Early Christian (Coptic) Monastery at Esna

Made during a trip down the Nile, these two precise drawings by Edwin Howland Blashfield depict architectural landmarks of Egypt. In his image of the twelfth-century Coptic monastery Deir el-Shuhada, the artist juxtaposed linear hatch marks with dark shading to capture the play of light amid the transept arches. He also included a careful study of a mural painting of Saint Stephen, as well as color and light notations. (This drawing helped archaeologists in the 1960s discover the mural, which had been covered with whitewash in the intervening years.)

In Temple of Khonsu at Karnak, Blashfield recorded the famous ancient “forest” of colossal columns, focusing primarily on their regularized geometric arrangement rather than their decorative hieroglyphics.