of sycamore-wood, is sometimes wrought out of the solid, that is,
excavated; and sometimes composed of several pieces joined by _dowels_,
or wooden pegs, instead of nails. I never saw an instance of iron or
metal being employed. This outer case is also usually of considerable
thickness, viz., from two to three or four or more inches, and
generally coated thickly with distemper colour, on which is painted
various emblematical devices in a very inferior manner; the mask or
face sometimes gilded, sometimes red (male), sometimes yellow (female).
I never observed any appearance of varnish having been employed on the
colours of this outer case.
On wrenching open the upper and lower portions of this outer or wooden
case, which are united by flat tenons received in sockets and fastened
by pegs, and apparently glue in the joint, the second or _inner case_
appears. This case has not any wood in its composition, except a small
piece at the bottom, or foot-board, on which the feet of the mummy
rest. This case is composed of at least ten or a dozen layers of linen
of the same quality as that which envelopes the body; these laminæ are
very firmly cemented together by a material apparently glue and lime,
or plaster. This case is originally moulded on a rude mass or model of
clay and straw, of the size and form of the swathed body intended to
be afterwards contained in it, and when sufficiently dry to retain its
form, the clay and straw are scraped or scooped out from the back part
which is left open, or rather apparently cut open for that purpose,
and then the body is introduced, and the edges of the aperture brought
together and secured by a very simple and ingenious method of drum-like
bracing, and the seam and lacing covered afterwards with a strip of
cloth, glued or cemented, over them. This, with the foot-board, which
is braced in or secured in the same manner, rendered the body as it
were, hermetically sealed in its chrysalis case.
The painting on the exterior of the inner case is, I believe, the most
laboured part of the process, and I have seen some which must have
occupied many days, perhaps many weeks, in the very elaborate outlining
and colouring in water-colour or distemper; and finally varnishing
or fixing the subject of this hieroglyph or allegory. The ground of
this painting is of very fine and pure white, resembling stucco. The
parts that are drawn on, and apparently outlined with a pen and then
coloured, are the only parts that are afterwards varnished:--the
blank parts of the white ground remain unvarnished, except where the
varnish-brush has occasionally slipped beyond the outline, and there
the white has become yellow. This white ground may be disturbed by
a wetted finger, which is not the case with the varnished parts.
Their varnish must have been of excellent quality, as it retains
its transparency and gloss in a most extraordinary degree; in some
instances appearing as if executed only a few days. In one that was
opened in Sir Benjamin Brodie’s new theatre in Kinnerton-street,
Knightsbridge, during the last summer, some persons were so deceived as
to believe the varnish to have been duly laid on and not yet dry; and
really it might appear so to an inexperienced eye, without touching.
What the nature of the pigments used were, I have no adequate
knowledge; they generally appear to be earthy or ochreous and opaque:
yet their artists understood the art of representing transparent
objects with them, for example:--in one which was opened about two
years since at the College of Surgeons in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, on
which several figures were introduced, one of them had its limbs
partly naked, partly covered by a thin transparent robe, and a third
degree seen through a double and thicker part of the dress. The body
of this mummy was enveloped in at least fifteen or twenty layers of
linen filet, measuring I think about one hundred and thirty yards of
handbreadth strips, torn the length way of the piece. The only _entire_
piece from one end to the other of the warp, which I could preserve,
measured eighteen feet, which, folded twice, made the length of their
ordinary robe or dress (four feet six inches), of which we met with
several examples. The outer general envelope or winding-sheet was in
one piece, about seven feet in length, and nearly two yards wide, of
excellently regular manufacture, with a very good and uniform selvage:
there were also various pieces of about a yard long, and two yards or
rather more in breadth, folded and placed under the hollow parts of
the body, together with three or four halves (all of the left side) of
robes or dresses, torn lengthwise, that had been much worn and darned,
or strengthened with much ingenuity and neatness. These were folded,
and laid behind or beneath the back as a palliasse. The name of this
mummy, as deciphered by Mr. Wilkinson and Mr. Pettigrew, was “Horseisi,
son of Naspihiniegori, incense bearing Priest in the Temple of Ammon
at Thebes.” This inscription was repeated three or four times on the
bandaging, between the body and the external surface of the wrappers,
but there was no appearance of any painting whatever on them.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Lord Bacon, on the Advancement of Learning.
