Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects and Curiosities of Art | Page 6

are two or three thousand years old, and
some of them perhaps older.
Among all the wonderful subterranean monuments of Egypt, the
Catacombs of Thebes are the most extraordinary and magnificent.
These consist of the Necropolis, or city of the dead, on the west bank of
the Nile (which was the common burial-place of the people), and the
Tombs of the Kings. The latter lie to the northwest of the city, at some
distance in the Desert. Having passed the Necropolis, the traveler enters
a narrow and rugged valley, flanked with perpendicular rocks, and
ascending a narrow, steep passage about ten feet high, which seems to
have been broken down through the rock, the ancient passage being
from the Memnonium under the hills, he comes to a kind of
amphitheatre about 100 yards wide, which is called
Bab-il-Meluke--that is, the gate or court of the kings--being the
sepulchres of the kings of Thebes. In this court there are signs of about
eighteen excavations; but only nine can be entered. The hills on each
side are high, steep rocks, and the whole plain is covered with rough
stones that seem to have rolled down from them.
The grottos present externally no other ornaments than a door in a
simple square frame, with an oval in the centre of the upper part, on
which are inscribed the hieroglyphical figures of a beetle, a man with a
hawk's head, and beyond the circle two figures on their knees, in the act
of adoration. Having passed the first gate, long arched galleries are

discovered, about twelve feet wide and twenty feet high, cased with
stucco, sculptured and painted; the vaults, of an elegant elliptical figure,
are covered with innumerable hieroglyphics, disposed with so much
taste, that notwithstanding the singular grotesqueness of the forms, and
the total absence of demi-tint or aërial perspective, the ceilings make an
agreeable whole, a rich and harmonious association of colors. Four of
five of these galleries, one within the other, generally lead to a spacious
room, containing the sarcophagus of the king, composed of a single
block of granite, about twelve feet long by eight in breadth, ornamented
with hieroglyphics, both within and without; they are square at one end,
and rounded at the other, like the splendid sarcophagus deposited in the
British Museum, and supposed by Dr. Clarke to have contained the
body of Alexander. They are covered with a lid of the same material,
and of enormous thickness, shutting with a groove; but neither this
precaution, nor these vast blocks of stone, brought from such a distance
with immense labor, have been able to preserve the relics of the
sovereigns from the attempts of avarice; all these tombs have been
violated. The figure of the king appears to have been sculptured and
painted at full length on the lid of each sarcophagus.
The paintings found in these sepulchres are among the most curious
and interesting remains of Egyptian art; and they are in wonderful
preservation, the colors being as fresh as when first executed. Some of
these figures were copied by Bruce; and Denon, a member of the
French Commission sent by Napoleon to examine the antiquities of
Egypt, has published a most valuable collection which have all the
appearance of spirited and characteristic resemblances. "I discovered,"
says he, "some little chambers, on the walls of which were represented
all kinds of arms, such as panoplies, coats of mail, tigers' skins, bows,
arrows, quivers, pikes, javelins, sabres, helmets, and whips: in another
was a collection of household utensils, such as caskets, chests of
drawers, chairs, sofas, and beds, all of exquisite forms, and such as
might well grace the apartments of modern luxury. As these were
probably accurate representations of the objects themselves, it is almost
a proof that the ancient Egyptians employed for their furniture Indian
wood, carved and gilt, which they covered with embroidery. Besides
these, were represented various smaller articles, as vases, coffee-pots,

ewers with their basins, a tea-pot and basket. Another chamber was
consecrated to agriculture, in which were represented all its various
instruments--a sledge similar to those in use at present, a man sowing
grain by the side of a canal, from the borders of which the inundation is
beginning to retire, a field of corn reaped with a sickle, and fields of
rice with men watching them. In a fourth chamber was a figure clothed
in white, playing on a richly ornamented harp, with eleven strings."
Denon observed everything with the eye of an artist. Speaking of the
Necropolis, which consists of numerous double galleries of grottos,
excavated in the solid rock for nearly a mile and a half square, he
observes, "I was convinced by the magnificence both of the paintings
and sculptures, that I was among the tombs of great men