statues partially engaged in the stone, while the others, notably

the servants of

the double, millers,
bakers , brewers,
mourners, and do-
mestic dwarfs had
free statues. Very
soon, too, the sup-
porting slabs were
used for the ben-
efit of individuals;
their names, titles,
parentage, the for-
mulas of incant-
ation were in-
scribed upon them,
and the advan-
tages they derived
from this practice
in their life beyond
the tomb was no
in the retention of these surfaces. Wood, ivory,
and metal had never been regarded with the
same distrust as stone, and their firm yet flexible
texture enabled the artists who used them to
disengage their works entirely; yet they, too,
submitted to technical exigencies which must
be noted. Ivory was only used for small bas-
reliefs and statuettes, such as the Cheops at
Cairo, discovered by Petrie at Abydos (Fig. 129),
and the bas-reliefs of the Fifth Dynasty, frag-
ments of which were found at Sakkarah (Fig. 130).
Both are very carefully worked, but they have
no great artistic merit. Egypt produces little
wood fit for carving, and that which was bought
in Syria or Caramania, pine, cedar, and cypress,
arrived in beams and blocks too small to serve
for the carving of a life-size figure. A trunk,
a head, and sometimes legs were obtainable, but
the arms, unless these were incorporated with
the body, and generally speaking the legs, were
joined to the rest (Fig. 131); the pieces were
77



FIG. 136.— THF KXEELING MAN
AT CAIRO (Phot. E. Brugsch.)



doubt a factor




FIG^. 138.— THE
LADY NASI (The

Louvre, Paris).
(Phot. Bouriant).



ART IN EGYPT




FIG. 139.

ARCHAIC STATTTETTE OF A

WOMAN (After Pleyte)

(Museum, Turin).



fitted together
by means of rect-
angular tenons,
and as the whole
was lightly over-
laid with stucco
and then painted,
the joints dis-
appeared. Metal,
gold or silver,
bronze or copper
would have easily
furnished large
pieces all in one
if the art of
the founders had
been more ad-
vanced; but it
seems evident to
me that they
only dared to




FIG. 140.— ARCHAIC

STATT'ETTE OK A

WOMAN (AfterCapart)

(Museum, Brussels).



operate on modest quantities, and that they did not known how
to prepare large moulds. Figuriaes and amulets were accordingly
cast whole, but statues were partially hammered out. The face,

hands and feet, all the parts which

demanded delicacy, were made
in moulds. The bust, the arms
and the legs were merely repousse
plates, mounted upon a common
core, and put together with rivets.
It was thus that the statue of
Pepi I. , and the statuette found
with it at Hierakonpolis (Fig. 132)
were ompossed. The framework
of these was of wood, the petti-
coat of gold , and the headdress
of lapis-lazuli. As was to be ex-
pected , the apron and the wig
have disappeared; their material
value tempted thieves in ancient
times. In spite of the rudeness
of the technique and the muti-
lations they have suffered, they
78




ip.— IIIK SI'IIIXX OF GIZEH.
(Pliol. E. hrugsch.)



MEMPHITE ART




l-IG. 142. — THK fJUKAT

CHEHHKKN AT CAIRO.

(Phot. E. Brugsch.)



are two very remarkable examples (Figs. 133
to 134), whieh hold their own even beside
works like the diorite Chephren.

The earliest statues belong- to two
schools; those of Pharaoh -Khasakhmui and
the crouching man of Kom-el-Ahmar to the
Thinite, the No. 1 Cairo statue to the
Memphite. The Khasakhmui at Cairo
(Fig. 135), the finer of the two, is of schist, half
the size of life, and though its author had
not thrown off a certain stiffness and awk-
wardness, it bears witness to a dexterity of
no mean order in the use of the chisel. The
king is dressed as Osiris for his deification
in the festival of habi sadu , the high white
cap on his head, his short cloak drawn
closely about him, and while his left arm
and hand are defined under the drapery,
the right hand and arm are laid along the
knee. The head has lost the right half, but

if we reconstruct it with the limestone fragment at Oxford,
we divine the true portrait, modelled with a somewhat
rude touch, but with a perfect comprehension of anatomy,
and of the processes required for
its faithful expression. It is a good
example, which I ascribe to the royal
workshop, and its merits are the more
striking when we compare it with the
crouching man (Fig. 136). This is the
product of a private workshop, and
the style is so rough and heavy that
we might naturally suppose it to be
earlier than the Pharaoh. But close
examination shows that its short-
comings are due less to archaism than
to provincial clumsiness , and I hold
the same opinion of the granite statue
No. 1 at Cairo (Fig. 137); here the
head is too large, the neck too short,
the torso too thickset, the leg badly
formed, the foot perfunctory. These
faults are repeated in varying degrees
in the similar statues or groups from

79




;. 143.— thp: alabaster
chkhhren at cairo
(Phot. E. Brugsch.)



