encaustic, however) placed over the face. Other water-colour paintings of Roman date from Egypt are shown in Case J, such as the figures of Fortune and Venus painted in several colours on a red ground (No. 617), and the fragmentary figure (No. 618), wearing a jewel of gold and pearls, and inscribed with the name of Sarapis (ϹΑΡΑΠΙ). The encaustic process was that employed in the case of the framed portrait (No. 619), found at Hawara in Egypt. The frame is carefully made, the sides being joined by tenons and mortises. There is a groove for a glass covering, and the cord by which it was suspended still remains. The portrait was painted in wax, by a process which can hardly have been other than that called "encaustic" by Pliny.[80] The nature of this process has been much disputed, but probably the colours were ground in with the wax, which was fused by the heat of the sun or artificial means, and then laid on by the brush. A stump (cestrum) was also sometimes employed. Probably a box divided into compartments was used for holding these wax-colours in their fluid state. Such a receptacle may perhaps be recognised in the long terracotta vessel, which has a groove in the middle for a brush (No. 620).
(613) Petrie, Hawara, p. 11; (619) ibid., p. 10.
[80:] Plin. H.N. xxxv. 122, 149.