[2] The prodigious collection of Mexican relics, presented by the
publication of Lord Kingsborough’s splendid work, is among the most
interesting records of an infant civilization ever laid before the
world.
[3] Mandioca, called, in the West Indian islands, Cassava. The
planting, gathering, storing the roots, grinding, and finally
separating the meal from the fine gum called Tapioca, suppose a long
period of experience and great ingenuity.
[4] See Humboldt’s Researches, in one of the plates to which there
is a _picture law-suit_, of mixed realities and symbols. The small
golden figures, thought to be idols, found in some parts of Peru, and
of which I saw one in the possession of T. Bigg, Esq., belong to the
jewellers’ art rather than to legitimate sculpture. That which I saw,
was ingeniously formed of gold wire, various coils and folds of which
were twisted into the form of legs and arms, a body and head, with the
features of the face; very frightful, it is true, but still with a
sufficient degree of imitation to be the likeness of a man. The Terra
Cottas and stone or marble figures of Mexico, are of a higher class.
[5] See some excellent observations of Mr. Wilkinson, as to the
agreement of the book of Genesis and the Egyptian documents on this
point.
[6] Pausanias, in the fifth chapter of the Corinthiacs says, that the
Sicyonians assert that Ægialeus was the first _native_ of the place,
and that he named the country Ægialeus, and the city Ægialea. _Taylor’s
Translation._
[7] Chap. xv. v. 16.
[8] I am obliged to a learned friend, for the above explanation of the
meaning of the names Debir and Kirjath Sepher. To the same friend I owe
many corrections and suggestions of great value to me in the following
pages.
[9] See the figures and inscriptions on the curious cups belonging to
three of the most ancient Chinese dynasties, published in the Journal
of the Royal Asiatic Society.
[10] A change is taking place in Chinese art. The portrait painters of
the celestial empire are beginning to imitate those of Europe. This
year (1836) there is one in the Exhibition at Somerset House that was
taken for the work of a European artist by the academicians who first
saw it.
[11] The account of Mahabalipoor, or Mavellipoor, in the first Volume
of the Asiatic Researches, is erroneous. The author seems to have seen
but two of these temples, and to have mistaken the place of them. The
largest is forty-seven feet long and twenty-five feet high. The second
is twenty-seven feet long and thirty-six feet high.
[12] Unless, indeed, the recently discovered caves, in Northern India
should turn out to be anything more than coloured bas-relief.
[13] See, for examples, in Wilson’s translations of the theatre of
the Hindoos, Malati Madava, act i., scene 2. This play was written by
Bhavabhuti, who flourished about A. D. 720. Here the lover draws his
mistress’ portrait, from memory, on his writing tables.
There is another very pretty example in Retnavali, or the Necklace, by
Sri Hersha Deva, written for the court of Cashmir, about A. D. 1120,
where the young lady sketches her lover in the character of Camdeo, and
her friend finishes the picture by adding her figure as Reti, the bride
of Camdeo.
[14] See plates and descriptions in the early vols. of the Asiatic
Researches, and Lieutenant Burnes’ most interesting travels.
[15] Ezekiel xxiii. 14, 15; a very remarkable passage.
[16] Doubtless such magnificent persons as the Kings of Persia had
painters and sculptors. Persepolis, and the Takht i Rustan prove it.
Pliny says that a Phocean artist, named Telephenes, was in the service
of Xerxes and Darius; therefore the Persian court offered to artists
the prospect of fortune.
In the very interesting narrative of the late Mr. Rich’s residence on
the site of ancient Nineveh (lately published by his widow), mention is
made of the remaining decorations of the decayed Christian churches.
These are of so early a date that the art employed on them must be the
same with that of the times of the fire-worshippers. The figures appear
to have been in relief, like those of the catacombs of Egypt, and
colour remains in various parts.
[17] Curious and interesting as the plates are which adorn the work of
Rosselini, brought to England since this essay was written, they do not
in the slightest degree alter my view of Egyptian painting.