ART IN EGYPT



Sakkarah and Gizeh scattered in European museums. The most
famous are the Sapui and the Nasi in the Louvre (Fig. 138),
but there are others at Turin (Fig. 139), at
Naples, at Munich, at Brussels (Fig. 140)
and at Leyden. They have certain stylistic
features in common, the short, thick neck,
the head pressed down between the shoul-
ders, the round, massive body, the ill-drawn
leg and foot. We shall realise the contrast
between this provincial art and the art of
the Court, if we compare these works with
the Ra-hetep and the Neferet of Medum,
their contemporaries within a few years (See
Frontispiece). These date from the time of
Seneferu, the century in which political vicis-
situdes transported the royal workshop from
This to the Memphite plain. The bearing of
the man, with his intelligent face, his broad
shoulders, his slender torso, and slim legs
is full of spirit and vivacity, but the woman
is a masterpiece, perhaps the masterpiece of
this archaic sculpture. Not only do the head
and face stand out in the most vigorous
manner from the enframing wig, but the
bust and hip are revealed with discreet ele-
gance beneath the white mantle. The colour
and the enamelled eyes contribute to the effect of reality, and
almost produce the illusion of life. Should the Sphinx of Gizeh

be assigned to the same
period and the same school?
It has been the fashion for
the last twenty years to
rejuvenate the monuments
to which the Egyptologists
of the first two generations
assigned great antiquity. The
Sphinx (Fig. 141) has not
been spared, and several
scholars have brought it
down to the Eighteenth Dy-
nasty. It is true that it has
undergone countless restor-
ations in the course of its




FIG. 144.— REISXER'S
MYCKRINUS (Museum
Ca\ro). (Phot.E.Brugsch)




IKi. I.J^. MV( I'.KINTS AND IIIS WIKIC
(Museum, New York). (Hiol. Rcisiur.)



80



MEMPHITE ART



existence, but patched though it be, it retains enough of its
primitive appearance to entitle it to be classed as contemporary

with the Pyramids, if not anterior to

them. In spite of the mutilations which
have disfigured it, I believe I can re-
cognise in it the characteristics of the
two statues of Medum, works of the
Thinite School at its apogee.

There is always, even in the most
accomplished works of the Thinites, a
something stiff and angular; the Memphite
artists whom the Pharaohs summoned to
the royal workshops soon lost their
awkwardness, but preserving that tenden-
cy to roundness shown in their early
productions, they evolved a fat and
supple touch which distinguishes them
from their masters. They had that re-
spect for material truth which was, in-
deed, enjoined by their religion, but
at the same time they permitted them-
selves to idealise the features of their
models as far as this was compatible
with the exigencies of likeness. They
delicately attenuated certain curves of
nose and chin which seemed to them
ungraceful, they filled out hollow cheeks, refrained from sinking
the eye too deeply in the orbit, sloped the shoulders slightly,
and modified the prominence of the muscles on the arms, legs,
and bust. The best among them
thus succeeded in creating sta-
tues or groups of much harmony
and nobility, in which energy
was not wanting upon occasion.
Their qualities proclaim them-
selves as early as the middle
of the Fourth Dynasty, in the
admirable series of royal effigies
preserved in the Cairo Museum.
The great Chephren (Fig. 142)
discovered by Mariette in 1859
in the temple of the Sphinx is
in diorite, the most obdurate




FIG. 146. — ONK OF THK TRI-
ADS OF MY( KHIM S (Museum,
Cairo). (Phot E. Brugsch.)




81



FIG. 147.— HEAD OF DIOUFRIYA
(Museum, Cairo), (Phot. E. Brugsch.)
G



ART IN EGYPT




FIG. 148.— RA-NEFER

(Museum, Caio).

(Phot. E. Brugsch.)




