SCULPTURE. 9 
same powerful and grandiose style. 4. The Middle and Lower Egyptian 
have been mostly destroyed, partly during the frequent civil wars, and 
partly in consequence of the rise of new and large cities in their neighbor- 
hood. In the Oases also there are found some ancient remains, ¢. g. a 
temple vf Ammon, the royal citadel, catacombs, &ec. 
The Egyptians particularly excelled in sculpturing stone; and since the 
art of sculpture appeared ever among them as the handmaid of architecture, 
and as the adorner of the works of the latter, it bears, so to speak, a 
thoroughly architectonic character. Their statues, made for the most part 
of the hardest species of stone, ¢. g. granite, syenite, porphyry, basanite, or 
hard fine-grained sandstone, and the smaller ones of hematite, serpentine, or 
alabaster, are mostly intended to rest in a standing or sitting posture against 
pylons, columns, and pillars; for figures standing alone are very rare. 
They are designed and executed with masterly precision. In the sitting 
figures (pl. 2, fig. 7) there reign the greatest repose and equilibrium of atti- 
tude; the treatment of the standing figures is stiff, and they rarely have 
much action. The feet are often placed close together (see jigs. 1, 2, and 3, 
from the Capitoline Museum in Rome), the arms are occasionally some- 
what elevated. Free and moving postures (like jig. 6) seldom occur. 
Sometimes the figures place one foot forward, as if to advance (jigs. 4 and 5 
from the British Museum), but without altering the rigid posture of the 
body. The principal type of the Egyptian standing figures is represented 
in jig. 4. The size is often very colossal; for figures are found of from 53 
to 60 feet in height, for the transportation of which great multitudes of 
men were required, as is seen in a relief at Thebes, where a sitting statue 
is represented in the act of being removed. The forms of these statues are 
for the most part correct, and by the simple curves of their outlines produce 
an imposing effect; but their great approximation to geometrical forms 
produces a want of life and warmth in the conception of the details. The 
parts of the body are formed after the material type, although based on 
certain rules of proportion. The forms of the sexes are well distinguished ; 
but a definite character is nowhere exhibited in the images of the gods and 
kings; they are distinguished only by their attributes and dress, viz. by 
various head-dresses, and by having the heads of animals, birds, Wc., as is 
shown in the plates to the Egyptian mythology, in another division of this 
work. 
The forms of animals exhibit much more spirit and depth of observation 
than those of men, a study of nature which displays itself even in their 
religion. The blending together of the forms of several animals is often 
very happily executed, though sometimes the effect is rather odd. Rams 
occur most frequently (jig. 8) though generally with a lion’s claws and tail; 
also lions, jackals, different kinds of apes, the ibis, and sphinxes. Andro- 
sphinxes (jig. 9) are lions with human heads; the largest is that near the 
pyramids of Gizeh (see Plates Division VIL, pl. 6, fig.6), which is 117 feet in 
length and 40 feet high, hewn out of the living rock, and had in its breast 
between its paws the entrance to the great pyramid. Other composite 
forms of animals consist of the lion and hawk, the lion and ureeus with 
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