284 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. deserts.^ Such representations must have been common upon those objects — partly manufactured in Egypt, partly imitated in Phoenicia— which the enterprising inhabitants of the latter country distributed all over Western Asia, and the basin of the Mediter- ranean. They had a large share of that mystic and enigmatic Fig. 230. — QiKidruped with the head of a bird. From Champollion, pi. 428 /'/.r. character which has always been an attraction in the eye of the decorator. They may have helped to develop a belief that the curious beings represented upon them existed in some corner of the w^orld, and they certainly did much to form those decorative types which have been handed down through Greece to the modern ornamentist. § 7. The Technique of the Bas-reliefs. Work in low relief held such an important place in the affections of the Egyptian sculptor that we must study its processes in some detail. In the first place, it was almost invariably painted. Those bas-reliefs which show no trace of colour may be looked upon as unfinished. Secondly, the depth of the relief varied as much as it could, from the almost detached figures of the Osiride piers to the delicate salience of the carvings upon the steles and tomb-walls. A few works in very high relief have been found in the mastabas (Fig. 120, Vol. I.)," but they are quite exceptional ; the depth is usually ^ Maspero, I.es Peititures des Toviheaiix Egyptiens et la ATosaupie de Pah'stri/ie, p. 82 [Gazette Archi'o/ogtqi/e, 1879). 2 See also Lepsius, Denkinaler, part ii. pi. 11, and a tomb at El Kab {Eiiit/iyia). Marietik {Voyage dans la Hai/te-Egypte, plate 6 and page 37) cites, as a curious