[18] The reign of the Phrah Osirtisen II., Wilkinson says, was that in
which Joseph was carried down into Egypt.
[19] Oxford Bible. Quarto. Chronology at the end.
[20] Arundel Marbles.
[21] B. C. 1582.
[22] Eliezar, Abraham’s servant, was bought there.
[23] B. C. 1495.
[24] Tanis. Lightfoot.
[25] Gold was used in this embroidery; the metal was beat into
exceeding thin plates, then cut as small as wire; this flat gold
embroidery is still used in the East. Exodus, chapter xxxix., verse 3.
[26] Exodus, chapter xxxii., verse 4.
[27] For the supposed figures of the cherubim, see Lightfoot, who
thinks they had the faces of oxen between their wings, not human heads.
[28] The song of Maneros was, however, long sung in Egypt; but that
was accompanied with a strangely melancholy air, which, perhaps,
secured its duration. The few words said of this air by Herodotus, have
furnished Mr. Seymer with the subject of a beautiful tale. See first
series of Romance of Ancient History.
[29] See extract from Mr. Clift’s letter at the end of this Essay.
[30] See Wilkinson.
[31] Herod: Euterpe LXXXVI. Not that they were ignorant, probably, of
glue made from the skins of animals, &c. The Romans had it, and, as
Pliny says, preferred that made of _bulls’_ hides.
[32] See the accounts given by all modern travellers. The extreme
beauty and delicacy of structure of many of the Mosques and the Tombs
of the Caliphs, ornamented, even to profuseness, with everything but
imitations of animated beings, form a contrast almost extravagant, with
the severe, if not sublime, masses of ancient Egypt.
ESSAY II.
OF ART IN ANCIENT ITALY[33].
Arts are advanced not so much by them that dare make a great show of
Art, as by them that know how to find out what there is in Art.
ISOCRATES.
Honour doth nourish Arts, and we are all drawn by glory to take pains;
as are also such things ever neglected, as are little regarded in the
opinion of men.
CICERO.
It is very disagreeable to unlearn the learning of one’s youth, and
to give up belief in certain things that seem, from our long familiar
acquaintance, as if they made up a part of the system of nature itself.
But so it must be, if we will give ourselves fair play in examining
into the history of art or science, polity or commerce, in ancient
Italy. In our early education it is Rome only to which the attention is
directed. Rome is represented as first in arts and arms, as spreading
civilisation along with her dominion: and, in short, Roman virtue and
Roman greatness dazzle our young imaginations, till, seeing nothing but
the glare of her meridian splendour, we forget to look whence and how
it arose.
Yet Italy must have had a long and not inglorious history before the
seven-hilled city could boast of a shepherd’s hut, or the politic
Romulus, if such a king ever reigned, found a village considerable
enough to tempt him to make himself a king contrary to the custom of
the neighbouring federal states, one of which, Cœre, had, not very long
before his time, expelled its Lucumon (Mezentius) for little reason but
that he had sought to change the annual magistracy into a monarchy for
life[34].
This history will probably remain for ever obscure as to the particular
facts relating to it, and the names of those who might have figured
in it; because, the vainglory of the Romans, infecting even their
writers, desired that their own history and their own monuments
should stand foremost in the eyes of posterity; and though the
ancient books existed, and the ancient language was still understood
to a late period[35], no use was made of them by those who recorded
the achievements of the Romans; and it is because they found it so
difficult to conquer the Italian tribes, one by one, that we are led to
form an idea of their strength and importance.
Many men of learning and understanding in Italy, had, from time to
time, thrown doubts on the early portion of the Roman history, some
perhaps feeling that their own native provinces had been wronged by
their gorgeous adversary.
But the fate of Italy,
Servir sempre, o vincitrice o vinta,
had lowered the energies that, under other circumstances, would have
boldly proclaimed these doubts long ago, and have shown Rome as she
was, the destroyer of men and of happiness; a conqueror converting
whole well-peopled and cultivated provinces into deserts, ever which a
few wretched slaves wandered to their task work, instead of the free
peasants who once gathered their own rich harvests; a tyrant at whose
frown the liberal arts withered, and commerce deserted the useless
ports and abandoned storehouses of the subdued merchants and spiritless
artists.
