Manual of Egyptian archæology and guide to the study of antiquities in EgyptFor the use of students and travellers . e course above or below it (fig. 56). These expedients, at __»_^___ first designed to remedy acci- ^—U-dents,degenerated intohabitu^lly [ careless ways of working. The I [ <() in masons who had inadvertently yig. 56.—Masonrydrawn up too large a block did temple of Seti I. at , , , . Abydos. not trouble to lower it agam, but adjusted it by one of the expedients just men-tioned. The architect did not give sufficient attentionto superintending the working or the laying of theblo
Manual of Egyptian archæology and guide to the study of antiquities in EgyptFor the use of students and travellers . e course above or below it (fig. 56). These expedients, at __»_^___ first designed to remedy acci- ^—U-dents,degenerated intohabitu^lly [ careless ways of working. The I [ <() in masons who had inadvertently yig. 56.—Masonrydrawn up too large a block did temple of Seti I. at , , , . Abydos. not trouble to lower it agam, but adjusted it by one of the expedients just men-tioned. The architect did not give sufficient attentionto superintending the working or the laying of theblocks and would allow the vertical joints to comeimmediately over each other for two or three utilising materials from ruined edifices hewould not trouble to work them into shape ; roundshafts of older columns were thus mixed with rect-angular blocks in the walls of the Ramesseum. ^ - ^The main building completed, the facing wasworked smooth, the joints were re-worked andwashed over with a coating of cement or stucco,coloured to match the masonry, which concealed the 58 RELIGIOUS Fig- 57-—Templewall with cornice. imperfections of the original work. The walls rarely end abruptly, they are bordered by a torus round which a sculptured ribbon is entwined, and crownedeither with the splayed cornicesurmounted by a flat band (fig. 57),or, as at Semneh, by a squarecornice, or, as at Medinet Habu,by a line of battlements. Thusframed they have much the ap-pearance of huge panels withoutprojections and almost without openings. Windows, always rare in Egypt, are here mere air-holes, intended to give light to the staircases, as in the second pylon of Horemheb at Karnak, or else on festival days to support the orna-mental woodwork. The doorways afforded little relief to the flat surface of the building (fig. 58) except when the lintel was surmounted by a flat band and cornice. The pavilion at Medinet Habu is the solitary exception, and has real windows, but
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernew, booksubjectart
