Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/823

* EGYPTIAN ART. 711 period red porphyry became popular. Many of the anrifiit ipiarries have been rediscovered. The element of color seems to have been considered necessary in sculpture: when it was not given by the stone itself — as in basalt, diorite, and red granite — it was obtained by stuccoing and paint- ing the softer stones, and even wood. The methods of representation were purely conven- tional, and for the purpose of conveying an idea, not of producing an illusion (except in the case of the portrait statues of deceased persons). The main aUenipt was to show as much as pos- sible to the beholder. Therefore in relief, figures were spread out as on a map: the head in profile (but the eye in front view), the shoulders full front, the arms and hands in profile, the trunk three-quarters, the legs and feet in profile. In scenes where several planes of figures are given, there is no attempt at perspective, but the rows are raised, one above the other, toward the back- ground. In a garden the plants and trees are stacked horizontally on both sides; around a pond, on all four sides. In such eases nothing stands upright. Egyptian sculptors, undaunted by inability to reproduce scenes realistically, were prodigal with details. This inability does not become apparent in the simpler processional or other scenes, where only one plane is required, as in most Assyrian and all Greek reliefs. In such details the execution is surprisingly deli- cate and highly finished. From the beginning there seem to have been two styles in sculpture: the hieraticoreligious and the secular. The former was stiff, tradi- tional, and with few types : the latter was easier, freer, and with much greater variety. Tne famous colossal statue of King Khafra, with hands on knees, in the familiar traditional atti- ttide, shows also the type of slender body used for gods and kin^s, in contrast to the hea^'y, squat type — like that of the Coptic fellah — used for portraits of common folk, such as the above- mentioned Sheik-el-ieled. Outside of any class, and the earliest large work of sculpture, is the colossal Sphinx of Ghizeh, which is now disinte- grating under the changed climate. The favorite theme of the naturalistic portrait is perhaps the seated group of husband and wife, a theme in which truth to nature lasts even through the Middle Empire, as shown, for instance, in the group of Ra-Hotep and Xefert, of the Thirteenth Dynasty, where the husband is of the negroid type so common before the New Empire. Out- side of Egypt, the Florence Museum is particu- larly rich in the.se family groups. There are a few eases of nenre and other scenes which are also particularly naturalistic, such as the '"Royal Scribe," at the Louvre, and the "Girl on Her Knees Washing Clothes." The representations of divinities are very material, without being natural. They were usually of a composite human-animal type, reminiscent of totemism and fetichism: Rekhet-Bast, a lion or cat: Anu- bis. a jackal: Horns, a hawk: Chnum, a ram; Thoth, an ibis; Lebck, a crocodile. U.sually the method was to place an animal's head on a human body, thoush sometimes the god was wholly human and accompanied by his anini.Tl emblem. Figures of the gods were multiplied innumerahlj' on .a small scale. The gods of T'pper and of Lower Es^'pt were worshiped on the opposite walls of ■> temple, and the god's image, receiving the worsnip of the King, was repeated EGYPTIAN ART. many hundreds of times in relief on the walU and colunms, and even on the surfaces of the outer pylons. This was especially the case in later art. Bronze, glazed piu'celains, and other statuettes of the gods were manufactured by the million as objects of devotion, according to uniform types. This religious side of Egyp- tian sculpture is perhaps the least interesting, and that in which the artist was allowed the least change. The next class is that of olUcial political art. Here al.so there is a traditional element. The scene of the colossal King, at whose feet cower a group of captives whom he is about to slaughter, is repeated without variation during many reigns. So is the scene of the victo- rious King in his chariot overturning his ene- mies, as sung of Eameses II. in the famous poem of Pentaur But even this political art had its realistic aiid free side. At Kurnak the low reliefs, representing the captives defiling with their gifts, otTer a splendid and rich series of types of the different races and tribes inhabit- ing SjTia, Phoenicia, and Palestine, the artists having succeeded in conveying racial traits with very few touches. In the same way the proces- sional reliefs of Queen Hatasu at Deir-el-Bahari are very illustrative of the products and races of the south. But of even more varied interest are the reliefs and paintings in the tombs of pri- vate i)ersons. In one of the tombs of the Middle Empire a scene represents the migration of a tribe in patriarchal fashion, in all its details, showing how traveling was done in the age of IMoses. There was a distinct phase of natural- istic revival under Amenophis IV. ( Akhunaten ) in the New Empire: otherwise the change was toward the stitT, the colossal, and the highly fin- ished. Under the late Saitic Dynasty there was a revival in the reign of Psammetichus, with a re- currence to the grace and delicacy of the time of Seti I. and Rameses II. Then, when Greek art was introduced under the Ptolemies, sculpture was more affected than architecture. Painting akd Minor Abts. Painting in Egypt can hardly be called an independent art. It was largely an adjunct to sculpture and archi- tecture, making of all Egyptian art a mass of color. In the tombs, however, cspcciallv during the Fifth and Sixth, the Eleventh. 'Twelfth, and Thirteenth dynasties, wall paintings were as popular as reliefs, had the same character- istics, and portrayed the same themes. The minor arts always flourished. They may, in fact, be said to have been the earliest to develop. Egyp- tian gold and enamel jewelry, with its rich neck- laces and pectorals, was thought to have developed in the New Empire: but M. de Morgan's discov- eries of royal jewelry of the Middle Empire, of fully as great beauty, put back its origin, and afterwards some fine jewelry of the early part of the Old Empire was found. The Egyp- tians applied artistic design and decoration very successfully to articles of furniture, orna- ment, and domestic use: to chairs, beds, mirrors, boxes, spoons, etc.: and their artisans used wood, ivory, and the various metals with almost equal ease. These works were distributed throughout the Mediterranean basin by PhcFnician and Greek trading vessels, and .so influenced the general history of design even more than the more monu- mental works. Binuor.RAPiiY. The best short sketch is in Maspero, Manual of Egyptian Archwoloffy (Eng.