The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-09-28
WAX PORTRAITS OF EGYPTIANS.
Curious Works OF art Found in the
Ruins OF Buried Cities.

Ruins OF Buried Cities.
From the Architect.
When the modern reads in Pliny of the
extreme degree Of excelle ce to which Greek
artists had attained in his day and Of the
prices which some of their works fetched,
equivalent 70 $1,000 or e12.OOO Of our
money, scholars and ether competent au-
thOrities dismissed these as avelers' tales.
They could not bring themselves to believe
that these stories were true, or that
Ruoels, Holbein, Sir Thomas Law
renee, and other later celebrities.
had been anticipated if not sur
passed in the centuries before the
christian era And vet it was 50, and Pliuy
no more than Herodotus deserved to be
calle1 the father OF liars. The graves have
given up their dead and revealed secrets
which 1t was thought had been forever
hidden in the tomb. 1t is from the land Of
Egypt that these discoveries come. The
explorations on the site of Memphis and
Thebes had prepared the way for the dis
coverles In the provinces Of Faijun. These
consist Of a number of portraits found in
the sand at Rubaitat, which are in the pos
session Of Theodor Graf in Vienna. aud are
now on view at the Soclete Encouragement
pour Flndus'rie Rationale, A Rue de Rem
mes. According TO ancielu Egyptian Gus
tom the C }untenance of the deceased was
represented at the head of the mu umy or
cotfil. This custom was adhered TO ia the
Gra o-RJman epoch of Egypt, but instead
OF the plastic Lead, which up to that time
mad been alone in use, painting was sub
su1uted represe ting a real portrait
Of the deceased. These portraits,
which were painted on a thin pa ell
OF wood, were laid over the face OF the
mummies, the outer bandages of the
shrouds being then wrapped about them so
as TO cover the margin OF the picture, the
latter alone being visible. A mummy of
this kidd, therefore, p eseuted the appear
ance of allving body looking out of an open-
ing in the bandages for the survivors to
gaze upoa In the coffin, the Ills of which
were made 20 be thrown back for that pur-
pose. The only other graves where these
pictorial works may be round were opened
In the winter of lSS7-'SS by the En- fish
engineer, Mr.. Petrie, at Harvard, but the
pictures discovered III them are said to be
no nearly equal to the specimens discovered
at Ruha. tat. The tonbs themselves, built
in the rocks, were ransacked ages aso by
thieves, who, in their search for gold, de-
stroyed both coffins and mummies
Luckily, the plferers deemed the
pictures to be of no value, SO
they we're thrown away-but not to perish
in the dry dust of the desert. Herr Crafts
collection number ninety-i g specimens f
varying interest IN point of execution, but
all valuable as works of arr. They are
portraits on cypress wood, the more ancient
being painted in wax colors, laid on with
the cestrum or spatula, q lancet-shaped
instrument-the later specimens being pr
duced by water colors, to which was added
the yOlk and white Of eggs, or other resin
GUS binding substances. The painting with
wax was done without the employment of
heat, and without using the brush,
the ancie is being igAoraat of the process
of dissolving wax in turpe tine.
On examining these rows of he DIS
gazing calmly out of rye lus-
trous eyes, shut now for over 1000 yea s,
one seems to be brought face to face
witt the past Of humanity In more real
way than has hitherto been in our power.
Ode Is also struck with the modern look OF
many OF these ancient portraits. There is a
face of an old man of wonderful force of
character and Intellectual power. The
pal tier MeAzel of Berlin mas declare that
nothing finer than this has bee done IN
portrait painting. The female faces are
nearly all tinged with melancholy, but
some are of great beauty, and they al most
without exception reveal tr .cts of the dis
tiuction Of the origi als There is a very
modern head Of an old lady with short gray
locks. The fidelity of execution in THESE
paintings is so z eat tnat doctors have been
le to detect the existence of dropsy. The
French government is in tire ty for the col
lecti IN, the value of which is estimated at
about E40000