But the pains-taking critics of Germany had no morbid sensibility to
prevent them from attacking Rome; none of the hopeless feeling of those
who would, but must not, vindicate the fame of their ancestors; and
with something of roughness and much of justice, they have taught us
to trample on ancient prejudice, and to dare to look upon Italy as not
dependant entirely upon Rome.
There have not been wanting Italians to join in these views, and to
acknowledge the merit of their trans-alpine critics. Among these
Micali is conspicuous; and, as his late work, with its atlas, throws
considerable light on a very early period of art in Italy, I shall make
use of it in preference to any other in what I have to say of painting
and its kindred arts, before the period of Roman authentic history
begins.
The scattered notices to be found in ancient writers, leave no doubt
as to a few facts: namely, that a rude tribe, or several rude tribes,
called by the various titles of Opicians, Auruncians, Oscans,
Cascans, or Priscan Latins, under the general name of Ausonians, and
all speaking the same language, once possessed, at least, the hill
countries of Italy; that these were succeeded by a race speaking a
different dialect, resembling the Pelasgians, who appear in several
countries as the first people possessing the arts of civilized life,
beginning to build cities, and introducing regular government.
Then we read of Umbrians, Siculi, and colonies from Greece and Phrygia;
and Italy next appears, long before the foundation of Rome, as chiefly
possessed by a people whose native name seems to have been Ra-seni, who
were called generally by the Greeks, Tyrrhenians, and by the Latins,
Tuscans or Etruscans.
It is among this remarkable people, possessed of some of the sciences
and most of the arts of social life, that the fine arts were first
cultivated in Italy; and that they were no mean proficients, will not
be disputed by any one who has beheld even a single Etruscan vase[36].
They had not pyramids or giant temples to boast of. Their works were
not for kings or for the exclusive profit of the governing priests,
like those of Egypt or India, but for the public. They have left walls
of cities, solid quays and ports, drains and sluices, useful even at
the present time, as their monuments.
But in their country, as well as in Egypt, it is in the repositories of
the dead that we are to look for the relics of whatever was beautiful
or ornamental among them[37].
The first steps of art have, doubtless, been the same among all
nations; but the Tyrrhenians had some advantages in their early
cultivation. They were early a maritime people; as merchants or as
pirates they visited whatever ports the Phœnicians traded to, in the
Mediterranean; and the effect of their foreign intercourse is to be
traced in whatever we know of their institutions or see of their arts.
But I must not allow myself to be seduced into more than the very
slightest mention of the resemblance of some of their institutions to
those of Greece, and of others to those of Egypt; and that mention is
only made because the influence of the intercourse with other nations,
upon the arts of Etruria, is so conspicuous, that it is impossible to
give the slightest sketch of them without a reference to it[38].
The relics, confessedly of Etruscan manufacture, that from time to
time have been discovered in various parts of Italy, had convinced
us that the nation was early acquainted with the arts, but there was
little to guide antiquaries as to the age of the relics themselves, or
the sources whence those arts had been derived. The fabulous as well
as the true stories of colonies from Asia, Egypt, and Greece, which
had been left by the ancients, became signals of battle for modern
disputants, and much ink has been shed in support of all manner of
contradictory theories.
The late historical disquisitions of the Germans and Italians cleared
away a good deal of obscurity; the re-opening of the great cemeteries
of Chuisi, Tarquinii, and Vulscii, have, as far as relates to art, done
much more[39]; and we may safely conclude that the Etruscan artists,
not mean in themselves, were improved by the importation of models from
other countries, and probably by the settling of potters and metal
founders from Sicyon, Corinth, and other Greek cities among them.
That they early adopted the deities of other countries is also proved
by the opening of the tombs of Chuisi. It is impossible not to be
struck with the close resemblance to the sculpture and coloured
bas-reliefs of Egypt found there; and, saving that the Tuscans do not
appear to have practised embalming, the mystic ceremonies in honour of
the dead are shown to be the same.
