. Trees in nature, myth and art; . ng feature in the Egyptians would derive much of the samekind of pleasure from the trees as we do; and,like other people of early days, would, as wehave already seen, have thoughts about themthat we have outgrown, in form, if not inspirit. Trees were quite conventionally representedin the mural sculpture and enamelled bricks ofthe Assyrian palaces. More often than notthey were mere symmetrical patterns basedupon tree-form. Occasionally we can recognisesuch a tree as the palm. Layard shows onewith the fronds drawn like a comb or an enamell
. Trees in nature, myth and art; . ng feature in the Egyptians would derive much of the samekind of pleasure from the trees as we do; and,like other people of early days, would, as wehave already seen, have thoughts about themthat we have outgrown, in form, if not inspirit. Trees were quite conventionally representedin the mural sculpture and enamelled bricks ofthe Assyrian palaces. More often than notthey were mere symmetrical patterns basedupon tree-form. Occasionally we can recognisesuch a tree as the palm. Layard shows onewith the fronds drawn like a comb or an enamelled brick wall-face, in the haremof the palace at Khorsabad, there was a repre-sentation of a tree showing careful observation,and several touches of realism, although thetreatment is mainly decorative. The bolespreads out towards the root. It rises with acurve; in fact, in bole and stem, there is acurve first to the left and then to the right,giving the appearance of graceful, balancedstanding that we so often see in actual i. ^> Q, <CD £ < t/3 .8 X oX ? a ^2 N ^A y. M £: U « « ^ — •£ « e Ex! ■J <j J W § TREES IN PAINTING 199 The branches radiate from the main stem, thehighest ones approximating most nearly to theperpendicular, while the lowest ones actuallybend towards the ground, and extend, laterally,beyond the upper ones to get their share ofair and light. The lowest ones only, on eachside, are forked. Stem, branches and fruit—ofwhich there is abundance, equally distributedon the branches—are coloured yellow. Theleaves are coloured green. Being only muraldecoration, the tree has but two dimensions;a central stem with branches spreading laterallyonly; everything on one plane. But there isenough to suggest that art, having gone so far,will certainly go further. Trees figure, in quite conventional, symbolicform, in the objects connected with the tree-worship of Mycenaean Greece, to which, already,repeated reference has been made—indeed,th
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