OCR Text |
Show ANCIENT PORTRAIT PAINTING QOME very old portraits were dug up not long ago In Egypt. They wero painted in wax on wooden plaques an art now lost, it appears and are evidently likenesses of Greeks. At the time when they wero executed (about 300 B. C.) Egypt was under the dominion of a Greek dynasty, tho Ptolemies. Great numbers of portraits much more ancient, however, have been found in Egyptian-tombs. For it was iho fashion, iu tho das of the Pharaohs, to make the inner mummy case a palpted and sculptured likeness of the person contained therein. An interesting example in this lino is the coffin of an Egptlan princess, named Iounlflrtc, now preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York city Its top is a carved and l-alnted board, in low relief, representing represent-ing the lady as she was in life, with white gown and costume complete. Every detail of her person is carefully reproduced, even to her dainty almond-shaped almond-shaped nails. She was a blond, evidently evi-dently young and very beautiful At least 3000 years have passed since she died. The body of a wealthy Egyptian of I ' that epoch (after undergoing an elaborate elabo-rate embalming process) was swathed in wrappings of linen bandage three or four Inches wide and hundreds of yards In length. It was then placed In a papier mache case, made of pulp of lime and whiting, which, shaped while the stuff was soft, was made to represent the occupant. This was inclosed in-closed In three or four outer boxes, each bearing a carved and painted likeness of the defunct Each box was covered all over,, Inside and outside, out-side, with painted pictures, some of them mythologic, while others depicted de-picted scenes In which the late lamented la-mented took part whilo living. Perhaps the most remarkable point about these ancient portraits is their lvid lifeUkeness The pictures on the wooden plaques look like real folks. Those on the mummy cases (though much older) arc often bright in color, and the varnish looks as fresh as if recently applied. For their preservation preserva-tion the dryness of the Egyptian climate cli-mate ft. of course, accountable. Mummy making must have been one of the principal industries of ancient an-cient Egypt. Not only did every dead person have to be embalmed (though, where the poor wero copt-emed, the process was crude and eticap), but vast numbers of sacred animals, such as 1 r cats, Ibises and crocodiles, demanded like treatment This industry was wholly In th hands of the priests, who evidently had trado tricks of their own. Thus, when called upon to mummify a baby crocodile, they would often mako up a buAVlle of rags to represent the mummy they were supposed to deliver, de-liver, thereby saving labor while exacting ex-acting a full price. This pious fraud was so commonly practiced that nowadays nowa-days mummies of animals received by scientific institutions from Egypt are X-rayed before taking the trouble to unwrap them. Alas for the mummy' Nobody respects re-spects it today, though it bo that of a Pharaoh. Tho desiccated remains of Rameses II (supposed to have been tho monarch who oppressed tho Jews so frightfully) arc now on exhioitlon in the British Museum. Millions of mummies ijwe bOCtt utilized for fertilizing the fields of modern Egypt. They have been used as fuel for running trains between Cairo and Suez. And tho portrait painter of today finds nothing so good as "mummy brown" la pigment derived de-rived from the bitumen - saturated bones of mummies) for purposes of his own, particularly for the painting of chestnut-colored hair. " , Portrait of a Greek gentleman of Portrait of a Greek lady resi- 300 B. C. done in wax on wood. dence in Egypt) done in wax on wood 300 B. C. |