Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/337

 The Principal Conventions in Egyptian Sculpture. 307 held in his right. This action will cause splinters to fly from the granite. These two instruments are the same as those wielded by the workman who leans upon the chest of the standing colossus. The latter seems, however, to pause for a moment's consideration before proceeding with his work. One of these tools is the point of stone or metal, the other acts as mallet or hammer. The same tool is to be reco^fnised in the hand of the man who is at work upon the seat of the statue ; he, however, uses it without any hammer.^ Leaning upon one of the cross-pieces of the scaffolding he beats with all his force upon the stone. The work was perhaps Fig. 251. — Bas-relief at Thebes (Champollion, pi, i8o). begun in this fashion. In the same tomb the representation of a sphinx receiving the final touches which is figured above occurs (Fig. 254). In this painting the polishing tool is a disk, similar to that in use by one of the workmen in Fig. 253. The figure on the left carries in a saucer the powder used for polishing the granite. In his right hand he holds a kind of brush which was used for spreading the powder upon the surfaces to be rubbed. ^ This man's attitude, the shape of the tool in question, and the general sig- nificance of the composition, seem rather to suggest that he is giving the final polish to the surface of the statue. Compare him with the pschent-polisher in Fig. 252.— Ed.