Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1890-03-07
EGYPTIAN WAX PORTRAITS.


~ Of Buried Clties-
When the moderns read In Pliny Of the
extreme degree Of excellence TO which
Greek artists had attained in his day and
of thaprioes which some OF their works
fetched, equivalent. to &c, 900 or e12, 200
Of our monay, scholars and other com
peten. authorities dismissed these as
'tavelerS tales They could not bring
themselves 70 believe that these stories
were true, or that Rubens, HOlbein, Sit
Thomas Lawrence and other later celeb
ritieshad been anticipated II not surpass
ed IN the centuries before the Christian |
era. And yet it was SO, and Pliny no more |
than Herodotus deserved to be called the |
father Of liars. The graves have given
up their dead and revealed secrets which |
It was thougbt had been forever hidden
IN thb Tomb. Il Is from the land Of
Egypt that these discoveries come.
The explorations ON the site Of Mem
phis and Thebes had prepared the way
for the discoveries in the province Of
Faijum. These consist of number Of
portraits found In the sand at Rubaijat.
which are In the possession Of TheodoT
Graf, in Vienna. and are now on view at
the Societe d Encouragement pour fIn-
dnstrie Rationale, A Rue de Pennies. 40
Cording to an ancient Egyptian custom
the countenance of the deceased was
represented at the head of the mummy
or coffin. This castoan was adhered to
in the Greco-R Roman epoch of Egypt,
but instead Of the plastic head. which up
to that time had heen alone in use, A
painting was substituted representing a
real portrait of the deceased. These
portraits, which we're painted on a thin
panel of wood, were laid over the face of
the mummies, the outer bandages Of the
shrouds being then wrapped about them
so Is to cover the margin of the picture,
the latter alone being visible.
A mummy of this kind, therefore,
presented the appearance Of a living
body, looking out Of an opening in the
bandages for the survivors to gaze upon
in the collins. the lids of which were
made to be thrown back for that pur-
pose. The only other graves where
these curious pictorial works have been
found were opened in the winter Of
1878 by the English engineer, Mr..
Petrie. at Harvard. but the pictures in
them are said to be not nearly equal to
the specimens discovered at Rubaijat
The tombs themselves. built in the rocks,
were ransacked ages ago by thieves
who, in their search for gold. destroyed
both coffins and mummies. Luckily,
the pilferers deemed the pictures to be
/. of no value, so were thrown away-but
not to perish-in the dry dust of the
desert.
Herr Grafs collection numbers ninety
five specimens of varying interest in
point of execution, bat all valuable as
works Of art. They are portraits on cy-
press wood, the more ancient being
painted in wax colors, laid ON with the
cestrum or spatula, lancet shaped in
strument--the later specimens being pro
duced by water colors, TO which was
added the yolk and white of eggs OF
other resinous binding substances. The
, painting with wax was done without the
employment of heat and without using
the brush, the ancients being ignorant OF
the process Of dissolving wax in turpen-
tine. On examining these rows of heads
gazing calmly out of large, lustrous eyes,
shut now for over 1000 years, one seemi
to be brought face to face with the last
Of humanity in more real way than has
hitherto been in our power.
One is also struck with the modern
look of many Of these ancient portraits
There is a face of an old man Of wonder
full force Of character and intellectual
power. The painter Menzel, of Berlin
has declared that nothing finer than thiI
has been done in portrait painting. The
: female faces are nearly all tinged witt
: melancholy, but some are of great beau
. ty, and they almost without exception
reveal traces of the distinction of the
originals. There Is a very modern heac
of an old lady with short gray locks
The fidelity of execution in these paint
ings is so great that doctors have beer
able to detect the existence Of drOpsy.-
Architect.