Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/329

 The Principal Conventions in Egyptian Sculpture. 299 bas-reliefs and pictures, they employed outline only. The sub- stance of their fioqjres was modelled neither materially nor in colour. With such feeble resources as these the artist would have had great difficulty in suggesting all the differences of age. He therefore took a middle course. To each sex he gave that appearance which seemed best calculated to bring out its peculiar beauties. The one he portrayed in the fulness of manhood, the other as a young girl. When it was necessary to determine the age of his subject with some precision he took refug-e in such conventional siofns as the finorer in the mouth and the lonor lock o o of infancy (Fig. 249). The sculptors of the Ancient Empire, who laid such stress upon exact resemblance, seem to have now and then attempted to mark the advancing age of their models. The head of the great statue of Chephren is that of a man still young (Fig. 204) ; that of another statue of the same king betrays the approach of old age. This example does not seem to have been followed in later aofes. We are tempted to think that each sovereign on his accession to the throne employed some artist of note to make his portrait. The latter would set himself to work ; would study his model at first hand, for Pharaoh would perhaps condescend to sit to him ; would bring out the peculiarities of visage which he saw, and over the whole face and form of the king would spread that air of flourishing vigour and youth which is common to nearly all the royal statues. An image would be thus elaborated which should combine both the truth of portraiture with the conventional semi-divine type. W ith the passage of time, according to the talent of the artist, and perhaps to the character of the royal features, one of these elements would encroach upon the other. But once established this image would become a kind of official and authentic standard of the royal appearance, and would serve as a model for all who might be charged during the rest of the reign with the reproduction of the king's person. Fig. 249. — Horus as a child, enamelled earthenware. Actual size. Louvre.