76 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Mabch, 



ae bright and fresh as when Rhameses or Sesostris stood by to see 

 them done. 



Painting with us is an art standing and working alone, — not 

 under tlie law of the builder, as with the Egyptians : but then our 

 ]iainting is only an illustrative art, always wanting the written 

 book for its inspiration and exi>lanation. In Egypt there was no 

 book to look to, and the painter had to show all that the book and 

 canvas now do together. 



Mr. Fergusson takes a war-painting as more nearly like those of 

 the Egyptians, and he says if the names of all the paintings of 

 Napoleon's battles at Versailles were changed, no historical confu- 

 sion would arise, unless a trifling incorrectness as to the dresses or 

 flags of the enemy; but when these things are forgotten, any one 

 ])ainting, witli the dress and likeness of Napoleon, will do for any 

 light of the same time. They all, as he says, consist of a brilliant 

 staff in the foreground, in which we know from history who is the 

 leader, — but without the history any one would do as well. Be- 

 yond that there are certain bodies of men and guns, some going 

 forward, some falling back, but all in confusion and smoke; who 

 are the winners and which side is losing, is scarce ever told : for 

 the tale we are sent back to the book,— and when we are told 

 this is the fight of Jena or M'agram, and we know all its fea- 

 tures from history, we find some of them in the paintings ; but 

 they do not even explain the text, — they are only idle illustrations, 

 depending for their worth on that of the artist who painted them. 

 It was otherwise with the Egyptian. He was to do what the 

 book of the writer, the plan of the engineer, and the brush of the 

 painter now do. The Egyptian painter was to give the whole tale 

 of the war. At Thebes,"we have first the muster, then the march, 

 getting ready for the fight, and the fight itself. There we see the 

 might of theking, who, as in the Iliad, bears the brunt of the fray, 

 and borne in his chariot far beyond his fellows, deals death arcjund 

 from his unerring liow. The fear of the enemy; the dying and the 

 dead; the wounded men and horses, writhing in pain; the bootless 

 stand; the woe of the old men and women, who line the walls of 

 the town and watch the fight, — all the thousand incidents of the 

 war are, says our writer, painted on the walls; and of 1500 or 2000 

 men drawn in these great paintings, each has his share in the fight, 

 and adds to the effect of the whole. 



The fight is followed by the punishment of the prisoners; the 

 sharing of the spoil; the return home; the triumph and the offer- 

 ing to the gods; and the after employment of the hero, who has 

 come back from his conquests to enjoy rest and improve his father- 

 land. 



So, too, in their other paintings there is the same clearness and 

 fulness of detail. 



The Egj'ptian painter, who had this task before him, had no 

 knowledge of perspective or of light and shade. The colours were 

 laid on quite flat, and likewise unmixed. It was perhaps owing to 

 these wants that the face is always shown in profile, and there nei- 

 ther was nor could be artistic grouping. It was therefore needful 

 to resor-t to conventionalities, which are so distasteful to tlie mo- 

 dern critic. The king is always drawn bigger than those by whom 

 he is followed, and as much greater than his enemies, whom he 

 treads under his feet. The several parts of the fight are shown 

 in lines, one above the other ; and tlie men vary in bulk — not 

 according to their distance, but tlieir importance. Witli all tliis 

 there is no confusion, and the tale goes on distinctly, which is the 

 great end the painter kept in sight. The Egyptian workman or 

 husbandman would fully understand the whole of this ; the more 

 learned w(uild have the further help of the hieroglyphics. 



The copies of Egyjitian paintings at the British Aluseum are, we 

 are sure, much better understood than most of tlie works there, 

 and it is much to be wished that there were more of them. In- 

 deed, the Upper Egyptian Room is always full of working-men, 

 their wives and children, who seem to have a greater liking for it 

 than for the Elgin Room. 



The hieroglyphics filled up what in our paintings would be sky 

 or background. Had alphabetic writing been put in, the effect 

 would be bad ; though where, as on an Etruscan or (ireek work, 

 a name only is written over tlie head, there is no harm, — but were 

 the whole BO filled up, it would be out of keeping. The liiero- 

 glyphics were themselves painted shapes of beasts and things; 

 and though not the same as those in the paintings, still they were 

 like tliem, and are in good keejiing — indeed, they give a sparkling 

 effect to the whole design. 



Copies ill our books cannot teach us what these works are, while 

 the copies in the British Museum are only bits of a great wbcde, 

 and till they are seen on their own walls tliey cannot be felt. There 

 we see paintings hundreds of feet in length, and from forty to sixty 

 feet high. In Thebes alone, they cover several thousand square 



yards, giving the whole history of one of the greatest dynasties of 

 the earth. 



