42 



tomb where they were found everything was frankly archaic and 

 as old as those of the tombs at Sakkara. These date from before 

 the 4th dynasty. The figures are carved from a single block of 

 limestone, the man nearly nude, the woman robed in the long 

 chemise common to women of this period. The wide, richly- 

 designed necklace spreads over her breast, the pose of the body is 

 easy and natural, modelled freely and truly, and by means of the 

 chisel and paint-brush the sculptor has given an individuality not 

 easily forgotten. 



To me the most wonderful of all the ancient figures which 

 have been found is the Scribe now in the Louvre. It is marvel- 

 lously natural and life-like. He is seated cross-legged, and any 

 visitor to the Levant must have seen in the Audience Hall of the 

 Kadi or the Pasha the Scribe crouching in the same fashion before 

 the chair or divan, registering sentences or writing despatches. 

 The Scribe is listening, his features vibrating with intelligence, his 

 black eye-balls positively sparkling, his mouth is only closed 

 because respect keeps him silent; his arms are free of his sides, 

 their position easy and natural, one hand holds a strip of papyrus 

 upon which he writes, with the other he holds his reed-pen. 



At this period very fine panels were executed, and under the 

 5th dynasty funerary statues were cast in bronze. Bronze is men- 

 tioned in the texts which date from an earlier period than the con- 

 struction of the great Pyramids and the bronze statue, 2ft. 2in. 

 high, shown on the screen is of that period. 



Sculpture under the Second Theban Empire. 



The warlike Kings, masters of Ethiopia and Western Asia 

 were only contented by the colossal. Their buildings were 

 immense, and the vast wall spaces were eminently adapted for the 

 sculptor, and these surfaces were filled with historic scenes, 

 victories and triumphs, and the images of the King, which corre- 

 sponded with the magnificence of the colonnades. Whether cut 

 at Ipsamboul or Thebes, Memphis and Tanis, under gigantic 

 monoliths, their proportions were immense, and they were more 

 thickly gathered at Thebes than elsewhere, in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of the two seated statues of Amenophis the Third. 



The savants of the French Campaign found the remains of 

 fifteen more colossi. These statues were generally seated, but the 

 colossal one of Rameses, at Memphis, is 44ft. high and cut from 

 a single block of hard limestone, and, though it belongs to Eng- 

 land, the difficulty of transport has made it impossible to move it. 

 It is a wonderful specimen of the 19th dynasty, and the sculptors 

 of this period brought out their sitters' individuality with marvel- 

 lous sincerity. 



One of the most beautiful pieces of sculpture — almost in the 

 world — is the head, which, alas ! is the only part that remains, 



