The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Theory Of Decoration
To construct his early dwellings, the semi-savage man used the trees of the primeval forest. He soon discovered the simple structural limitations of wooden construction and invented means of grouping and spacing the posts and beams to obtain the largest building for the smallest relative amount of labor and material. Methods of wooden construction undoubtedly existed for many ages before stone or masonry were used as building material and evidence is ample in the ruins of the earliest stone structures that the designers inspired themselves from wooden forms. The advantages of stone were soon felt however, as the builders reali/.ed its durability and strength, and as civilization and technical skill improved, beauty of detail and proportions began to be considered.
The beginnings of written history date roughly from the year 5000 B.C. The historical art periods follow the political and intellectual rise and fall of each people and are, in fact, the material expressions of the habits, customs and manners of the various civilizations as influenced in each case by local or temporary conditions.
These influences may be stated as follows:
1. Geographical and Geological
2. Climatic
3. Religious
4. Social
5. Political.
The oldest extant specimens of Egyptian art are the products of an already highly civilized race. Its origins are lost in the mists of antiquity but a consecutive development may he traced from the fifth millennium B.C. until the year 332 B.C. when the Greek and Roman civilizations superimposed themselves by political means and ended the last of the Egyptian Dynasties.
The lesson that can be learned today from the Egyptian artists and builders is that of making suitable and consistent designs from the materials at hand, never permitting oneself to imitate rich materials by means of inferior ones. Granite was the chief building stone, and it is due to its extremely hard and durable qualities that so many remains in excellent condition have been found. Wood was a rarity in Egypt, the palm tree being practically the only variety that grew in quantity. The difficulty of cutting granite was the cause of the great simplicity in the forms and mouldings of Egyptian architecture and practically eliminated carved ornament or sculptural forms in surface relief.
The enrichment of the exterior and interior walls of buildings was obtained by incised carving. This was made by cutting the outline of figures and ornament on the surface of the granite in a shallow groove, the color then being applied in primary tones to the figures after a coaling of plaster. The Egyptians loved brilliant colors and used them extensively. They were a substitute for the uninteresting texture of the stone, made the wall decoration carry in dark interiors and modified the glare on the exterior of buildings.
