The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-23
Alt VI i tVU
CHANGED GREATLY
IN LAST 80 YEARS
Scientific Research in Egypt
Causes Pronounced
Revision.

OduS0S EIO1lOuIlCSu
Revision.
New York, N. Y.-Art history, par
ticularly in the branch Of painting,
has undergone some radical revisions
in the last quarter of a century, as a
direct result of Egyptian archaeoIo-
gical research. Painting, as we know
it today, is at least 5000 years old
and we have found the originals TO
prove it. The site of ancient Thebes.
now represented by the modern N4l-
lagos of 'Karnak andd Luxor, has
been one of the richest quarries
| worked by modern scholarly excava-
| tors of various nationalities. Ten
years ago the Metropolitan Museums
expedition established at Thebes a
special school or atelier for the pur-
pose of copying and recording the
brilliant painted scenes and inscrip-
lions uncovered in the royal tomb
chapels of Egypt's rulers of more
than 80 centuries ago.
The fascinating wall pictures and
other relics of that fair and stately
Theban Campo Santo" across the
Nile, among the wales and foothills of
the LibYan mountains. are as an old
er Pompeii to the Thebes of the Eigh-
teenth Century, approximately 1925
B. G. Egyptian art, especially paint
| ing and sculpture, Was then at it's
| fullest development. It is with a
strange thrill that we contemplate
today the intimate color vignettes de-
| plotting with cheerful vivacity the
home life, family intercourse, field
| labor, harvest and vintage festivals,
and pleasure activities on the Nile.
of the gifted people who handed on
| the torch Of early civilization to
| Greece and Rome. They must have
been a busy, cultured, gay and OPP
| timistic race!
Supp1ementing the previous work
dedicated to the excavations at Lisht
| by Albert M. Lythgbe, curator of
Egyptian art, the trustees of the Met
ropolitan Museum have now achieved
| the publication, in a limited edition
of 500 copies, of "Nakht," sumpu-
i tous folio volume with 10 fac-simile
color plates, besides numerous pho
| togravures and explanatory key
| drawings This is the first of a SER
ries provided for by the Robb de
Peyster Tytus memorial fund, given
| for the purpose by Mrs Charlotte
M Tytus in 1914. The descriptive
well as the extraordinarily faithful
water-color copies Of the now fast
| fading original frescoes, are by Nor
man de CARTS Davies, whose broad
and versatile scholarship in this field
| of Egyptian archaeological research is
widely known from his former con-
tributions on the subject, especially
! those devoted to the famous sites of
| Tell ell Arnarna, DER ell Gebrawl and
Sheikh Said, represented concretely
| in the museums own collections.
The enthusiasm of the artist-arch-
| aeologist is liable to seize the most
sto1id reader on turning from some
| lively, modern-Iooking sketch Of the
dainty Nile maidens Of the reign OF
Amenhotep II, to the accompanying
text: 1.-THE tourist who comes to this
| brilliant gallery from the stiff pan
theon and grotesque Hades of the
royal reliquaries, Immediately .recog-
ynizes these pictures as faithful though
| quaint reflections of groups which
have caught his eye during his morn
| ing ride through the cultivated fields
| He is intensely refreshed by this SIM
pie human appeal. It may be true
that the popularity Of Nakht's ancient
resting-place has been due as much
to it's accessibility and good preserva-
ton as to the intrinsic merit of its
pictorial embellishments But by pre-
] setting the average mural art and the
| typical scenes of the period without
any serious deterioration, either in
| color or line, 1t deserves very care
| full publication and study. This tri-
| butte of respect seems to have been
paid to it, even in it's own day, for
| many scenes depicted in neighboring
chapel walls and illuminated cham
bers appear to have been inspired by
| this original. In some cases groups
have been taken from it or it's pro-
totype with but slight alteration"
! These pictures-whose technical
peculiarities, even to the strokes OF
] the primitive painters brush and the
spreading of the pigments, are pre-
cisely reproduced by the latest Ger
man process of color-litho ply
are in effect lime frescoes, similar to
| those of which traces remain on some
Greek marble, or on the walls Of
Pompeii and Herculaneum. They
have not the 9hard,- imperishable.
light-reflecting surface or the medic
| cal silicate frescoes, hence the impor-
| lance of securing photographs and
| color copies as soon as may be after
| the excavators have exposed them to
/ sunshine and outer air.
| They are flat in coloring and draw
ling, as mural paintings have a right
Ito be. There is no atmosphere" no
/ background, TO aerial perspective.
| and not much lineal hint Of depth or
bulk Groups of figures are cleverly
spaced, without any sense of pictor-
4 ial composition in a complete or gen.
| eraI sense, according to our later-day
/ ideas But there is character, ex-
preston, vivacity and at times even
/ a. naive sort of synthetic abstraction,
| in the drawing very much in the spir-
| 1t of what we had been pleased to
think a special scientific evolution of
our own A cat and fish by some early
Egyptian Chase or Sargent are
| shown, which make 1t clear that if
| the learned Thebans of old did not
have Sunday newspaper supplements
with colored comic features" it was
not for lack of smart illustrators,
/ quite fit for the job.
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