V\(i. 140.— THE
DWAHK OK (ilZKII

(Museum, Cairo).
(Phot. E. Brugsch.)



material imaginable; it is attacked here
with so much boldness that it seems to
have lost its hardness. Like the majority
of statues in dark stone, such as black
or red granite, or green breccia, it was
only painted in parts; parts of the face,
the eyes, the nostrils, the lips, and certain
details of the costume were heightened
with red and white. The polish, and
the multiplicity of glazes it entailed,
masks the modelling a little: it is ne-
cessary to study it for a long time and
in a variety of lights to perceive its
perfection and its masterly simplicity.
What again can be said of the manner
in which the king is set on his low-
backed seat, while the hawk behind him
spreads its wings to shield his head and
neck? Rarely has royal majesty been
rendered with so much breadth. The
sculptor, while faithfully reproducing the
features of the reigning Pharaoh, has

further succeeded in

rendering the idea of

sovereignty itself ; it

is not only Chephren

whom he calls up be-
fore our eyes, but

Pharaoh in general.

The same expression

of serene grandeur

reappears , though in

a lesser degree, in

the alabaster statuette

(Fig. 143), the statue

in green breccia which

shows Chephren when

a little older (cf.

Fig. 121) and the ala-
baster and granite

statuettes of Mycer-

inus, Ra-en-uscr, and

Menkhau-Heru. The
82




vui. 150.

THE DWARF KHNKMU-

HETEP (Mu.seum, Cairo).

(Phot. E. Brugsch.)



MEMPHITE ART





FIG. 151. —THE SHKIKH-

EL-BELEI) (Museum,
Cairo). (Phot.E.Brugsch.)



FIG. 152. — THE SHEIKH-EL-

BELEO IN I'KOFIEE.

(Phot. E. Brugsch.)



alabaster sta-
tue of the seat-
ed Mycerinus,
which Reisner
collected piece
by piece in 1908
near the third
Pyramid is re-
markable above
all for the beau-
ty of the stone
(Fig. 144); the
figure is not
well balanced
upon the seat,
and the head
is too small for
the body. It may
be, however,
that here the
sculptor faithfully reproduced a peculiarity of the sitter, for the
other statues of Mycerinus show the same disproportion. Apart
from this, it must be admitted that the group in schist which
represents him side
by side with his wife
(Fig. 145) and the
four geographical tri-
ads in which he
stands between the
Goddess Hathor and
one of the Nomes
of the Said deserve
nothing but praise
(Fig. 146). The sta-
tues of Didufriya,
the fruits of exca-
vations made by
Chassinat at the Pyra-
mid of Abu-roash,
were almost equal

to the Chephren, and fig. 154.— supposed
may have been by ^^i'-^- "i"^ the sheikh-

. J , -^ EL-HEI.ED (Museum.

the same sculptor; Ca.\ro). (Phot.E.Brugsch.)

83 g2





fig. 153.

myers' statuette

(After Capart).



ART IN EGYPT



p


^


^fe




HI?


;a|


Hb^-


ffll


^^^^I'^V


9


M


fi


P^^


^"â– '''




V



FIG. 155.— WOODEN

STATUE AT CAIRO.

(Phot. E. Brugsch.)



the heads, which are all that has survived,
have been so outrageously mutilated that it
would be imprudent to make any assertions
in this sense, So far, we know of no stone
statues of the last kings of the Fifth Dynasty,
or of those of the Sixth; they were not in-
ferior to those of their predecessors, if we
may judge by the contemporary statues of
private persons which have come down to us.
It is probable that several of these were
executed in the royal workshops, notably the
Cairo Ra-nefer, whose lofty majesty is almost
comparable to that of the Chephren (Fig. 148);
but the majority must be attributed to the
private ateliers of the Memphite plain, and
as the sitters belonged to all classes of
society, they present a greater variety of types
than the royal iconography. Firstly, we have
the courtier and the baron, standing to re-
ceive offerings, with arms hanging down, and
the left foot advanced; the Ti of the Cairo
Museum is a good example, almost equal to
the Ra-nefer, but others are interesting chiefly as curiosities; such
are the circumcised priest Anisakha, who is completely naked,

and the two dwarfs whose defor-
mities are rendered with medical
exactness, without any touch of
caricature (Figs. 149 — 150). These
are in white Turah limestone,
heightened with vivid colours.
Kaapiru, the famous Sheikh -el-
beled (Fig. 151) is in wood, which
enabled the sculptor to project
the left arm with the ceremonial
wand, and to give lightness to the
gait by detaching the legs one
from another. The Sheikh-el-beled
marks the apogee of Memphite art,
and if some exhibition of the
world's masterpieces were to be
inaugurated, I should choose this
work to uphold the honour of
Egyptian art. It is not only the
84




KKi. m6. HIST OK FI<;. 1:^5

(Communicated by Mess'". A. Picard).



