DISCOVERY 



39 



keeper of the pharaonic ' diadems, indicate that he 

 was more closely associated with, and perhaps more 

 subservient to, the king than the previous Cusite 

 barons of this period. The style of the reliefs in his 

 tomb-chapel certainly suggests the influence of the 

 court ; indeed it is quite possible that they are actually 

 the work of court artists. 



The next and latest of the decorated Middle King- 

 dom tomb-chapels at Meir, that of yet a fourth 

 Ukhhotpe — son of Ukhhotpe and Heni the Middle — 

 probably dates from the reign of Amenemmes II's 

 successor, Sesostris II, under whom the power and 

 magnificence of the feudal barons reached their 

 culminating point. The influence of the court, so 

 noticeable in the tomb-chapel of his predecessor, is con- 

 spicuously wanting in that of Ukhhotpe IV. Everywhere 

 are indications that local artists were employed, but 

 artists whose style is completely different from that of 

 the men who worked for the earlier Twelfth Dynasty 

 barons of Cusae. In the first place, coloured reliefs 

 have been replaced by piintings in tempera. Secondly, 

 instead of the naturalism and at the same time sim- 

 plicity of jhe older Cusite art, we are confronted with 

 a fiamboyancy ~ combined with a display of affectation 

 and mannerisms hitherto unknown in Egyptian art 



decadent, frescoes, which well reflect the luxury and 

 fastidious tastes of the governing classes of that time. 



Pig. (j.—\ MODERN' BISHARI FRO.M .ASWAN. 

 {Pliotograph of a painting by F. F. Ogilvic in the possession of the author.) 



of any period. " Precious " is the adjective that best 

 describes these certainly very attractive, if somewhat 



1 The royal diadems, the White Crown of Upper, and the 

 Red Crown of Lower, Egypt, were very sacred objects. Indeed, 

 they were regarded as divinities, the embodiments of Nekhbet 

 and Uto, who were the tutelary goddesses of Upper and Lower 

 Egypt respectively. Hence he to whose custody these crowns 

 were committed was not merely their keeper, but also their 

 priest. 



2 Particularly in certain fishing and fowling scenes. 



Fig. -.— THIN-WAISTED YOUN'G MEN CARRYING OFFERINGS. 



The affectation and mannerisms in question are very 

 conspicuous in the pair of young men, unhappily much 

 defaced, shown in the adjacent cut (Fig. y). They 

 wear finikin bead necklaces quite unlike the ordinary 

 Egyptian man's broad bead-collar, and, what is a most 

 unusual feature, each has a long pigtail, with a curl at 

 the end, hanging from the back of his head. They 

 are painted pale yellow like the women, not the whole- 

 some reddish brown of the ordinarv' Egyptian man ; 

 and, be it observed, all the men in these particular 

 frescoes, farm-hands, fishermen, and agricultural 

 labourers, are given this same effeminate colouring. 

 In addition they all present the same physical pecu- 

 liarities that are noticeable in the accompanying 

 illustration — full developed breasts, thin waists, and 

 rather broad hips. There is but one exception to this 

 rule, the owner of the tomb-chapel himself, who is 

 rather a burly fellow of the nonnal Egyptian build and 

 witli the ordinary dark complexion. 



Is it a mere coincidence that all the chief monuments 

 testifying to another and much later naturalistic 

 movement in Egyptian art, a movement characterised 

 by its disregard for accepted traditions, and by its 

 unconventionalism, are to be found in this neighbour- 

 hood, namely, at El-Amama, which is not twent}' miles 

 north of Cusa; ? Outstanding features of the El- 

 Amama reliefs ' and paintings are the broad hips, 

 slender waists, and full-developed breasts of the men, 

 which, it has always been maintained, were pecu- 

 liarities of King Akhenaton's own person, and were, out 

 of respect for him, assigned by the court artists to all 

 his nobles and attendants in their representations of 

 them. Now, as we have seen, very similar peculiarities 

 in the rendering of the male form are to be observed in 

 the frescoes adorning what I have pointed out is the 

 latest of the decorated Twelfth Dynasty tomb-chapels 



3 For an account of the art and religion of El-Amarna see 

 Professor Peet's article in Discovery, vol. ii, pp. 252 foil. 



