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HISTORY OF ART.
other difference is that some of the sides of the Proto-Doric column
are frequently unfluted and left flat for the reception of coloured
inscriptions.
The Column was much more frequently used by the Egyptian
builders than the pier or the allied Proto-Doric column. The column
stands upon a base, is crowned by a capital, and supports a square
II. Tomb Chamber and Columns of Benihasan.
slab, known as the abacus, upon which in turn rest the beams of
the architrave, and the slabs of the roof. The Egyptian love of
plants is well known from various sources, and consistently with
this the favourite forms for columns as early as the Ancient Empire
were borrowed from plant-life. Two plants especially were most
frequently copied, viz. a variety of lotus (Nymphasa lotus) and the
papyrus (Cyperus papyrus). Sometimes the column represents a
single plant-stem, sometimes a cluster of stems held together by
bands; while the capital imitates in turn the closed bud or the open
calyx (Fig. III). Thus there arise four varieties of columns: the
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