HISTORY OF ART.
cxxxv
simple flower-column with hud-capitals and the same with calyx
capitals; and the clustered column with hud-capitals and the same
with calyx-capitals.
Of the various Lotus Columns, which seem to have been freely
used if we may judge from the numerous pictures of them, com¬
paratively few have been preserved. Clustered columns of this kind
with bud-capitals occur under
the Ancient and Middle Em¬
pires (in a tomb at Beniha¬
san), but appear to have died
out under the New Empire.
The above-mentioned column
'at Benihasan is formed of four
straight stems, rising from a
base resembling a mound of
earth and fastened together
at the top .by bands (Fig. IV).
The capital is formed of closed
buds, the green sepal s of which
extend quite to the top of the
white petals of the corolla.
Near the top of the shaft
smaller stems are inserted
between the main stems.
Examples of clustered col¬
umns of the Nymphaea lotus
with open (calyx) capitals
(Fig. Ill) are freqently repre¬
sented in tombs of the Ancient
and Middle Empires; but they
occur most frequently in build¬
ings of the later period.
The Papyrus Columns are
widely from the lotus-columns
ill.
IV.
much more numerous. They differ
The stems in the latter are circular
in section, while in the papyrus-columns they are triangular, and
moreover taper rapidly at the base, where they are encircled with a
wreath of pointed leaves — characteristics that are wanting in the
lotus-columns. There is a difference also in the capitals; for the
sepals of the papyrus-flower are much shorter than those ofthe lotus
and do not reach to the tips ofthe petals (see above). The simple pap¬
yrus-column with a bud-capital is seen only in paintings and reliefs;
whereas the clustered column is common enough (Fig. V a). The
latter usually consists of eight stems held together by bands at the
top, while between these stems smaller clusters of three, fastened
together by six bands, were inserted. These inserted stems, however,
lost their independent treatment at an early period. — Towards the
close of the 18th Dynasty the clustered papyrus-column under-
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