The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c9.89

v1.c9.89

**Egyptian school :** Egyptian art is by far the oldest; but by no means the most perfect. "Egyptian bas-relief", says Sir Gardner Wilkinson, "appears to have been, in its origin, a mere copy of painting, its predecessor. The first attempt to represent the figures of gods, sacred emblems, and other subjects, consisted in painting simple outlines of them on a flat surface, the details being afterwards put in with colour; but in process of time these forms were traced on stone with a tool, and the intermediate space between the various figures being afterwards cut away, the once level surface assumed the appearance of a bas-relief. It was, in fact, a pictorial representation on stone, which is evidently the character of all the bas-reliefs on Egyptian monuments; and which readily accounts for the imperfect arrangement of their figures.