The fidelity and accuracy with which the racial type
of the tribute-bearers is given is most extraordinary; every face
seems a portrait, and each one might be seen any day now in the Jewish
quarters of Whitechapel.
[Illustration: 358.jpg Wall-Painting from a Tomb]
The first two paintings are representative of a very common style of
fresco-pictures in these tombs. The care with which the animals
are depicted is remarkable. Possibly one of the finest Egyptian
representations of an animal is the fresco of a goat in the tomb of
Gen-Amen, discovered by Mr. Mond. There is even an attempt here at
chiaroscuro, which is unknown to Egyptian art generally, except at Tell
el-Amarna. Evidently the Egyptian painters reached the apogee of
their art towards the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The third, the
representation of tribute-bearers, is of a type also well known at
this period. In all the chief tombs we have processions of Egyptians,
Westerners, Northerners, Easterners, and Southerners, bringing tribute
to the Pharaoh. The North is represented by the Semites, the East by the
Punites (when they occur), the South by negroes, the West by the Keftiu
or people of Crete and Cyprus. The representations of the last-named
people have become of the very highest interest during the last few
years, on account of the discoveries in Crete, which have revealed to
us the state and civilization of these very Keftiu.
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