Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/240

 212 A HiSTORY OF Art in Ancient Egypt, is marvellous. She rarely _sits down. When she requires rest she crouches with her knees in the air in an attitude which we should find singularly fatiguing. So too with the men. Their habitual posture corresponds to that shown on the steles : the knees drawn up in front of the face to the height of the nose, or on each side of the head and level with the ears. These attitudes are not graceful, but when the bodies thus drawn together are raised to their full height they are superb. They are, to borrow a happy expression of Fromentin, ' at once awkward and magni- ficent ; when crouching and at rest they look like monkeys ; when they stand up they are living statues.' " ^ /•«6l«w> Fig. 194. — Woman making bread, Boulak. Drawn by Bourgoin. This early art never carried its powers of observation and its exactitude of reproduction farther than in the statue of Nem-hotep, which we show in full-face and profile in Figs. 198 and 199. Whether we call him, with Mariette, a cook, or, with Maspero, a master of the wardrobe or keeper of perfumes, it cannot be doubted that Nem-hotep was a person of importance. One of the fine tombs at Sakkarah was his. He certainly did not make his way ^ Gabriel Charmks, Cinq i/iois an Cairc, p. 96.