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Show old cv(ftlar. Ei- Mfc In the older Egyptian mummies the face of the outer casing is usually modeled mod-eled Lu relief, in a purely conventional way, but in this latest form of burial under the Roman empire a portrait of the deceased was painted on a very thin piece of wood and then fixed over the : dead face. It is very remarkable to find ; such fine coloring and skillful drawing i in work of this late date, which must ' have been turned out of an ordinary I undertaker's workshop, The portraits, ! both male and female, are most vivid j and lifelike: the ladies are mostly : dressed in a purple garment, and the men in white, with a red orphrey. The modeling of tho flesh is very skillful, 1 and in some cases the coloring reminds one of the Venetian school from its rich depth of tone. A Bpecial point of interest about these paintings is their technical execution in the hot wax,- or encaustic process, as it was called. The pigments were mixed with melted wax, and then fixed in then-place then-place by holding a charcoal brazier near the surface of the painting, as is described by Vitruvius. The somewhat lumpy impasto of the surface Is due to the hardening hard-ening of the melted wax when the brush touched the cold surface of the panel, and, owing to the non-absorbent nature of tho wood, the subsequent application of heat was not able to drive the wax below the surface, as was the case with encaustic painting upon stucco. One of these portraits is noticeable from its ornamental or-namental framing with a flowing pattern, pat-tern, formed by pressing wooden stamps upon 6oft stucco, which was afterward gilt, a process exactly like that which was so often used to decorate medirova) pictures on panel, especially retablea, or ancouo, as tho Venetians called them. Saturday Review. |