The beautiful vases of different kinds and colours, of clay baked or
unbaked, are covered with designs, in exquisite taste and delicately
touched. They are mostly painted in one single colour, or at most
two or three flat colours, picked out with black or white. Some have
figures in slight relief; and, with few exceptions, the subjects are
from the Greek mysteries of Bacchus, Hercules, and Ceres, when their
attributes coincide with those of the Egyptian deities, Osiris and
his family. The genii, with two or four wings, found in some of the
most ancient, mark a very early intercourse with the priests of both
countries; and though the most offensive particulars belonging to their
mythologies are totally absent, the great Egyptian demon of destruction
is common on cups, pateræ, and vases[40].
Among the great variety of designs found in the newly opened tombs,
I cannot refrain from mentioning one which Micali has published, of
a domestic rural scene, painted in several colours. Under a canopy
there is a grave elderly man seated, and before him his servants are
weighing corn, brought in nets from the field[41]. Below, as if in a
vault, others are stowing sacks of corn, which we may suppose have been
weighed. The resemblance of the subject on this patera or plate to some
of those found by Mr. Wilkinson on the walls of the catacombs of Egypt,
is very remarkable.
Besides the vases of clay, some utensils of wood and metal were found
in the cemeteries. Gems also, with chased ornaments, of beautiful fancy
and excellent workmanship, necklaces, armlets, rings, buckles, signets,
besides armour, all designed with taste, and executed with skill, show,
to our regret, against how civilized a people the Romans made war, and
leave us to lament that the selfish vainglory of the conquerors thought
of preserving no annals but their own.
To describe the painted sides of the tombs at Chuisi and other ruined
Italian cities, would be to repeat what I have already said of those of
Egypt, as far as their colouring is concerned, or their approach to
the nature of a true picture; but I must remark that the designs, if
not so imposing, have more nature and grace, though they are not to be
compared in size, number, or variety, with those of Egypt.
But there is some reason to believe that the ancient Italians had true
painters among them. Indeed I think the evidence for it as good as that
we have for any other facts connected with the arts. Pliny[42], after
refuting the story that painting was brought into Italy from Corinth,
by Cleophantus, a friend of Tarquinius Priscus[43], who had fled from
the tyranny of Cypselus, says expressly[44], “Extant there be at this
day to be seen at Ardea, within the temples there, antique pictures,
and indeed more ancient than the city of Rome. And I assure you no
pictures ever came to my sight which I wonder so much at, namely,
that they should continue so long fresh and as if they were newly
made, considering the places where they be so ruinate and uncovered
over head. Semblably at Lanuvium, there remain two pictures of Lady
Atalanta and Queen Helena, close one to the other, painted naked, by
one and the same hand: both of them are for beauty incomparable, and
yet a man may discern one of them to be a maiden by her modest and
chaste countenance, which pictures, notwithstanding the ruin of the
temple where they stand, are not a whit disfigured or defaced[45];” and
farther on he says, that at Cære there were pictures of still greater
antiquity.
These were of course the works of Etruscan artists, and, as Pliny had
opportunities of seeing and judging of the best Greek pictures which
successive conquerors had brought to Rome before his time, his praises
may be taken as good evidence for the general estimation of the skill
of those early painters.
Happily, although the barbarous Romans had not taste enough to value
and preserve the fame of their Etruscan rivals, they did not disdain
to employ their artists. One of the Roman modes of honouring their
forefathers was to preserve their effigies in plaster, wax, stone, or
metal; and on the death of any member of a family, the figures or heads
of the ancestors were taken from the family treasury to accompany the
body to the place of burial, or to the funeral pyre.
This alone would render the Etruscan sculptors popular. One of the most
ancient remaining works, executed by them for Rome, is the bronze wolf,
“the thunder-stricken nurse of Rome,” preserved in the Capitol, and
of which Micali has given an excellent figure. But this, and also the
most ancient statues of the kings and consuls, must have been cast in
Etruscan towns, and brought to Rome; for Pliny[46] tells us that the
very first bronze statue cast within the city was that of the goddess
Ceres, the expense being defrayed by the forfeited goods of Spurius
Capius, who was put to death for aspiring to the dignity of king[47].