Volume II Part 25 (1/2)

[290] In turning over the leaves of Champollion we have found but two exceptions to this rule In the Te is shown, in a bas-relief, in the act of brandishi+ng his roup is the usual one, but in this case two of the vanquished are shown in full face (pl 274) At the Ra row of prisoners is shown in a siyptian profiles the eye is drawn as if for a full face It has been asserted that this is the result of profound calculation, that, ”in spite of facts, the Egyptian painter chose to give predoe which is theof the soul”[291] We believe that the true explanation is rather more simple While the lines of the nose and mouth are more clearly marked in the profile than in the front face, it is in the latter only that the eye is able to display its full beauty When seen from the side it is se in the position of the head affects its contours in a fashi+on which is very puzzling to the unlearned artist When a child atteives their true form to the lips and the nose, but in nine cases out of ten it draws the eye as if seen in full face; and art in its childhood did as children do still

[291] CH BLANC, _Grammaire des Arts du Dessin_, p 469

We find a similar want of concord between the trunk and the lis are shown in profile while the body to which they belong stands squarely facing us Both the shoulders are seen in equal fulness, and the attach 246)

Soain, the hands are nearly always in such a position as to exclude all doubt as to the nuers they possess

It appears, therefore, that the artist chose the aspect which seemed to him thecontradiction that was against nature The feeling froyptian artists, to make e s The fixed idea of the draughtslance, to exhibit details which in reality were partly hidden by each other Thus we find that, in certain bas-reliefs, both clothes and the nudity which those clothes were intended to cover are carefully portrayed In a bas-relief at Tell-el-A on A to her feet, and yet all her forms are rendered with as much care and detail as if there were no veil between their beauty and the eye of the spectator (Fig 247)

[Illustration: FIG 246--Bas-relief from Sakkarah Fifth dynasty]

An arbitrary coyptian artist when he wishes to show a number of persons behind one another on a horizontal plane; he places thereat battle pictures at Thebes are an instance of this (Fig 13, Vol I) Eneled with dead and wounded into one confused heap in front of Pharaoh's car, and reach from top to bottom of the relief The same convention is to be found in the ranks of prisoners, work over a flat surface; they are arranged in a kind of echelon upon the field of the relief (Fig 42)[292]

[292] For other conventional h even more remarkable kind but of less frequent occurrence, see WILKINSON, _Manners and Custo idea is found in those groups in the funerary bas-reliefs, which show husband and wife together The wife's arm, which is passed round the body of the husband, is absurdly long (LEPSIUS, _Denks 164 and 165, Vol I) This is because the sculptor wished to preserve the loving gesture in question without giving up the full view of both bodies to which his notions committed him One could not be allowed to cover any part of the other, they could not even be brought too closely together They were placed, therefore, at such a distance apart that the hand which appears round the husband's body is too far from the shoulder hich it is supposed to be connected

Faulty though these conventions seeyptian spectator He was fae, and his intellect easily re-established the true relation between the various parts of objects so strangely distorted Even as art yptian sculptor increased, he never felt himself impelled to abandon these primitive methods of interpretation Graphic conventions are like those belonging to written and spoken language; when once established, even those which seeer are rendered acceptable by habit, and the native does not even suspect the existence of anon visitor

[Illustration: FIG 247--The Queen waiting on Aenerally, we s and reliefs And yet we find sincere efforts to render things in a less arbitrary fashi+on in certain works dating from the Second Theban Empire Look, for instance, at the attempt made by an artist in the to al one above another they are on one level (Fig 248) One of the five is rather behind the rest; the head and most of his body are visible The other four advance to their front In order that they may all be seen, the sculptor has shown thehtly in front; the relief, therefore, has four planes The three farther figures are shown by the contours alone This is perspective, although it is hardly correct The retreating line of polls sinks as it should, but so do the elbows, and they ought to rise

[Illustration: FIG 248--Bas-relief froives evidence of considerable progress and, supposing it to be the first of its kind, the sculptor whobreathed a new life into Egyptian art But he was not the first; others had made use of the same method, but alithin strictly defined liht in ere all in one attitude and esture,[293] but it was never used as a starting-point foreither isolated figures or groups of figures The Egyptians made use of these until the last days of their civilization without ever appearing to suspect their childish character

[293] Our Fig 217 gives another instance of the employment of this method, and even in the tiyptian artists (Fig 201)

In the case of anih to nizable And yet, even in the tiive some variety to these silhouettes

Sometimes the oxen turn their heads towards the spectator, so them round to their flanks, as if to chase away the flies: but even then the heads are shown in profile[294] At Beni-Hassan we find an advance upon this In a hunting scene, a lion, who has just brought down an ibex, is shown full face,[295] but neither here or anywhere else has an attempt been made to draw the body of the animal otherwise than in profile

[294] LEPSIUS, _Denkmaeler_, part ii pl 47 and 61

[295] WILKINSON, _Manners and Custoyptian sculptor marked the superiority of the husband and father in a similarly nave fashi+on He made him much taller than the persons about him The same contrivance was es and ordinary57, Vol I) This solution of the problem is universal in the infancy of art It was adopted by the assyrians, the Persians, the pries It is easier to give a figure double or threefold its proper size than to add greatly to the dignity and nobility of its character

In their desire to evade difficulties, the Egyptians slurred over distinctions upon which a more advanced art would have insisted For them every man was in the priant contours of a in In their work in the round they proved the out individuality, but they restricted their attentions to the face and hardly attee of years affects the contours and the firmness of flesh in both sexes In their bas-reliefs and pictures, they eures was modelled neither materially nor in colour With such feeble resources as these the artist would have had great difficulty in suggesting all the differences of age He therefore took a ave that appearance which see out its peculiar beauties The one he portrayed in the fulness of irl When it was necessary to detere in such conventional signs as the finger in the

249)

[Illustration: FIG 249--Horus as a child, enamelled earthenware

Actual size Louvre]

The sculptors of the Ancient Empire, who laid such stress upon exact resemblance, seee of their reat statue of Chephren is that of a205); that of another statue of the sae This exaes We are ten on his accession to the throne employed some artist of note to make his portrait The latter would set himself to work; would study his model at first hand, for Pharaoh would perhaps condescend to sit to hie which he saw, and over the whole face and forour and youth which is coe would be thus elaborated which should combine both the truth of portraiture with the conventional se to the talent of the artist, and perhaps to the character of the royal features, one of these elements would encroach upon the other But once established this ie would become a kind of official and authentic standard of the royal appearance, and would serve as a n with the reproduction of the king's person

There arethe countless ies of Ra to their inscriptions hty years old; and yet they show hi takes place in our own tin appears upon the coinage as he was at his accession His features and the delicacy of his skin are unaffected by the years, for the die e

We may almost say the same of the statues and busts in which the royal features are repeated in the public buildings and public places of the capital A single portrait which has once been moderately faithful is repeated to infinity We find it everywhere, upon paper, and canvas, and plaster, and iven to art It keeps its official and accepted authenticity long after age, care, and disease, have nizable[296]