MEMPHITE ART




KIG. 157.

HEAD IN THK LOIVRK

(Drawing by Faucher-Gudin).



head which is so perfect here (Fig. 152); the modeUing of
the body has been elaborated con amore, and the execution

has been carried as far as that of the

most realistic of our contemporary sculp-
tors. The man was a rustic, smooth
shaven, thickset, short in the leg, of
a vigorous but plebeian aspect; he
lived in offices more than in the open
air, and having passed his fiftieth year,
he suffered from the superabundant flesh
usual among persons of his class and
temperament. Illustrations give but little
idea of him: he must be seen in his
place in our Museum to be properly
appreciated. Both back and front, the
artist has noted the tokens of approaching
age with a curious insistence, but he
has stopped short at the point where
truth threatened to trench on brutality.
The bust formerly in the Myers col-
lection (Fig. 153), the two Cairo torsoes , one of a man (cf.
Fig. 131), the other of a woman erroneously called the wife of
the Sheikh-el-beled (Fig. 154), and the statue of an unknown
young man (Figs. 155, 156) are certainly less
distinguished; the wood is carved more drily,
and the whole makes an impression of hard-
ness which was not perhaps apparent in anti-
quity, when the form was veiled by painting.
For the rest, it may be said that the majority
of the stone statues or groups in our museums
do not rise above mediocrity: portions of
these are often excellent, the heads in parti-
cular (Fig. 157), but very often the bodies
are imperfect, with the feet and legs barely
indicated, the arrangement of the persons is
ungraceful , and the gestures by which the
women and children manifest their affection
for the head of the family are too stiff to be
elegant. This is because we have in these
objects of current commerce, manufactured in
the shops of funeral undertakers by sound and
well-trained workmen quite devoid of in-
spiration. Sometimes, indeed, when they are

85




FIG. 158.— NEFKRU

(Museum, Cairo).
(Phot. E. Brugsch.)



ART IN EGYPT




FIG. 159.— THE CROUCHING SCRIBE
AT CAIRO. (Phot. E. Brugsch.)



of small size, the finish of the touch corrects the trivial and
impersonal quality of the conception. Our Neferu at Cairo

(Fi§^- 158), Neferu the cooper, who

would not be admired at all if
he were life-size, appears charming,
thanks to his small dimensions. Many
visitors would like to take him
away and set him up as an orna-
ment on their shelves.

The crouching scribe and the
reading scribe are sometimes not
easily distinguishable on from
another; they are differentiated by
the head, which is more inclined,
and the crossing of the legs, which
is flatter in the reader, but very
often the sculptor has not insisted
on these differences, and the types
are interchangeable, or nearly so.
They serve, however, to establish
the link between the aristocracy
and the commonalty, citizens, merchants and workpeople. It even
happened that a person of high rank, who held the post of
secretary to the Sovereign, chose the attitude of a professional

scribe for his double. It was
in itself ungraceful enough,
reducing the individual to
about half his height, and
replacing the slender curves
of the leg by a sort of flat
angular sole over wich the
bust was planted. The Egyp-
tians nevertheless succeeded
in evolving a very presentable
type from these mediocre pre-
mises. They chose the mo-
ment when the man , having
taken up his position on the
ground, his legs bent under
him, his skirt drawn tightly
over his thighs and his arms
stretched across his lap to
counterbalance the bust, pre-




160.- TMK (Hort IIIN*.
(The Louvre, Paris).



86



MEMPHITE ART




FlO. l6l. — SAnUNIMAT
(Museum, Cairo). (Phot. E. Brugsch.)



pares to read or write. Sometimes he holds an unfolded papyrus

or a tablet before him, and, his right hand resting on the margin

waits for the dictation to begin;

sometimes again he has laid aside

the scroll, and is meditating. The

crossing of the legs is usually

execrable. The sculptor has treated

it as a kind of reinforcement of

the base, and has neglected it.

On the other hand, the torso is

generally most carefully treated;

it is either slightly hunched, as

in the Cairo scribe, or drawn up

firmly above the haunches, like

that in the Louvre. The Cairo

Scribe (Fig. 159) is admirable,

with his pitiful mien, his peevish

mouth, his large eyes which seem

to meet those of the visitor with

a kind of malevolence, but the

Louvre example (Fig. 160) surpasses it in every way, and if we

were called upon to classify masterpieces it might fairly claim

a place not much below the Sheikh-el-beled. He is the typical

scribe, vigorous,heal-

thy, and sufficient-
ly provided with

the stock of intelli-
gence necessary for

his craft; he smiles

slightly , and his

features, as far as

they express any-
thing, suggest but

little interest in his

task, and a good

deal of boredom.

