The paintings found in these sepulchres are among the most curious and interesting remains of Egyptian art; and they are in wonderful preservation, the colors being as fresh as when first executed.  Some of these figures were copied by Bruce; and Denon, a member of the French Commission sent by Napoleon to examine the antiquities of Egypt, has published a most valuable collection which have all the appearance of spirited and characteristic resemblances.  “I discovered,” says he, “some little chambers, on the walls of which were represented all kinds of arms, such as panoplies, coats of mail, tigers’ skins, bows, arrows, quivers, pikes, javelins, sabres, helmets, and whips:  in another was a collection of household utensils, such as caskets, chests of drawers, chairs, sofas, and beds, all of exquisite forms, and such as might well grace the apartments of modern luxury.  As these were probably accurate representations of the objects themselves, it is almost a proof that the ancient Egyptians employed for their furniture Indian wood, carved and gilt, which they covered with embroidery.  Besides these, were represented various smaller articles, as vases, coffee-pots, ewers with their basins, a tea-pot and basket.  Another chamber was consecrated to agriculture, in which were represented all its various instruments—­a sledge similar to those in use at present, a man sowing grain by the side of a canal, from the borders of which the inundation is beginning to retire, a field of corn reaped with a sickle, and fields of rice with men watching them.  In a fourth chamber was a figure clothed in white, playing on a richly ornamented harp, with eleven strings.”

Denon observed everything with the eye of an artist.  Speaking of the Necropolis, which consists of numerous double galleries of grottos, excavated in the solid rock for nearly a mile and a half square, he observes, “I was convinced by the magnificence both of the paintings and sculptures, that I was among the tombs of great men and heros.  The sculpture in all is incomparably more labored and higher finished than any I had seen in the temples; and I stood in astonishment at the high perfection of the art, and its singular destiny to be devoted to places of such silence and obscurity.  In working these galleries, beds of a very fine calcareous clay have occasionally been crossed, and here the lines of the hieroglyphics have been cut with a firmness of touch and a precision, of which marble offers but few examples.  The figures have elegance and correctness of contour, of which I never thought Egyptian sculpture susceptible.  Here, too, I could judge of the style of this people in subjects which had neither hieroglyphic, nor historical, nor scientific; for there were representations of small scenes taken from nature, in which the stiff profile outlines, so common with Egyptian artists, were exchanged for supple and natural attitudes; groups of persons were given in perspective, and cut in deeper relief than I should have supposed anything but metal could have been worked.”