ClIAl'. II.

KGVl'TIAN.
sn
I- ig. M.
Thev are generally isolnted, and placed on simple jjedestals. The nse of Caryatides, as
they are called, perha])s improperly, in
Egyptian architecture, if we may judge
from remains, does not appear to have
been very frecjuent. In the tomb of
Osymandyas, we find, according to Dio-
dorus, that there was a peristylium, 40()
feet square, supported by animals 1 o
cubits high, each in one stone, instead
of columns. The same author (vol. i.
f. ~>6. ed. Wesseling), sjjeaking of Psam-
meticus, says,
"
flaviiig now obtained
the whole kingdom, he built a ))ro-
pyhcum, on tlie east side of the temple,
lo the God at Memphis
;
which temple he encircled with a wall
; and in this propyla-um,
instead of columns, substituted colossal statues 12 cubits in height." Statues of sphinxes
in allies or avenues were used for ornamenting the dromos of their temples. Of this species
of ornament the ruins of Thebes present a magnificent example. They were placed on
plinths facing one another, and about ten feet apart. Examples of lions also occur. The
form of the Egyptian obelisks is too well known to need a description here. They have been
alleged to be monuments consecrated to the sun. From the situation they often occupy, it
is clear they were used neither as gnomons nor solar quadrants.
86. Amongst the ornaments affixed to their
buildings, or leather forming a part of them,
the most frequent are hieroglyphics and bas-reliefs.
The custom of cutting the former upon almost
every building was, as we now find, for the pur-
jiose of record
;
but it is nevertheless to be consi-
dered as ornamental in efi'ect. The figures that
are sculjitured on the walls of the temples are
mostly in low relief, and are destitute of propor-
tion
;
and, when in groups, are devoid of senti-
ment. Painting was another mode of decoration.
The grottoes of the Thebaid, and other subter-
ranean apartments, abound with pictures, not
only of liieroglyi)hics, but of other subjects. But
the taste of all these, either in drawing, colour-
ing, or composition, is not better than that of their
sculpture. (See an examjjle in
fy.
65.^ Yet in
both these arts, from the precision with which
they are cut and the uniformity of line and pro-
portion they exhibit, a certain effect is produced
which is not altogether displeasing.
87. The nymi)ha?a lotus, or water lily, seems to have been the type of much of the orna-
ment used for the purpose of decoration. The leaf of the palm tree was another object of
imitation, and is constantly found in the capitals of their columns. The use of the palm
leaf in this situation may have been derived from a popular notion mentioned by Plutarch,
(
Si/mposiac. lib. vi. cap.
4. ), that the palm tree rose under any weight that was placed upon
it, and even in proportion to the degree of depression it experienced. This supposed pe-
culiarity is also mentioned by Aulus Gellius (lib. ili. cap. C. ). The reed of the Nile,
w\i\i its head, enters into some combinations of ornament, and moreover fashioned into
bundles, seems to have lieen the type of some of the species of their columns. In their
entablatures and elsewhere, animals of all sorts occasionally find a place as ornaments, even
down to fishes, whicli occur in a fVieze at Assouan
; and, as we have before observed, there
are tew buildings of importance in which the winged globe does not appear as an orna-
ment.
88. Some observations on the taste, style, and character of Egyptian architecture, will
conclude this section. If the type was, as we imagine, derived from the early subterranean
edifices of the people, whose customs allowed of no change or improvement, we cannot be
surprised at the great monotony that exists in all their niomnnents. The absence of variety
in their ])rofiles, by means of projecting and re-entering parts, of the use of the arch, of the
inclined roof, and of all deviation froiri those shades of different developments, whicli
impart character to a work of art, generated the monotony, the subject of our complaint.
It cannot be denied that in those arts which have nature for their model, the artists of Egy))t
never sought excellence in true representation. Now architecture is so allied to the other
arts, that the principles by which they were guided in these latter were carried through ii^