SCULP 
Yet the Egyptian statues are remarkable only for number 
and bulk; they are abundantly scattered among the ruins of 
temples over some hundreds of miles, and their gigantic 
proportions are subjects of universal astonishment. Besides 
these qualities there is little worthy of nota Ripaud says, 
the execution of the figures engraved on the exterior and 
interior walls at Dendera, is an example of the highest point 
of perfection to which the Egyptians attained. All the 
minutiae of their dress are finished with a purity and delicacy 
most admirable, considering the impracticability of the stone. 
But there is no natural action nor correct forms in these 
statues. Nearly all the Egyptian statues stand equally poised 
upon the two legs, having one foot advanced, and the arms 
either hanging straight down each side; or if one arm is 
raised, it is at a right angle across the body. Some statues 
sit on seats, some on the ground, and some are kneeling ; but 
the positions of their hands seldom vary from the above 
description. Their attitudes are of course simply rectilinear, 
and without lateral movement; their faces are flatfish; the eye¬ 
brows, eye-lids and mouths formed of simple curves, slightly 
but sharply marked, and with little expression. The general 
proportions are something more than seven heads high; the 
form of the body and limbs rather round and effeminate, 
with only the most evident projections and hollows ; their 
tunics or other draperies are without folds in many instances. 
Winckelman has remarked, that the Egyptians executed 
quadrupeds better than human figures, for which various 
reasons have been given. In all Egyptian statues, the form 
of their hands and feet are gross; they have no anatomical 
detail of parts, and are totally wanting in the grace of motion. 
This last defect, in all probability, was a consequence of a su¬ 
perstitious determination to persist in the practice of their 
ancestors; perhaps because since all the figures were sacred, 
it would be impious to improve or alter the original proto¬ 
types transmitted from the primitive sculptors. Nevertheless, 
it has been said that in the Egyptian sculpture we shall find 
some of the first principles of the art. Their best statues are 
divided into seven heads and one-third, or seven heads and 
one-half: the whole height of the figure is divided into two 
equal parts at the os pubis; the rest of the proportions are 
natural, and not disagreeable. The principal forms of the 
body and limbs, as the breasts, belly, shoulders, biceps of 
the arm, knees, shin-bones and feet, are expressed with a 
fleshy roundness, although without anatomical knowledge of 
detail; and in the female figures these parts often possess con¬ 
siderable elegance and beauty. The forms of the female 
face have much the same outline and progression towards 
beauty in the features as we see in some of the early Greek 
statues, and, like them, without variety of character; for 
little difference can be traced in the faces of Isis, in her dif¬ 
ferent representations of Diana, Venus, or Terra, or indeed 
in the face of Osiris, although sometimes understood to be 
Jupiter himself, excepting that in some instances he has a 
very small beard, in shape resembling a peg. The hands 
and feet, like the rest of the figure, have general forms 
only, without particular detail; the fingers and toes are 
flat, of equal thickness, little separated, and without dis¬ 
tinction of the knuckles : yet altogether their simplicity of 
idea, breadth of parts, and occasional beauty of form, 
strike the skilful beholder, and have been highly praised by 
the best judges, ancient and modem. 
In their basso-relievos and paintings, which require variety 
of action and situation, are demonstrated their want of ana¬ 
tomical, mechanical and geometrical science, relating to 
the arts of painting and sculpture. The king, or hero, is 
three times larger than the other figures. Whatever is the 
action,—a siege, a battle, or taking a town by storm, there 
is not the smallest idea of perspective in the place, or mag¬ 
nitude of figures or buildings. Figures in violent action 
are equally destitute of joints, and other anatomical form, 
as they are of the balance and spring of motion, the force 
of a blow, or the just variety of line in the turning figure. 
In a word, their historical art was informing the beholder, 
in the best manner they could, according to the rude cha¬ 
racters they were able to make. From such a description. 
T U R E. * 871 
it is easy to understand how much their attempts at historical 
representation were inferior to their single statues. 
