egyptian/greek art question

[Nmrsn]

Hi,

Yesterday I went to the Met in NYC for the first time, and I was struck with a
couple of questions.

Walking though the Eqypt section, I was struck by how much of their sculpture
was made of wood. This leads to my first question - what kind of wood did the
Egyptions use, and where did they get it? Egypt isn't exactly covered in
forrests after all.

When I moved on, and walked through the greek section, I was then stuck by the
opposite thought - why is there _NO_ wood? Did the Greeks not use wood, or is
it just the diffence in climate that prevented wood from lasting 2+ millenia?

[Jennie Scott]

hi nmrsn-
i just completed an ancient greek and etruscian art history class, so perhaps i
can shed a little light on your question...
several hundreds of years ago egypt was not a desert, but rather it was a very
fertile land with much vegitation. most of the wood that was used was sycamore
and another tree that i can't remember right off the top of my head right now. it
wasn't until several hundreds of years later that egypt started to become a
desert.
the greeks, however, declined from using wood in their art, because they
understood that stone had much more staying power. they did however use wood for
certain things.
hope this helps.
js

[Nmrsn]

Thank you. That does help