The lotus flower and bud alternating in a border ornament may be regarded as the prototype of the Greek palmate borders. We are inclined to believe in Professor Goodyear’s theory, that the egg and tongue decoration on the Greek ovolo moulding is nothing more than a disrupted lotus and bud ornament developed in transition through the Rhodian pottery decoration. The shells and the tongue were originally the lotus calyx, and the egg or pebble the lotus bud.
Fig. 123.—Specimens of Ceiling Decoration at Thebes; from Prisse. (P. & C.)
Other plants, as the thistle, convolvulus, daisy, vines, and grapes, &c., were used very much in decoration, especially during the Akhenaten period (Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties), when the decoration was of a florid kind. The papyrus is seen in the ceiling ornament Fig. 123, No 6, at Fig. 127, and on the perfume spoon of carved wood (Fig. 151). The ceiling decorations (Fig. 123), from the Theban tombs, show the fine sense and feeling the Egyptians had for the appropriate decoration of flat surfaces, and the judicious balance maintained in the contrasting units of the ornament.
Fig. 124.—Lotus and Water Ornament.
Fig. 125.—Painted Border: from Thebes, after Prisse. (P. & C.)
Fig. 126.—Flattened Form of Lotus-leaf Ornament; Front View and Section 1. (P. & C.)