ABSTRACT
When the Egyptians drew plans they combined various modern principles—plan, elevation and section. Egyptian plans have been discovered upon papyrus, upon limestone flakes, or upon potsherds, and again—and these are important—upon the walls of tombs at Thebes and at Tell-el-Amarna. The great porch is turned round to face the spectator before being drawn in the plan. The arrangement of the different ranks on successive planes is quite regular in the army of Ramesses II on the march, where a bird’s-eye perspective is employed. The Egyptians must have used books of models in which the proportions were accurately indicated, and in which the decorators of a tomb could find a selection of figures and of attitudes detailed with precision. Various collections also contain sculptors’ models in the round which show on the back and sides the division lines which Edgar has connected with the canons of proportion.
