Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/253

 Sculpture under the Ancient Empire. 22 became more facile and superficial, and their reference to nature became less direct and continual. Neither the art of Thebes nor that of Sais seems to have produced anything so original and expressive as the two statues from Meidoum or the Sheik-el-beled, at Boulak, or the scribe in the Louvre. We may easily understand what surprise and admiration the discovery of this early phase of Eg-ptian art excited among archaeologists. When the exploration of the Memphite necropolis revealed what had up to that time been an unknown world, Nestor L'Hote, one of the companions of Champollion, was the first to comprehend its full importance. He was not a savant ; he was an intelligfent and faithful draughtsman and his artistic nature enabled him to appreciate, even better than the illustrious founder of egy'ptology, the singular charm of an art free from convention and routine. In his letters from Egypt, Champollion showed himself impressed mainly by the grandeur and nobility of the Theban remains ; L'Hote, on the other hand, only gave vent to his enthusiasm when he had had a glimpse of one or two of those mastabas which were afterwards to be explored by Lepsius and Mariette. Writing of the tomb of Menofre, barber to one of the earliest IMemphite kings, he says : " The sculptures of this tomb are remarkable for their elegance and the finesse of their execution. Their relief is so slight that it may be compared to that of a five-franc piece. Such consummate workmanship in a structure so ancient confirms the assertion that the hieher we mount upon the stream of Eg)'ptian civilization the more perfect do her works of art become. By this it would appear that the genius of the Egyptian people, unlike that of other races, was born in a state of maturity." ^ " Of Egyptian art," he says elsewhere, " we know only the decadence." Such an assertion must have appeared paradoxical at a time when the Turin Museum already possessed, and exhibited, so many fine statues of the Theban kings. And yet Nestor L'Hote was right, as the discoveries made since his time have abundantly proved, and that fact must be our excuse for devoting so large a part of our examination of Egyptian sculpture to the productions of the Ancient Empire. ^ Journal des Savants, 185 1, pp. -.Tyi 54- VOL. 11. G G