ng process was no trifling matter.
We could point to tomb-chambers where every wall is thus inlaid to the
extent of one quarter of its surface. The preliminary work being done, the
whole was covered with a thin coat of fine plaster mixed with white of
egg, which hid the mud-wash or the piecing, and prepared a level and
polished surface for the pencil of the artist. In chambers, or parts of
chambers, which have been left unfinished, and even in the quarries, we
constantly find sketches of intended bas-reliefs, outlined in red or black
ink. The copy was generally executed upon a small scale, then squared off,
and transferred to the wall by the pupils and assistants of the master. As
in certain scenes carefully copied by Prisse from the walls of Theban
tombs, the subject is occasionally indicated by only two or three rapid
strokes of the reed (fig. 178). Elsewhere, the outline is fully made out,
and the figures only await the arrival of the sculptor. Some designers took
pains to determine the position of the shoulders, and the centre of gravity
of the bodies, by vertical and horizontal lines, upon which, by means of a
dot, they noted the height of the knee, the hips, and other parts (fig.
179). Others again, more self-reliant, attacked their subject at once, and
drew in the figures without the aid of guiding points. Such were the
artists who decorated the catacomb of Seti I., and the southern walls of
the temple of Abydos. Their outlines are so firm, and their facility is so
surprising, that they have been suspected of stencilling; but no one who
has closely examined their figures, or who has taken the trouble to measure
them with a compass, can maintain that opinion. The forms of some are
slighter than the forms of others; while in some the contours of the chest
are more accentuated, and the legs farther apart, than in others. The
master had little to correct in the work of these subordinates. Here and
there he made a head more erect, accentuated or modified the outline of a
knee, or improved some detail of arrangement. In one instance, however, at
Kom Ombo, on the ceiling of a Graeco-Roman portico, some of the divinities
had been falsely oriented, their feet being placed where their arms should
have been. The master consequently outlined them afresh, and on the same
squared surface, without effacing the first drawing. Here, at all events,
the mistake was discovered in time. At Karnak, on the north wall of the
hypostyle hall