ecorative
character, but it was rather monotonous by repetition and filled with
established mannerisms. The Egyptian really never was a free worker,
never an artist expressing himself; but, for his day, a skilled
mechanic following time-honored example. In the

Saitic Period the seat of empire was once more in Lower Egypt, and art
had visibly declined with the waning power of the country. All
spontaneity seemed to have passed out of it, it was repetition of
repetition by poor workmen, and the simplicity and purity of the
technic were corrupted by foreign influences. With the Alexandrian
epoch Egyptian art came in contact with Greek methods, and grew
imitative of the new art, to the detriment of its own native
character. Eventually it was entirely lost in the art of the
Greco-Roman world. It was never other than conventional, produced by a
method almost as unvarying as that of the hieroglyphic writing, and in
this very respect characteristic and reflective of the unchanging
Orientals. Technically it had its shortcomings, but it conveyed the
proper information to its beholders and was serviceable and graceful
decoration for Egyptian days.

EXTANT PAINTINGS: The temples, palaces, and tombs of Egypt
still reveal Egyptian painting in almost as perfect a state
as when originally executed; the Ghizeh Museum has many fine
examples; and there are numerous examples in the museums at
Turin, Paris, Berlin, London, New York, and Boston. An
interesting collection belongs to the New York Historical
Society, and some of the latest "finds" of the Egypt
Exploration Fund are in the Boston Museum.

CHAPTER II.

CHALDAEO-ASSYRIAN PAINTING.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED: Babelon, _Manual of Oriental
Antiquities_; Botta, _Monument de Ninive_; Budge,
_Babylonian Life and History_; Duncker, _History of
Antiquity_; Layard, _Nineveh and its Remains_; Layard,
_Discoveries Among Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon_; Lenormant,
_Manual of the Ancient History of the East_; Loftus,
_Travels in Chaldaea and Susiana_; Maspero, _Life in Ancient
Egypt and Assyria_; Perrot and Chipiez, _History of Art in
Chaldaea and Assyria_; Place, _Ninive et l'Assyrie_; Sayce,
_Assyria: Its Palaces, Priests, and People_.

TIGRIS-EUPHRATES CIVILIZATION: In many respects the civilization along
the Tigris-Euphrates was like that along the Nile. Both valleys were
settled by primitive p