e long squares of heavy stone,
gloomy as the cave from which their plan may have originated. Carving
and color were used to brighten and enliven the interior. The battles,
the judgment scenes, the Pharaoh playing at draughts with his wives,
the religious rites and ceremonies, were all given with brilliant
arbitrary color, surrounded oftentimes by bordering bands of green,
yellow, and blue. Color showed everywhere from floor to ceiling. Even
the explanatory hieroglyphic texts ran in colors, lining the walls and
winding around the cylinders of stone. The lotus capitals, the frieze
and architrave, all glowed with bright hues, and often the roof
ceiling was painted in blue and studded with golden stars.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--PORTRAIT OF QUEEN TAIA. (FROM PERROT AND
CHIPIEZ.)]

All this shows a decorative motive in Egyptian painting, and how
constantly this was kept in view may be seen at times in the
arrangement of the different scenes, the large ones being placed in
the middle of the wall and the smaller ones going at the top and
bottom, to act as a frieze and dado. There were, then, two leading
motives for Egyptian painting; (1) History, monarchical, religious, or
domestic; and (2) Decoration.

TECHNICAL METHODS: Man in the early stages of civilization comprehends
objects more by line than by color or light. The figure is not
studied in itself, but in its sun-shadow or silhouette. The Egyptian
hieroglyph represented objects by outlines or arbitrary marks and
conveyed a simple meaning without circumlocution. The Egyptian
painting was substantially an enlargement of the hieroglyph. There was
no attempt to place objects in the setting which they hold in nature.
Perspective and light-and-shade were disregarded. Objects, of whatever
nature, were shown in flat profile. In the human figure the shoulders
were square, the hips slight, the legs and arms long, the feet and
hands flat. The head, legs, and arms were shown in profile, while the
chest and eye were twisted to show the flat front view. There are only
one or two full-faced figures among the remains of Egyptian painting.
After the outline was drawn the enclosed space was filled in with
plain color. In the absence of high light, or composed groups,
prominence was given to an important figure, like that of the king, by
making it much larger than the other figures. This may be seen in any
of the battle-pieces of Rameses II., in which the monarch in his
chariot is a gian