STILL POTENT

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 130, 5 June 1922, Page 2

STILL POTENT

ANCIENT EGYPT'S ARCHITECTURE

Says a writer in a New York journal: — Modern, architects and interior decorators can ijtill find pointers ■ for their work in the still ■ extant designs of . the old' Grasco-Roman home—for it stands to-day as the most perfect typo of the antique dwelling, in plan, construction, and decoration. None of tho older house forms, whethoi- in Egypt or Assyria, are considered as riohly suggestive as the GraeeoRoman style. The former types are, however, of importance because they are marked by a simplicity, dignity, and solidity of construction that, according to experts, places them on a high piano among the building systems of the world. Since the beginning "of time, apparently, tho constructive instinct has bsen strong within man. Nowhere did it express itself in a more simple, enduring, or majestic form. than.in Egypt. There, however, as in all countries, we find that building forms were dictated t>y andl adapted to the climate. BUILDING TRIUMPHS. The superiority of Egyptian architecture prevails in spite of tho fact that tho Egyptians professed, in viow of the brevity of life, to consider their homes as lucre temporary wayßide inns, and pretended that it was a. matter of complete indifference to them how they were constructed. Notwithstanding, the rich and great lavished wealth upon their palaces as generously as do tho rich of to-day. The street* of Thebes, Memphis, and Holiopolis were bordered with houses that were utterly plain and simple, but wore established within with tho utmost luxury and magnificence. Tho walls of courts and rooms in Egyptian homes were, painted with brilliant colours and the floors were covered with woven mats and skins of wild animals. As for household furniture, tho inmates of Egyptian homes slept upon the floors, othere reposed upon straight couohes richly inlaid, which often were lion-shaped, the head, back, and tail of the animal forming the body of tho couch and its legs the supports. One of tho distinguished characteristics of these early peoples, it is recorded, was the wiso use of material in the construotion of household furniture. This alone entitles them to special consideration in an age like ours, when mechanical appliances enablo U9 to bend wood to our will without regarding the all-important point as to durability. Chairs in those days were made of seasoned wood —simple in shape, construction,' and decoration. They were, when finished, durable and useful-as well as pleasing in effect. Experts tell us that in the decoration of furniture tho Egyptian cabinetmaker never veiled construction. He obeyed the sound principle and precept that decoration should spring from construction, and not construction from decoration. Elements of ornament apparently were the same in private as in public buildings. These elements were the lotus and papyrus flowers, the palm branch, and the feathers of birds, as well as a number of geometrical patterns derived from primitive arts of weaving and plaiting. The simple or complex treatment of lotus and papyrus flowers, buds, leaves, and stems, it is asserted, made tho Egyptian system of mural decorations rich, varied, and I glowing, as well as thoroughly in harmony with the scale of colour set by nature in the Nile Valley. In Egyptian and Assyrian furniture many points of excellence are noted. Among these are a use of material in consonance with its nature, an application of decorative forms to construction, so calculated t,p relieve and heighten characteristic beauties without concealing structure.