CHAPTER XIV.
Art and Decoration.
During the Old Empire certain rules regulating drawing were invented which were adhered to throughout the history of Egypt. The stiff, unnatural appearance of all Egyptian figures was due to strict observance of these rules, which became binding upon artists and prevented any perfection of art in the valley of the Nile.
Egyptian painting consisted of mere outline sketching. The human body was first entirely drawn; then clothing was added. The artists knew no more of anatomy than did the physicians. They did not even follow each his own ideas, but there was one established way of drawing the head, the arms, the limbs, and all felt obliged to hold to this conventional method. The extended arms show no elbows, the fingers no joints. An endeavor to draw the body in profile resulted in portions of it facing the spectator, other parts in profile, and still other sharing the characteristics of both positions. For many years the human figure, animals and birds could only extend the foot or arm—in case of a person—farthest away from the spectator, and each figure must be shown with the right side to the front. In course of time artists drew people of the lower classes with more freedom, but it would have been deemed disrespectful to have portrayed those of high rank in any but the conventional positions. Thus, in a picture of a noble being served by a slave, the latter might be drawn in a natural pose, while the noble still retained the stiff, grotesque position of early times. Again, the king was given colossal proportions, to indicate his power and strength, while children may be distinguished only by their tiny forms.
Side by side with this conventional school of art there developed a realistic school that exercised greater freedom with the human body. Tomb pictures remain wherein persons are shown with their backs to the spectator, and in many positions not permissible according to established rules. However, these paintings are invariably in the tombs of the lower classes. It would not have been deemed fitting that such freedom be used in decorating the tombs of nobles, or of persons of high social standing. Artists of this school seem to have been in disfavor in ancient Egypt. To be sure, in the matter of portraying scenes where captives, slaves or the humble people were gathered, artists of the conventional school drew these with considerable degree of freedom and ease. In the same picture the king, or noble, or high official was represented according to the established custom.
All Egyptian drawing of human figures, birds and animals is plain, and it is possible for any one today to read the stories of long series of tomb pictures—studying them out, one by one. However, when it came to representing a temple, a house, or a garden, the desire to show every portion of it resulted in some confusion. The artist was in doubt as to how to portray it all. "In treating such an important and complex object he wished if possible to show every part of it; he therefore did not draw the house from the front nor from the side, but made a picture of both sides together, and when the house had an upper story with three chambers, he put these three rooms close by also. He considered his duty accomplished when he had placed all the details before the spectator, but he did not care whether the spectator understood how these details fitted together.
"We have to face another difficulty in order to comprehend these pictures; the Egyptian artist has no sense of proportion between the different parts of the representation. If, for instance, the king is standing in one of the rooms of the building in question, our artist would, regardless of truth, draw that room ten times as large as all the others together, and even in one picture he frequently changes his standard of measurement."[1]
All pictures were painted, some only in outline, some entirely. The interiors of tombs were made to assume a gay appearance since tomb colors were always bright. Red, the color of the sun, and blue, the sky reflected in the Nile, were thought to be sacred.