Volume II Part 18 (1/2)
[200] _Notice_, No 766
[201] The four last quoted figures belong to the series noticed in the Boulak Catalogue under nu 197 has been already shown in profile in Fig
48, Vol I
[Illustration: FIG 191--Lioin]
[Illustration: FIG 192--Lioin]
[Illustration: FIG 193--Wooin]
Mariette brought all these figures to Paris in 1878, where they excited the greatest interest aists They were ehten those who are able to see and to do aith many rooted prejudices What an abyss of difference they showed between Egyptian art as it used to be defined soidity which used to be so universally attributed to the productions of the sculptors of Meotten before their varied motives and free natural attitudes The whole of these works, in fact, are imbued with a spirit which is dia inflexibility which used to be considered the chief characteristic of Egyptian art They are distinguished by an extraordinary ease of attitude, and by that curious elasticity of body which still remains one of the most conspicuous physical qualities of the race
”The suppleness of body which distinguished the female fellah is marvellous She rarely sits down When she requires rest she crouches with her knees in the air in an attitude which we should find singularly fatiguing So too with the men Their habitual posture corresponds to that shown on the steles: the knees drawn up in front of the face to the height of the nose, or on each side of the head and level with the ears These attitudes are not graceful, but when the bodies thus drawn together are raised to their full height they are superb They are, to borrow a happy expression of Fro and at rest they look likestatues'”[202]
[202] GABRIEL CHARMES, _Cinq mois au Caire_, p 96
[Illustration: FIG 194--Wooin]
This early art never carried its powers of observation and its exactitude of reproduction farther than in the statue of Nes 198 and 199 Whether we call him, with Mariette, a cook, or, with Maspero, a master of the wardrobe or keeper of perfumes, it cannot be doubted that Nem-hotep was a person of importance One of the fine tombs at Sakkarah was his
He certainly did not races of his person He was a dith all the characteristics that distinguish those unlucky beings His head was too large, his torso very long, his ars very short; besides which he was marvellously _dolichocephalic_
[Illustration: FIG 195--Bread oin]
[Illustration: FIGS 196, 197--Details of head-dresses]
The sincerity of Egyptian art is conspicuously shown in its treatyptian statues were larger and fatter than in those of Greece The great toes are straight, no articulations being shown The second toe is always the longest, and the little toe is not bent in the ht like the others These peculiarities spring fro bare-foot on the Nile ly marked in the feet of the modern fellah[203]
[203] WILKINSON, _Manners and Custoeneral characteristics of these works in the round are repeated in the bas-reliefs of the iven numerous illustrations; we shall therefore be content with reproducing one or thich are more than usually conspicuous for their artistic merit
[Illustration: FIGS 198, 199--Nem-hotep; lihara and the wooden panels froh to prove that work in relief was as old in Egypt as work in the round In the es of the defunct He is figured upon the steles which occupy the principal wall, as well as in various other parts of the tos (Fig 200), sos 57 and 120, Vol I) But the sculptor did not restrict himself to these two ifts he found iveto the space at his command
[Illustration: FIG 200--Funerary bas-relief; Sakkarah Drawn by Bourgoin]
[Illustration: FIG 201--Bas-relief from the Tomb of Ti, Sakkarah]
Even in the earliest atteyptian sculptor shows a corasp of the peculiar features of the domesticated animals of the country Men accustoht of rendering those of beasts, with theirdistinctions between one species and another In the ti toypt Then as now, he was the most indispensable of the servants of mankind There were, in all probability, as many donkeys in the streets of Memphis under Cheops as there are now in Cairo under Tewfik Upon the walls of thein droves under the cries and sticks of their drivers (Fig 201), we see the foals, with their aard gait and long pricked ears, walking by the sides of theirtheir steps; the drivers brandish their heavy sticks, but threaten their patient brutes much oftener than they strike them This is still the habit of those donkey boys, who, upon the _Esbekieh_, navely offer you ”M de Lesseps' donkey”
The bas-relief to which we are alluding consists only of a slight outline, but that outline is so accurate and full of character, that we have no difficulty in identifying the ass of Egypt, with his graceful carriage of the head and easy, brisk, and dainty ured another of the companions of -tailed, long-horned, Egyptian ox So 29, Vol I); so hi up the rear with a stick held in readiness against any outburst of self-will (Fig 203) In another relief we see a drove advancing by the side of a canal, upon which a boat with threeway by means of pole and paddle One herdses the 204) In another place we find a cow beingherdsman She seems to lend herself to the operation in the most docile manner in the world, and we are inclined to wonder what need there is of a second herdss in both his hands The precaution, however,her into sudden movement, and then if there was no one at hand to restrain her, the ht be lost (Fig 30, Vol I)
[Illustration: FIG 202--Bas-relief from the Tomb of Ti, Sakkarah]
By careful selection froht, if we chose, present to our readers reproductions of the whole fauna of Ancient Egypt, the lion, hyena, leopard, jackal, fox, wolf, ibex, gazelle, the hare, the porcupine, the crocodile, the hippopotamus, the different fishes in the Nile, the birds in the oose, the dog and the cat, the goat and the pig Everywhere we find the sa the distinctive characteristics of a species This accuracy of observation has been recognized by every connoisseur who has treated the subject
”In the Boulak Museueese painted with such precision, that I have seen a naturalist stand amazed at their truth to nature and the fidelity hich they reproduce the features of the race Their colours, too, are as bright and uninjured as upon the day when they were last touched by the brush of the artist”[204]
[204] GABRIEL CHARMES, _La Reorganisation du Musee de Boulak_ (_Revue des Deux Mondes_, Septement which is nu to Mariette it dates from a period anterior to Cheops