Evening star., 1923-05-27

Clarke, their designer. said yester-
day:
IL is difficult TO understand why
the palm column, perhaps the most
graceful OF the several orders OF
columns in Egyptian architecture,
was employed so rarely. II was one
of the two earliest forms used in the
building of temples and tombs, shar-
ing this antiquity with the lotus
column. The earliest example of the
palm column appears to have been
found in the court OF the mortuary
temple of King Unas of the nth
dynasty, who lived about 1900 p. c.
This style of column seems TO
have been generally abandoned for
the lotus and papyrus types during
the period from the fifth to the
thirtieth dynasty, in which latter
dynasty IL was employed frequently
by the Ptolmaic builders.
The finest and probably best known
of the palm columns which exist today
are those of the hypostyle hall Of the
Temple of Isis, at Philae. begun by
Ptolemy ii (Philadelphus) and mostly
getes II. between 2s5 and 222 b. c.
AT Philae. once the pearl of
Egypt. is a small temple-covered
island lying in the widened part Of
about seven miles south of Assuan
and $50 miles up the Nile from Cairo.
The Temple of Isis. though small,
as compared with most Egyptian
examples of painted columns and CELL
tngs of the later period, to be found in
Egypt. veritable jewel of brilliancy
and charm. The advance of twentieth
the form of the Assuan dam has
claimed this jewel for its own, for its
waters now lap the once gorgeous cap
ltals, taking with 1t their painted glory.
to us down TO the time of the inunda-
ton OF the island, was of such unusual
richness that il took little imagination
TO see it again in all Of it's original
brillance; The palm capital was prob
ably derived from a bundle of palm
sticks bound together and plastered
with mud to stiffen them. When this
primitive material of construction of
the column gave way to harder ma
terials, the same general forms were
retained and worked into the new
Originally the natural coloring of the
derivative forms was duplicated on the
stone, but in later times little regard
was paid to this, but pleasing scheme
OF colors appears to have been their
chief aim. Frequently green palm
leaves were painted with blue ribs. etc
True Designers.
However. the artificiality in Egyptian
art is pleasing. Their long schooling
through the ages which taught them to
build to last forever and to decorate
made of them the true designers that
all ages since have acknowledged them
to have been.
The papyrus bud type of column was
not evolved as early as the pals or lotus
column, but was a much later develop
ment. Its earliest form was a cluster
of papyrus buds formed together just
below the flower calyxes with thongs
ha a
or the stems. Either pieces of wood
or small flower stems were inserted
between the several main grooves be-
tween the plant stems beneath the
leaves of the plant clustered around
the feet of the stems and similar
leaves around the flower calyxes
which formed the capital. An abacus,
or square stone was placed on top
to support the cross beams and a
columns to rest upon.
This design was purely imagina-
tive. and was not based on the form
of it's derivative material, as was the
palm column. Columns in this earlier
stage of development, which stage is
far more pleasing than this later and
final stage, were used profusely in
the great temple at Luxor in the
early part of the eighteenth dynasty.
Toward the end of this dynasty, how
ever. the clustered papyrus column
underwent an essential change. In
order to adopt the shaft for the re-
ception of inscriptions and pictures
it's Irregularities were abandoned, and
1t was made perfectly smooth. For
the same reason, the capital also was
rounded off, and transformed into a
blunt cone. the original clustering
being recalled by the painting alone.
The cluster of leaves at the base of
the column was retained as design,
but those around the capital disap-
peared, giving way to conventional
design, which still employed sugges-
tions of the groove sticks of the
earlier form, however.
The column proper was now dec
Grated in a band Of brightly colored
pictures showing the events in the
lives OF the reigning pharaoh. etc.
Used In Temple Of Karnak.
This later developed form was
used extensively in the great tenn
pie of Karnak. The great hypostyle
hall. which was built by Seti I and
Rames as IT about 1"a0 ". q. con