What has been hitherto said of Egyptian sculpture de¬ 
scribes the ancient native sculpture of that people. After 
the Ptolemies, successors of Alexander the Great, were 
kings of Egypt, their sculpture was enlivened by Grecian 
animation, and refined by the standard of Grecian beauty 
in proportions, attitude, character and dress. Osiris, Isis 
and Orus, their three great divinities, put on the Mace¬ 
donian costume; and new divinities appeared among them, 
in Grecian forms, whose characteristics were compounded 
from materials of Egyptian, Eastern and Grecian theology 
and philosophy. 
In the reign of the Roman emperor Adrian, a number 
of statues, in imitation of the ancient Egyptian, were made 
to decorate the Canopus in his magnificent villa of Tivoli; 
several of which have been dug up, and placed in the Capi- 
toline Museum. But Winckelman has remarked of these, 
that they may be known from the ancient Egyptian sculp¬ 
ture, having no hieroglyphics on them. But, besides this 
distinction, they are entirely unlike the genuine Egyptian; 
as the drawing and character are Roman, in Egyptian atti¬ 
tudes and dresses. 
Greece, wherein no established errors held dominion, 
where to think, to speak and to execute were alike free in 
poetry, metaphysics, or morals, sculpture threw off the 
shackles imposed by Egyptian priests. In the land where 
imagination took flight unrestrained by any curb but intuitive 
taste, where religion became exalted by reason, where the 
forms of men acquired, by well regulated exercises, the acme 
of strength, agility and grace, sculpture acquired an excel¬ 
lence that never, in its peculiar line, can be surpassed, per¬ 
haps cannot be equalled. The steps through which the art 
advanced to this point from eastern crudities are but dimly 
seen. It was about 1300 years before the Christian era that a 
sculptor appeared, whose works exacted the praise of poets 
and the record of historians, and continued to be preserved 
with respect, centuries after sculpture had risen to its zenith. 
This was Daedalus, to whom are attributed so many me¬ 
chanical inventions. Diodorus Siculus speaks of his works 
in Sicily. Pausanias mentions those remaining in Greece in 
his time, nine in number. The works of Daedalus are indeed 
rude, says Pausanias, and uncomely in aspect; but yet they 
have something of divinity in their appearance. He mentions 
particularly a wooden statue of Hercules that was held in 
considerable esteem and veneration. It is supposed that 
many copies of it were made in gems, coins, or small 
bronzes, by which all the most famous works of antiquity 
were multiplied. In the British Museum are several small 
bronzes of a naked Hercules advancing, whose right arm, 
holding a club, is raised to strike ; whilst his left arm is 
extended, bearing the lion’s skin as a shield. From the 
style of extreme antiquity which characterises these statues, 
the rude attempt at bold action, the peculiarity of Daedalus, 
the general adoption of this action in the early ages, the 
traits of savage nature in the face and figure expressed with 
little knowledge but strong feeling, by the narrow loins, 
turgid muscles of the breast, thighs and calves of the legs, 
we shall find reason to believe they are copied from the 
above-mentioned statue. 
Endaeus, the disciple of Daedalus, made a statue of 
Minerva, which Pausanias saw in the Acropolis of Athens. 
It is supposed that the heads of Minerva, on the early coins 
of Athens, were copied from this statue. Both Daedalus and 
Endaeus formed their statues of wood, but metal was also 
used. Dipaenus and Scyllis, the Cretans, were celebrated for 
their statues in marble, about 776 years before Christ; still 
retaining much of the ancient manner in the advancing posi¬ 
tion of the legs, the drawing of the figure, and the perpen¬ 
dicular folds of drapery, disposed in zig-zag edges. Soon 
after elaborate finishing was carried to excess, undulating 
locks and spiral knobs of hair, like cockle-shells, as well as 
the drapery, were wrought with the most elaborate care and 
rigid exactness, whilst the tasteless and barbarous character 
of the face and limbs remained much the same as in former 
times 
