Egyptian Art (SCULPTURE AND PAINTING)

The Egyptian style of sculpture, as known before the excavations of Mariette, was thought to be wholly conventional and formal. The statues, if standing, were represented with the left leg in advance, the arms hanging stiffly by the sides, and the head and shoulders turned square to the front. The seated statues were also posed stiffly, with hands resting on the knees. Ab. 1860 an earlier phase of it came to light, which exhibited greater scientific accuracy and occasionally a considerable amount of freedom and of lifelike quality in portraiture. The best known works of this cla are The Scribe, in the Louvre; and, in Gizeh Museum, The Wooden Man, The Kneeling Scribe, The Bread - Makers, the statues of Ra-Hotep, of the lady Nefert, of IMG:content-1270.png:[graphic][merged small][subsumed] Ra Neter and of Ti. These works belong to the Pyramid period, ab. 4000 B.C., and were buried in wells connected with the tombs. They represent the same superstition which led to the embalming of mummies. The spirit of the deceased was supposed to need the corporeal form, and to forestall the unhappy results of its po ible destruction the statue was provided as a residence. Later Egyptian sculpture was especially devoted to portraits of the Pharaohs and high officials and to statues of the gods, all of the formal style. It was adept in the cutting of basalt and granite and in the production of works of enormous size, reaching on occasion a height of 75 feet or over, in the solid block. Egyptian painting is, like the sculpture, most lifelike in the earliest periods known to us. It is confined throughout, however, to certain formulas of profile representation, avoiding perspective and any appearance of rece ion or projection from the flat surface. The colors used are extremely brilliant and well harmonized. The paintings known are either those of the temple reliefs or the frescoes of tombs. The latter had, in the Pyramid period, the magical purpose of a isting the subsistence of the deceased in the next world. In the New Empire, after 1700 B.C., the tomb paintings are historical or decorative without magical purpose. In either case they offer a vast amount of information as to Egyptian domestic life, and are our main authority on this head.