TIAIII-DRESSING : HAIR-POWDER etc.
To- judge from the artistic remains of ancient Egypt and Assyria, the use of rich stuffs was the primary thought of the Egyptians. who sought to be splendid in appearance. Beauty of material and of pattern at least held an even place in their minds with jewelry. Thus, from the earliest era known to us by the painted monuments down to a period later than the Macedonian conquest, the little-changing adorn ment of the Egyptian official or Court lady was something very magnificent indeed, in the way of broad necklaces made up apparently of ring within ring of carved gems, mounted in gold with exquisite handling and taste, and covering the shoulders and the junction of the throat with the breast, as completely as the steel gorget of the sixteenth century. The full significance of these collars is not entirely certain. It may be that in some cases the jewelry was sewn upon a collar-shaped piece of stuff, which has fallen away from those jewels which are found in the ancient tombs. Armlets worn on the upper arm and also on the wrist, like the modern brace let, are as common as the necklaces, and there are evidences of a jeweled girdle as rich and as broad as the combination of necklaces, al though this, being worn, as the necklaces are, directly upon the skin, is only in part seen, 'being often covered by the folds of the skirt, which is sometimes secured to the belt and falls below it. The stuffs themselves are found of still greater splendor in the representations of upholstered furniture; hut this appears to be in part because a larger surface could he pre sented there than in the garment worn by man or woman. The patterns are so similar to the earlier painted designs of the tomb interiors that there becomes evident a connection in the mind of the Egyptian designer between one sur face and another. the beautifying of which was to he intrusted to color. There are, however, stuffs of the eighteenth dynasty. and perhaps earlier. usually of linen. which have been found in a more or less fragmentary condition in the tombs, and ninny of these are of the most ex quisite beauty, equaling in the perfect intelli gence of the design adapted to textile fabrics the finest work of the Byzantines or Persians two thousand years later. In the warm climate of
Egypt the clothes even of persons of rank were very slight. and rather for ceremonial purposes than for utility. In the Assyrian monuments, on the other hand, there is a marked tendency toward covering the whole person with what seem to be heavy draperies, whereas in the Egyptian bas-reliefs the lines of the body are often made visible through the opening which represents the outer garments, suggesting either a partly transparent material or at least a material so little adjusted to the person and so slight that the body itself was never for gotten. The monuments of the Assyrian tombs, on the contrary, show wrappings apparently opaque and stiff. It is evident, however,• that embroidery was much used for parts of the gar ments, as of a king, are sculptured in low relief upon relief. and in a way which resembles closely the representation of the embroideries upon priestly robes in the sculpture of the Italian Renaissance. As for jewelry. it was as rich and splendid in Assyria as in Egypt, though the forms dither.
Among the peoples of western Asia even par tial nudity was considered dishonorable, or at least the badge of inferiority. Accordingly, the heavy garments shown in the works of art of Mesopotamia are easy of explanation, for where only slaves are wholly or partially naked, the tendency is strong toward the association of high rank with complete clothing. But then another tendency appears. that of making the garments of plainer stuff when the body is cov ered by them from shoulders to ankles, and using the richer stuffs, as above explained, for borders and the like. The Egyptian, with body, arms, and feet bare, might make his kilt of the most splendid piece of weaving obtainable, but the Assyrian, using yards of material for his gar ment, would naturally employ a simpler stuff: not to avoid expense,•but because people of such refined taste as those of Mesopotamia would shun the use of large surfaces, of uniform pat terns, or the contrast. side by side, of differing patterns, of about equal size and brilliancy.