The fifth section brings us to Egypt under the Greeks and 

 Romans. After the eighteenth dynasty Egypt seems to have been 

 greatly weakened, though wherefore is not known, and she sank 

 under the yoke of Ethiopians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. 

 Under the two latter, Egypt w as wealthier, but the life of the arts 

 had fled with freedom, and we no longer acknowledge the great 

 mind of the kings of old. 



Of the later time we have, however, many great buildings, as 

 the temjiles at Edfou, Dendera, Kalabshe, and Pliila',- — but in lower 

 taste. The painting and carving are worse than those of the olden 

 time, though more carefully finished : these are the works of 

 slaves, the old ones those of freemen. What is most missed are 

 the great historical paintings, which are so striking a feature of 

 the Theban time. The Egy])tians had indeed no history to hand 

 down, and they cared little for the deeds of the brave days of old. 

 AVhat paintings we have are mere records of the piety of kings, 

 and their free gifts to priests. Mr. Fergusson thinks that alpha- 

 betic writing had some share in bringing about this falling off, for 

 the learned now looked to the book of the writer to chronicle pass- 

 ing events, rather than to the chisel of the carver. They had 

 learned to believe, as he says, that the shelves of the Alexandrian 

 library were a more fitting depository than the walls of the tem- 

 ples. 



The Second Chapter brings us to Western Asia. This gives the 

 most interesting field for speculation, but unluckily we have very 

 scanty materials. Of the races who were in M'estern Asia, several 

 are known to us. First, we have the gi-eat Semitic or Syrian race, 

 which seems to have settled on the banks of the Euphrates as early 

 as the Egyptians on the Nile. Of this race the Arabs and Jews 

 are the living representatives. Next, we have the Indo-European 

 race, which may here be called the Japhetic, and to which we 

 belong. This seems to have come in later than the Semitic race, 

 and to have overcome it. It made itself master of the valley of 

 the Ganges, of Mesopotamia under the Persians, and it spread 

 through ^Vestern Asia into Europe. 



Besides these two, between them, and perhaps before them, Mr. 

 Fergusson holds that tliere was one other distinct and powerful 

 race. This suggestion has a very important bearing on early his- 

 tory. I\Ir. Fergusson identifies with it the Pelasgians and the 

 Etruscans, and Mr. Hyde Clarke (in the "Popular Atlas") the 

 Iberians. As no connected view has yet been shown of tliis theory 

 of the Ibero-Pelasgic race, it may be interesting to our readers to 

 go into it more fully than Mr. Fergusson has done ; and the more 

 so, as he has not extended it further into Western Eurcqie than to 

 the Etruscans. It is one of the most important archieological sub- 

 jects open for inquiry, as it is the newest. 



This race is thought to be the same as, or akin to, the great 

 races now found in Northern Asia and North-Western Europe. 

 Mr. Fergusson has hinted his belief of this (p. 261); and latterly 

 it is stated that the Euskardian language has been identified with 

 that of the Fins. 



In this race are included the Pelasgians, the Etruscans, and the 

 Iberians or Euskaldunes, all of whom, for want of knowing where 

 to put them, or on the gnuiiid of their being mixed with the Indo- 

 European race, have been hitherto put down as Indo-Europeans ; 

 and, indeed, as one subdivision of that race has been called the 

 Indo-Germanic, so the other has been called the Celto-Pelasgic. 

 This must now be called the Celto-Hellenic. The removal of the 

 tliree families just named will get rid of a great cause of obscurity 

 in the pal^o-ethnology, philology, history, and archa>ology of the 

 Indo-Europeans. 



Neibuhr and William Van Humboldt did much for determining 

 the relations of the Iberian or Euskaldune family, and Mr. Fer- 

 gusson has rendered great service by separating the Pelasgians 

 and Etruscans from the Indo-Europeans; but by connecting the 

 tliree families on the other theory, we obtain the very important 

 element of a living language and living people — most valuable in 

 such inipiirios, and likely to be of more use than the application 

 of the Co])tic in Egyptian arcbajology. If these views 'as to the 

 connection between tlie Euskaldunes and the Fins be borne out, 

 they will very much modify the aboriginal history of the Euro- 

 pean countries. 



Mr. Fergusson thinks the Phenicians were probably a branch of 

 this great race ; and he distinctly states, that either under the 

 name of Phenicians, or in their own name, this race had settle- 

 ments in France, Spain, and very likely even in Britain. The 

 Iberians comply with these conditions; and Mr. Clarke suggests 

 that the Phenicians never traded to Britain at all, or if they did, 

 only followed the Iberians. 



