Volume II Part 19 (1/2)
After the sixth dynasty coeneral character are still unknown to egyptologists
Order began to be re-established in the eleventh dynasty, under the Entefs and Menthouthoteps, but the monuments found in more ancient Theban toree, as Mariette has shown[208] It was not until the twelfth dynasty, when all Egypt was again united under the sceptre of the Ousourtesens and Aood its revival It made use of the same materials--limestone, wood, and the harder rocks--but their proportions were changed In Fig 206 a wooden statue attributed to this period is reproduced The legs are longer, the torso more flexible, than in the statue of Chephren and other productions of the early centuries
[208] MARIETTE, _Notice du Musee_, etc _Avant-propos_, pp 38, 39
Compared with their predecessors other statues of this period will be found to have the sayptians, as a race, had become more slender from the effects of their warm and dry clie may fairly be attributed to such a cause, and how ures of the Ancient Empire there are examples to be found of these slender proportions, but they certainly appear to have been in peculiar favour with the sculptors of the later epoch Except in this particular, the differences are not very great The attitudes are the sarey sandstone of the scribe Menthouthotep, which was found by Mariette at Karnak and attributed by him to this epoch Both by its pose and by the folds of fat which cross the front of the trunk, it reures of scribes left to us by the Ancient Empire
The nobler types also reappear There is in the Louvre a statue in red granite representing a Sebek-hotep of the thirteenth dynasty (Fig
207) He sits in the same attitude, with the same head-dress and the same costume, as the Chephren of Boulak There is one difference, however, his forehead is decorated with the _uraeus_, the synity, which Chephren lacks[209] The dimensions, too, are different We do not knohether the Ancient Es or not, but this Sebek-hotep exceeds the stature of mankind sufficiently to make it worthy of the naie_, under the word _Uraeus_
[Illustration: FIG 206--Wooden statue, Boulak Drawn by Benedite]
The Louvre possesses another h idea of the taste of the sculptors belonging to this period, we41, Vol I), which was successively appropriated by one of the shepherd kings and by a Theban Pharaoh of the nineteenth dynasty: the ovals of both are to be found upon it Like so s from Tanis, this sphinx must date froe has clearly shown[210] Tanis seems to have been a favoured residence of those princes, and ranite, now in the Berlin Museum, is considered the masterpiece of these centuries It is all that remains of a colossal statue of Ousourtesen[211]
[210] _Notice des Monuyptiennes, Salle du Rez-de-chaussee_, No 23
[211] DE ROUGe, _Notice_, etc _Avant-propos_, p 6
According to Mariette, many of those fine statues in the Turin Museuhteenth dynasty, Amenhoteps and Thothmeses, must have been made by order of the princes of the twelfth and thirteenth dynasties In later years they were appropriated, in the fashi+on well known in Egypt, by the Pharaohs of the Second Theban Empire, who substituted their cartouches for those of the original owners On ns of the operation may still be traced, and in other cases the usurpationthe style and workmanshi+p[212]
[212] MARIETTE, _Notice du Musee_, p 86
It was in the ruins of the saroup of now fae, Deveria, and others, recognised works carried out by Egyptian artists for the shepherd kings These works have an individual character which is peculiar to theyptian statues, and n invaders whose ypt This supposition is founded upon the presu place which forenerations
[213] MARIETTE, _Lettre de M Aug Mariette a M de Rouge sur les Fouilles de Tanis_ (_Revue Archeologique_, vol iii 1861, p 97) DE ROUGe, _Lettre a M Guigniaut sur les Nouvelles Explorations en egypte_ (_Revue Archeologique_, vol ix, 1864, p 128)--DEVeRIA, _Lettre a M Aug Mariette sur quelques Monuments Relatifs aux Hyqsos ou Anterieurs a leur Doique_, vol iv 1861, p 251)--EBERS, _aegypten_, vol ii p 108
[Illustration: FIG 207--Sebek-hotep III Colossal statue in red granite Height nine feet Louvre Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier]
Confirmation of this theory is found in the existence of an oval bearing the nas, upon the shoulder of a sphinx from Tanis The aspect of this sphinx, and the features and costuures discovered upon the sa the museums of Europe, are said to have much in common with the ethnic peculiarities of the Syrian tribe by which Middle and Lower Egypt was occupied M Maspero, however, who has recently devoted fresh attention to these curious monuments, is inclined to doubt the justness of this conclusion The position of the cartouche of Apepi suggests that it may be due to one of those usurpations which we have mentioned For the present, therefore, itthe Tanite reyptian cities, had a style of its own, but we are without the knowledge required for a deter itsattention to their reinality
The most important and the best preserved of all these ranite which was recovered, in a fragmentary condition, fro 208)
Three more were found at the same time, but they were in a still worse state of preservation The fore-part of one of thereat gulf,” says Mariette, ”between the energetic pohich distinguishes the head of this sphinx and the tranquil majesty hich ed, the eyes small, the nose flat, the mouth loftily contemptuous
A thick lion-like etic expression It is certain that the work before us coyptian artist, and, on the other hand, that his sitter was not of Egyptian blood”[214]
[214] _Notice du Musee de Boulak_, No 869 Our draughtslyphs engraved upon the plinth
The group of two figures upon a common base, which is such a conspicuous object in the Hyksos chaive a front and a side view of it (Figs 210 and 211), and borrow the following description from Mariette[215]
[215] _Notice du Musee de Boulak_, No 1
[Illustration: FIG 208--Sphinx in black granite; fros, arranged into thick tresses, cover the heads of the two figures Their hard and strongly-reat resemblance to those of the lion-maned sphinxes The upper lips are shaven but the cheeks and chins are covered with long wavy beards Each of theement of fishes, aquatic birds, and lotus flowers
”No reater certainty than this to the disturbed period when the Shepherds were ypt It is difficult to decide upon its exactIn spite of thewhether they bore the _uraeus_ upon their foreheads, it cannot be doubted that the originals of the two statues were kings In after years Psousennes put his cartouche upon the group, which assuredly he would never have done if he believed it to represent two private individuals But who could the two kings have been ere thus associated in one act and must therefore have been contemporaries?”
[Illustration: FIG 209--Head and shoulders of a Tanite Sphinx in black granite Drawn by G Benedite]