surface, appears to
be an art of less antiquity than that of sculpture. The Egyptians
probably first coloured their reliefs and statues before they
attempted to represent objects with colours on a flat ground. But,
however this may be, paint was most extensively used by them, not only
in making pictures, properly so called, but in painting the surfaces
of tablets and temples, as well as colossal statues and sculptured
figures of all kinds and sizes. Indeed, an Egyptian temple, in its
complete state, bedizened with so many bright unmixed colours, must
have been rather a curious object, and would hardly, perhaps, have
pleased the taste of modern times; though, it must be admitted, that
the effect of these colours under a brilliant sun would be very
different from their appearance in such a climate as this. The
pureness, permanence, and brilliancy of Egyptian colouring are the
only qualities that we can admire; for they never, apparently,
compounded colours so as to produce a greater variety from the simple
colours. It has also been frequently remarked that they did not soften
them off so as to form various degrees of intensity, or to make any
attempt at contrasts of light and shade. This is probably true as to
the representation of human figures, which are coloured pretty much in
the same style that a child paints uncoloured engravings, making one
part all red, another all blue, and so on, without any softening of
the colours at their common boundary. But in the representation of
animals, as we shall afterwards observe, more care was taken in
softening and blenching the colours, so as to produce a better
representation of nature.

"The colours used in the painted relief, and on the stuccoes are
black, blue, red, green, and yellow; these are always kept distinct
and never blended. Of blue, they used both a darker and a lighter
shade. Red was used to represent the human flesh, apparently from its
being nearer the natural tint than any other simple colour; but many
of their colours were evidently applied with a conventional meaning,
for the representation of different races. The conquered people
represented in the great temple of Abonsambel, or Ipsambul, have
yellow bodies and black beards. In the grottoes of El Cab, the men are
red, and the women yellow. Black men also sometimes appear in the
paintings. The five colours above enumerated seldom occur all in one
piece or picture; but in this matter there is perhaps no genera