Volume II Part 22 (1/2)
We have, then, every reason to believe this to be a good portrait
Both forh-born Egyptian fen power The treatment of the body is rather conventional The bust, so far as it can be traced under the clinging robe, is younger than the head, which is that of a woman inThe arure as a whole is characterized by a chaste and sober elegance Thecontours are discreetly indicated under the soft though by no means transparent drapery The whole work is imbued with the spirit of Saite art, an afterrace and refinement rather than by freedom and power
-- 5 _The Art of the Saite Period_
After the last of the Raypt was continuous, but in the seventh century BC while the Ethiopians and assyrians contended for the possession of the country, it was particularly rapid Under Pseners were driven out, the national unity was re-established, and Syria was again brought under the Egyptian sceptre An artistic renascence coincided with this restoration of political well being, and the princes of the twenty-sixth dynasty set the the intestine troubles and foreign inroads Their attention was ypt; but little now res which drew so much praise from the Greek travellers Their sculptured achievements have been more fortunate Their statues were sprinkled over the whole country, and many of the the ruins of cities which have long ago disappeared Thus we find that ned to this time, or rather to this school, for the style held its own even as late as the first two or three Ptole them may be mentioned the _pastophorus_[249] of the Vatican, the _Arsaphes_[250] of the British Museum, the statues of serpentine found at Sakkarah in the toh officer under the thirtieth dynasty,[251] and the fine bronzes of Osiris discovered at Medinet-Abou[252] All the bronzes found in the Serapeuory[253]
[249] For theof this word see PIERRET, _Dictionnaire_, &c
[250] For illustrations of this statue and an explanation of the naiven to it, see BIRCH, _Gallery of Antiquities_, London, 4to--ED
[251] MARIETTE, _Notice du Musee de Boulak_, No 385
[252] _Notice_, Nos 196-7
[253] _Ibid_, Nos 105-15
By means of secondary remains, such as sphinxes, steles, and scarabs, we can just contrive to get a glins who, after dazzling Egypt and the surrounding countries early in the seventh century BC, fell before the first attacks of the Persians[254] Many of their effigies must have been destroyed by the invaders, either at their first conquest, or during the three subsequent occasions when they were compelled to re-establish their ascendency by force A similar fate must have overtaken the statues of Inaros and Nectanebo, who succeeded for a ti the independence of their country For the whole of this period the royal iconography is much more scanty than for the two Theban empires
[254] The Boulak Museum possesses a very fine scarab which shows Nechao between Isis and Neith, one of whoure of Mentou-Ra, the God of Battles Two chained prisoners are prostrate at the base of the scarab
MARIETTE, _Notice_, No 556
We shall not dwell upon the figure in green basalt which stands in the middle of the _Salle Historique_ in the Louvre We know fro Psemethek II
The execution is careful, but the work has suffered greatmodern restorations[255] On the other hand, the two little bronze sphinxes which stand upon the chimney-piece in the sae their heads reproduce the features of Ouaphra, the Apries of the Greeks (Fig 227)[256] In the ground-floor gallery there are several sphinxes which, according to their inscriptions, should include portraits of some of those princes who between 527 and 332 BC teypt from the Persian yoke; Nepherites, Achoris, Nectanebo, &c None of thegest that they were copied from nature Their heads are all clothed indiscri at them we find ourselves far indeed from the admirable portraits of the early empire, or even from that statue of Aies
[255] PIERRET, _Catalogue de la Salle Historique_, No 269
[256] DE ROUGe, _Notice Sommaire_, p 59
[Illustration: FIG 227--Bronze Sphinx Louvre Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier]
The chief pre-occupation of the Saite sculptor was to obtain suppleness ofand an apparent finish of execution, both of which, in his opinion, were effective in proportion as the [257] His chisel was eether the various layers of muscle which form the walls of the human structure He did not lay solines of the figure, as his early predecessors His care wasthe subtle outward curves and contours, and this he often carries to such excess as to produce a result which is siy and accent There is a group at Boulak upon which too hly applies
It represents one of the Pse before the Goddess Hathor who is in the form of a cow The head and torso are finely chiselled, but, through an exaggerated desire for elegance, the ar, and the divine cow is entirely without truth or expression This defect is still ures of Isis and Osiris that were found with this group Their execution has reached the extreh the excessive use of file and sand-paper[258]
[257] It would appear that wood-carving was never so popular in Egypt as it was under the Second Theban Empire The numerous wooden statues which fill our iven an exa 50, Vol I
[258] MARIETTE, _Notice du Musee_, Nos 386 and 387 Mariette seehly
[Illustration: FIG 228--Statue of Nekht-har-heb, Louvre Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier]
Sometimes the sculptor knohere to leave off, and the result is better The sandstone statue of Nekht-har-heb, in the Louvre, is one of the best productions of the Saite artists (Fig 228)[259] The execution of hands and feet is sketchy, and the countenance is without s, theof the trunk, and the pose of the head, unite breadth with facility and dignity to such a degree, that we are reular attitude there is much in the execution which recalls a much more ancient work, the statue of Ouah-ab-ra, which dates fro 51, Vol
I)[260]
[259] DE ROUGe, _Notice des Monuments Exposes au Rez-de-chaussee_, No 91
[260] DE ROUGe, _Notice des Monuments Exposes au Rez-de-chaussee_, No 94