Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1889-11-15
MISS EDWARDS, LECTURE.

miss EDWARDS LECTURE. (
\ scholarly Address, Giving n Conn !
prohensive View OF the Develop t
ment OF Egyptian Painting from she |
Earliest Times Until the Fusion !
with the Greek.
The Hyperion was again filed last night
with cultured audience to hear the second
lecture by the talented woman Psychologist,
Miss Z iwards, whose name Is now promi-
nently before our country. He subject was
"Portrait Painting In Ancient Egypt" Illus
trated by an Ancient Portrait Gallery. Rev.
James Johnston, A. 8. A., of Bolton, Eng
land, writing of Miss Edwards, says: "In the
person of Miss Amelia B. Edwards the sub
jsct of Esyptology has an eloquent and dis
tinguished representative. Laying no claim
to the role of q practical explorer, such as
pertains to Madame Dieulafoi, whose seven
years. excavations at Persepolis and Susa
have yielded rich results, Miss Edwards has
nevertheless, helpfully contributed to the
republication of discoveries in the land of
the Pharaohs. What Miss North has accom-
plished through her celebrated Nile Sketches,
the woman who is vioe-president of the
Egypt Exploration Fund, has achieved
mainly by pen, skilful, versatile. and pic
turesque." H..
Last night the audience expected much and
were not disappointed, the address being
choice and instructive entertainment. Miss
Edwards 10 pre- eminently an English woman
refined, intellectual, travelled and well
read. She was suffering from o cold last
evening, but nevertheless, her voice was
found admirably adapted to public speak
ing, being fluent, clear, and pleasantly at
toned to the listening ear. Interspersed here
Of felicitous word painting of artistic analy-
sis and keen and discriminating comment
which heightened the interest ten-fold. The
principal points Of the lecture follow:
We would naturally suppose the arts of
sculpture and painting, which have come
down to us from the ancient Egyptians, to be
twins, but painting and drawing, Its prede-
Egypt's civilization is, almost as old as man
himself. Drawing is the earliest art the
world possessed, and we pass at once from
the most ancient traces of the Egyptian
'drauRhtsman. We cannot measure the
abyss of time which elapsed between the
two. We cannot guess how long ID took the
primitive Egyptian to work up from his
original barbarian to the time when we first
hear of him, for even then he was a finished
knowledge of arts and literature. 1t Ia with
his skill as draughtsman and as painter
that we are concerned. The earliest Egyptian
paintings are at the temple of Dene-
bar on the Nile, and antedate the
birth of Christ by 5000 years. They are
contemporaneous with the building of the
great pyramids. Their popularity is that
the heads and legs are represented in profile,
while the bodies and eyes are full front.
uavxf Of No q fat ~ ha
figures were drawn upon the same plane.
Still, the picture Is not 80 preposteroas as
the description would seem; the lines are
drawn with such freedom and gracefulness
that we forget the deformity. In eoloring, the
mon were painted dark, reddish brown, and
the women yellowish buff. The features and
dress also received conventional represen-
tation. The ancient Egyptian was not q
painter but an illuminstor. He could not
depict widow weeping at the side of the
mummy of her husband, nor Pharaoh slay-
ing his thousands on the field of battle, but
in the representation of race characteristics
and individuals, alien types and alien cos
tunes, he was inimitable. The impression
Is prevalent that the Egyptian artist took
more liberties with tho human form
divine than artists of any other nations,
but 1t is not the case. The
begin in the same way and make precisely
the same errors. Nothing in Egypt has been
discovered SO ludicrously feeble as the draw
ing on the proto-Homeric vases of Athens,
contemporaneous with the time of the Goth
dynasty, under Rameses III, at even which
period true Egyptian art was In its decad.
ence.
At this point were displayed number of
photographs direct from the original
Miss Edwards pointing out their
salient characteristics, as she did Monday
night. The contrast between the early
Greek pictures and the finished Egyptian
was indeed laughsble, but it was noticed
that the former developed, while the latter,
having arrived at q certain point of perfec-
ton, remained at a standstill.
Continuing, the lecturer said the Greeks
learned from the Egyptians, but at length
the Egyptians adopted the progressive Ore
elan IDEAS. When the huge labyrinth near
Heliopolis was destroyed by the Roman gov
eminent a portion of it's site was made use of
as place Of burial by an extensive Greeco-
Egyptian colony. Here the new art came
into being, perhaps q variation of rolling the
bandages over the face Of the mummy sug-
gested 1t. Faces and heard were painted
full face, with light and shade to give the
semblance of relief. The material was gen.
orally wax, laid on panels of cedar wood.
The oolors were applied in powder form to
the surface of the soft wax by a seed brush.
The result was an immense step forward.
By means of the stereopticon q series of
specimens Of this later portraiture found In
recent excavations was projected on the
screen. The faces were exceedingly inter-
eating, the drawing, expression and light and
shade effects being excellent. The faces, es-
pecially those Of the women, bore an exceed
ing modern look and were complete to the
most minute detail.