Egyptian sculpture

METHODS OF THE ARTIST 19

the statues, with the exception of red granite and with the addition of semi-precious stones, such as carnelian, amethyst, and lapis lazuli: the wood was of a hard, close-grained variety, often ebony. A common material for figures of deities, after the Middle Kingdom, was the glazed ware which is peculiar to Egypt. Statuettes, as might be expected, are of the materials which allow of the fine detailed technique necessary for figures on a small scale, though even here the beauty of workmanship and the artistic feeling depend on the material used and the period in which the artist lived.

PAINTING Materials

Petrie made an exhaustive study of the materials used in the early Old Kingdom for painting. The tomb-decorations investigated were those of Ra-hotep and Nefer-maat, at Meydum. The colours used were determined by chemical analysis: the result was published by him in Medum. pp. 28, 29. The painted walls in the tomb of Ra-hotep were of sun-dried mud-brick; these were plastered with mud, mixed with chopped straw, to a thickness of an inch anda half: over this was laid a coating of burnt lime and gypsum, mixed with chopped straw, one-third to one half of an inch thick; then came a layer of fine gesso, not more than the twentieth of an inch in thickness; and finally the paint was laid on this carefully prepared surface with a brush. The medium could not be determined, but was perhaps albumen.

The colours were as follows:

BLack.—This was always lamp-black.

Biur.—Apparently carbonate of copper; a large shell was found containing finely ground chessylite, which seemed to have been used as paint.