Volume II Part 25 (2/2)
[296] M eMILE SOLDI (_La Sculpture egyptienne_) tells us that during the reign of Napoleon III such representations of the Emperor as were not taken fronized officially
There is one convention peculiar to Egyptian art which is not to be accounted for so easily as the last naiven for the alures as are supposed to be walking thrust their left legs forward Alures in the bas-reliefs which are turned to the spectator's left
The right leg is then thrust forward (Figs 18, 24, &c, Vol I)
A works in the round there is hardly an exception to the ordinary rule Are we to look upon it as the effects of caprice? of accident confirmed into a habit? Or was it a result of a superstition analogous, or, rather, contrary to that of the Romans? The latter always took care to cross a threshold with the right foot foreypt they yptologists should be able to tell us whether there is anything in the texts to suggest the existence of such a superstition
Apart froyptian sculptor is endoith a peculiar physiognoidity which it hardly ever succeeds in shaking off, even when it represents figures in motion A support in the shape of a column at the back is nearly always introduced; the are head-dress often enfras down upon the shoulders in two equal s from under the chin and lies upon the chest
Freedom and variety of attitude is equally absent froether and the hands supported upon theive force to speech, or a leg stretched out to relieve the stiffness of the lines There is no striving for that suppleness of limb and variety of pose which the Greeks contrived to obtain even in their Iconic figures The face is often full of ani of the trunk and limbs marvellously true and broad, but the body as a whole is too symmetrical in action and entirely without _abandon_ The naturalfrom ease and liberty are never employed Forced and conventional attitudes are universal
A reason for this has been sought in the supremacy of the sacerdotal caste The priests, we are told, must soon have adopted such a type, or rather several varieties of such a type, as seemed to them expressive of their own ideas ofas the son of the Gods, of the Gods theyptian race They imposed the perpetuation and constant reproduction of this type upon artists as a sacred duty, and thus the Egyptian style was _hieratic_ in its origin and essence
Such an assertion is easily made _Hieratic_ is one of those convenient adjectives whose vagueness discourages critical exaypt was ever a theocracy, in the proper sense of the word? Only once, during so yptian priests atte Towards the close of the twentieth dynasty the prophets of Amen, at Thebes, tried hard to substitute their own authority for that of the last of the Rameses,[297] but the success of their usurpation was very shortlived In Ethiopia alone, ahly civilized, sacerdotalisypt the king was always the first of the priests With the help of an aroverned the country and reat public works; he developed the industry and coht hi peoples, and froents of every kind
[297] MASPERO, _Histoire Ancienne_, p 272
The active and warlike heads of a great ey Such a society never allowed the mechanical reproduction of orthodox types to be forced upon its artists, until, indeed, its final decadence deprived it of all power to invent new forreat was the variety of plan and decoration in Egyptian religious architecture, from the marked simplicity of the temple near the sphinx, to the suance of those of Sais The style and taste of Egyptian sculpture underwent a change at each renascence of art Why, then, did its practitioners remain faithful to certain conventional methods of interpretation, whose falsity they must have perceived, while they modified their work in so many other particulars? No text has ever been put before us, I will not say froests that their hands were less free froious prescription than those of the architects
We agree with M emile Soldi, as the first to throw doubt upon the accepted theories, that the explanation of the apparent anoht elsewhere[298] The tyranny froyptian sculptor never succeeded in co himself was not that of the priests but of the material in which he worked Aided by his personal experience M Soldi has put this fact very clearly before us
Being at once a sculptor, a raver upon precious stones, he is enabled to judge at first hand of the influence which the material or tool employed may exercise over the style of a work of art The style of such a work is the complex product of numerous and very different factors To determine the part played by each of these factors is not always easy; there are too many opportunities for error We believe, however, that certain of the yptian sculpture are due to the hardness of their material and the imperfection of the tools eyptienne_, 1 vol 8vo, 1876, copiously illustrated (Ernest Leroux)
We know the connection between the funerary statues of the Egyptians and their second life; while those statues endured, the existence of the double was safe guarded The more solid the statue, the better its chance; if the former was indestructible the life dependent upon it would be eternal It was under the iyptians of the Ancient Eranite, diorite, and basalt Such statues were beyond the reach of private individuals They were reserved for royalty Of all the works of the sculptor they were the ht
They set the fashi+on, and helped to create those habits which did not lose their hold even when less rebellious substances came into use
How did they contrive to cut such hard rocks? Even in our ti and painful labour and with the aid of steel chisels of the finest teed to stop every reed on all hands that the conteyptologists still discuss the question as to whether the Egyptians made use of iron or not, but even those who believe that its nalyphs admit that its introduction was late and its employment very restricted[299] The weapons and tools of the early Egyptians were of bronze when they were not of stone or hardened wood; and it has never been proved that either the Egyptians or any other ancient people understood how to temper that metal in such a fashi+on that its hardness approached that of steel Modern science has in vain searched for this secret[300] In any case it is only in a few rare instances, and upon res left by the chisel have been discovered Those statues and sarcophagi which have been cut fronized by the eye of the connoisseur, of the processes which were employed by their makers
[299] See the note of M CHABAS, ”_Sur le noyptiens_” (_Comptes Rendus de L'Academie des Inscriptions_, January 23, 1874)
[300] Certain alloys, however, have recently been discovered which give a hardness far above that of ordinary bronze The un, which has been adopted by Austria, is mixed, for instance, with a certain quantity of phosphorus
”Granite,” says M Soldi, ”is in with, a heavy tool called a _point_ is brought into play This is driven into thethe surface of the granite, and driving off pieces on all sides We believe that this _point_ was the habitual instru out their blocks, but even in lyph Such a tool could not trace clear and firm contours like those of the chisel, and the peculiar character of its workular outline of many of the ranite in these days is a kind of hammer, the head of which consists of several _points_ sye of its effects by the appearance of our curb stones, which are dressed by it; there is nothing to show that it was used by the Egyptians A kind of hatchet with two blades is also used for the sayptians, ”who used it ha the surface of theto the weight of the instruiven with sufficient rapidity and precision to yptian statues in hard stone seem to have been modelled by the help of an instrument of this kind
”The surfaces produced by such tools as these had to be polished, the sketchy roughness left by the _point_ had to be taken doe find therefore that the Egyptians always polished their statues”
The Egyptians do not seem to have known either the _file_ or the _rasp_, a variety of file which is now greatly es left by those tools are nowhere to be seen In the case of broad surfaces it is probable that a polish was given by hand boards sprinkled with powdered sandstone and wetted through a hole in the middle Flat stones may have sometimes replaced these wooden disks
When a more brilliant polish was required, emery must have been used
This substance was found in abundance in the islands of the Archipelago, and ypt by the Phnicians
Without it the Egyptian artists could not have produced their engraved ge the bronze and renewing its edge, the sculptors of the New Elyphs upon a certain number of works in the harder rocks Perhaps, too, iron eneral use, and theyBut when granite and kindred materials had to be cut, the as commenced with point and hame figures which had been rather roughly blocked out in the first instance, the final polishi+ng has not quite obliterated the hollows left by those rude instruments in the stone, especially where the journeyman has struck a little too hard An instance of this41, Vol I)