Foreign topography; or, an encyclopedick account, alphabetically arranged, of the ancient remains in Africa, Asia, and Europe; forming a sequel to the Encyclopedia of antiquities / By the Rev. Thomas Dudley Fosbroke.
- Thomas Dudley Fosbroke
- Date:
- 1828
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Foreign topography; or, an encyclopedick account, alphabetically arranged, of the ancient remains in Africa, Asia, and Europe; forming a sequel to the Encyclopedia of antiquities / By the Rev. Thomas Dudley Fosbroke. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![the figure by cutting away the stone all round it. The angles are seemingly turned, and the ornaments in the figures or garments are traced with a chisel, which leaves a light impression. The last was the painter, who finished the piece. They?could: not find any other colours, than red, blue, yellow, green, or black. Thei, blue is divided into two sorts, the dark and the light. With these colours they adorned their tern- pies, tombs, or whatever they wished to have painted. As there Was no colour among these that could imitate the living human flesh, they adopted the red for that purpose* The ornaments were decorated with the other colours; and though so fewythey were not all used in the same piece. Belzoni, 1^6. si It is not known with what tools they sculped their figures. Inethe calcBireous.stone, the figures have angles so sharp that the best tempered chisel of our-oWn; tinoei^iould not produce the like. It is so hard, that it breaks more like glass than stenei aa,d lhe granite is almost impenetrable. Ibid. p. l8o. ziJ ■ ■ I'' Mode of executing the Sculpture. [This subject is discussed :;m:)the«iprecedlng paragraph, but as the arts of Egypt are curious and interestrngTopics^ the following fuller account is added, notwithstanding occasional repetitionj] All the figures and hieroglyphicks of every description are sculptured in basso relievo, and painted over, except in the outlined chamber, which was only prepared for the sculptor^t oThis room gives the bestddeas which have yet been discovered of the original process of Egyptian sculpture. The wall was previously made as smooth as possible, and where there were flaws in the rocks, the vacuum was filled up with cement, which, when hard, was cut along-with the rest of the rock. Where a figure or other thing was required to be fortned after the walk vras prepared, the sculptor appears to have made his first sketches of what was?intended to be cut out. When the sketch was finished in red lines by the first artist, another, more skilful, corrected the errors, if any, and his lines were made in black to be distinguished from those which were imperfect. When the jnogress was thus prepared, the sculptor proceeded to cut out the stone all round the figure, which remained in bas-relief, some to the height of half an inch, and some much less, accord- ing to the size of the figure. For instance, if a figure was as large as life, its elevation .was generally half an inch. If the figures were not more than six inches in length, its projectionwould not exceed the thickness of a dollar, or perhaps less. The angles of the figures were all smoothly rounded, which makes them appear less prominent than they really are. The parts of the stone which were to be taken off all round-the figure, did not extend much further, as the wall is thickly covered with figures and hieroglyphs, and Belzoni believed that there was not a space in these walls more than a foot square without some figure or hieroglyphick. The garments and various parts of the limbs were marked by a narrow line, not deeper than the thickness of a half- crown, but so'exact, that it produced the intended eflfect. When tlie figures were com- pleted and made smooth by the sculptor, they received a coat of whitewash all over. This white is so beautiful a colour, that the best and whitest paper appeared yellowish when compared with it. The painter came next, and finished the figure. There are some exceptions to the practice of painting human flesh red; for in certain instaimes, when they intended to depict a fair lady, by way of distinguishing her complexion from that of the men, they put on a yellow colour to represent flesh. It cannot be supposed that they did not know how to reduce their red paints to a flesh colour, for on some oc- casions, where the red flesh is supposed to be seen through a thin veil, the tints are nearly of the natural colour, if we suppose the Egyptians to have been of the same hue as their successors, the present Copts, some of whom are nearly as fair'as the Euro-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22012035_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
