[349] The materials for this plate were borrowed from the _Description de l'Égypte_. In the complete copies of that work the plates were coloured by hand, with extreme care, after those fine water-colours the most important of which are now in the _Cabinet des Estampes_ of the _Bibliothèque Nationale_. The colours thus applied are far nearer the truth than those of the chromo-lithographs in more modern publications.
In the mastabas colours are applied to figures in relief. It is not till we reach the first Theban Empire, in the tombs at Beni-Hassan, that we find real paintings in which the brush alone has been used.
[Illustration: FIG. 265.--Painting at Beni-Hassan. Champollion, pl. 374.]
We have already described the style and character of the paintings at Beni-Hassan. In most cases the outlines prepared for the painter do not differ from those meant for the sculptor.
We have already reproduced many works in outline in which there is nothing to show whether they are paintings or bas-reliefs. Their execution is almost identical (see Figs. 2, 5, 25, 98, 170, Vol. I.; Figs. 25, 26, 31, Vol. II). It is the same with the two wrestling scenes which we take from the frescos in which all the gymnastic exercises then in vogue are represented (Figs. 265 and 266), and with the charming group formed by an antelope and a man stroking his muzzle (Fig. 267).
[Illustration: FIG. 266.--Painting at Beni-Hassan. Champollion, pl. 371.]
[Illustration: FIG. 267.--Painting at Beni-Hassan. Champollion, pl. 359.]
Even at Beni-Hassan, however, there are a few paintings in which the peculiar and distinguishing characteristics of that art are to be found. The group of singers and musicians figured on this page is an instance in point. Two of the heads are shown in full face, a view which we hardly ever meet with in the bas-reliefs. The hair and the draperies are also treated in a fashion quite different from that of sculpture, at least in the case of the two musicians on the right. Their twisted tresses seem to be thrown into disorder by the energetic movements of their heads, which they seem to sway in time to the music of the flute, which is also marked by the hands of two members of the party. The deep shadows cast by their hair give a strong relief to the oval contours of the two faces which look out of the picture. The execution of the drapery is governed by the same idea, its numerous small folds are suggested by lines at slight intervals.