Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/225

 Sculpture under the Ancient Empire. 197 This statue is dressed in a different fashion from those we have hitherto encountered. The sheik has his hips covered with a kind of petticoat gathered into pleats in front. His legs, torso, and arms are bare. The last named are of separate pieces of wood, and one of them, the bent one, is made in two parts. When the statue was first finished the joints were invisible. The whole body was covered with fine linen, like a skin. Upon this linen a thin Liyer of plaster was spread, by means of which, when wet, refinement could be added to the contours by the modelling stick ; the colours of nature were afterwards added by the brush. Such figures as these have therefore come down to us in a condition which resembles their primitive state much less than that of the works in stone. They have, so to speak, lost their epidermis, and with it the colours which served to distinguish the flesh from the drapery.^ It would seem that the sculptor in wood often counted upon this final coat of stucco to perfect his modelling. There are in fact wooden statues which seem to have been but roughly blocked out by the chisel. There are three figures in the Louvre in which this character is very conspicuous. The largest of the three is reproduced in our Fig. 178.- Acacia and sycamore wood is used for this kind of work.'' Finally, in this epoch or perhaps a little later, under the fifth and sixth dynasties, funerary statues were cast in bronze. This notable fact was first proclaimed by M. de Longperier. We quote the observations which he addressed to the Academy of Inscriptions.^ " The fact that bronze was employed in Egypt in very ancient ^ The Description de F Egypte {Antiquites, vol. v. p. ^T)) gives the details of a mummy-mask in sycamore wood, of fairly good workmanship, which was found at Sakkarah. The eyebrows and edges of the eyelids were outlined with red copper ; a fine linen was stretched over the wood ; over this there was a thin layer of stucco, upon which the face was painted in green. " The figure in the Louvre is split deeply in several places, one of the fissures being down the middle of the face. This latter our artist has suppressed, so as to give the figure something of its ancient aspect. These fissures are sure to appear in our humid climate. The warm and dry air of Egypt is absolutely necessary for the preser-ation of such works, which seem doomed to rapid destruction in our European museums. Funeraires, p. 137. See also Brugsch, Die Eg-ptische Grabenvelt Xo. 87. ■* Comptes Rend us de I'Academie des Inscriptions, 1875, p. 345.
 * Maspero {Journal Asiatigue, March- April. 1880), Siir quelques Fein f 11 res