The seated scribes

and readers in pink

or black granite at

Berlin or Cairo, Sad-

unimat (Fig. 161),

or Ra-hetep have

the same peculiar-
87





FIG. 162.— KXEFXrN'G

SCRIBE AT CAIRO (Draw

ing- by Faucher-Gudin).



FIG. 163.

THE COOK AT CAIRO.

(Phot. E. Brugsch.)



ART IN EGYPT




ities more or less accentuated; their faces are stolid, their bodies
inert, and in spite of the excellence of the technique, they suggest

the hand of the craftsman rather Qian
that of the artist. The kneeling scribe
(Fig. 162) is on a different plane alto-
gether; the sculptor to whom we owe
this must certainly have studied his
model very closely, for he has brought
out all the professional traits of the
physiognomy. Here is the true scrivener
of the mudlrieh, with his resigned
air and timid mien, his hands folded
on his lap in sign of submission, his
back bent as if anticipating blows. On
the last rung of the social ladder, the
slaves of the dead man, or sometimes
the dead man himself assuming the
function of a slave to serve a god,
carry on their various occupations,
and they would have given opportu-
nities for endless variations, had they
been confided to the head of a work-
shop; but whether in wood or stone,
they were generally entrusted to the inferior craftsmen. This explains
why the majority of them, grinders of corn, male or female (cf.
Fig. 15 and 124) brewers (cf. Fig. 123), glazers of pottery (cf.
Fig. 16), crouchinij mourners, cooks trussing or roasting a goose
(Fig. 163) are merely plebeians by the dozen, correct in structure, but
devoid of any in-
dividual accent; the
only one with any
originality of ap-
pearance, as far as I
know, is that wood-
en servant in our
Museum, who walk-
ed along following
his master, a bag
over his shoulder,
and his sandals in
his hand. (Fig. 164).



FIG. 164. — SERVANT CARRYING

HIS MASTKR'SBAGGAGE(Museum,

Cairo). (Phot. E. Brugsch.)




FIG. IO5.-BAKKRS (Musenm, Cairo). (Phot. E. Brugsch.)



Towards the close of the Memphite age, these figures of vassals
and slaves multiplied, and formed episodical groups; here again

88




FUNERARY LANDSCAPE

Painiea on the Slele of Zadamonefonukht
iMuseum, Cairoi



NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

mm or mi m

LIBRARY



MEMPHITE ART




(Museum, Cano). (I'liot. E. Brugsch)



the arrangement was a utilitarian one. It was expensive to pre-
pare a tomb with carved or painted walls, so the after-life remain-
ed the privilege
of rich men and
nobles; to extend
it to the greatest
possible number,
the pictures which
covered the walls
were reproduced in
the round by means
of small wooden
dolls. As the ob-
ject was to procure
a cheap immortality
for the poor, they are nearly always rudely executed, and must
rank rather as funerary industry than as art. Thus we have gardens
and arbours where the double sits to take the air when he pleases,
houses and granaries where coopers and scribes gauge the corn,
breweries, bakeries (Fig. 165), and kitchens (Fig. 166). A narrow
wall separates the building from the street; its rustic door is
placed near the corner; butchers kill cattle, and cooks roast
geese before a shed arranged as a storehouse, in which we see
isolated vessels in the background, and in the front, groups of
jars for corn, barley, wine, and oil. A little further, we are present
at a concert (Fig. 168). The dead man is enthroned in a kind
of stall, and at his right, a little to the front, a young woman,
dressed in the apron
with braces, is seat-
ed on a chair; two
harpists, posted on
either side , sing,
clapping their hands.
These festive episodes
are rare, but there
are innumerable in-
dustrial scenes, where
the little figures are
working busily for
the benefit of the
deceased. Joiners saw

beams for his furniture. Potters turn the wheel and put his
crockery into the furnace. A procession of yellow women, each

89




FlU. IO7.— BAND OF OFFERING-BKARERS
(Museum, Cairo). (Phot. P. Brugsch.)



ART IN EGYPT



flanked by a small brown boy, defiles with the produce of his
eternal domains (Fig. 167), and boats await him, should he feel
inclined to go upon the river. On some of these the sails are set, to
go up the Nile favoured by the "soft wind of the North." Others
have taken down the mast, for the downward passage ; the sailors
paddle, and the pilots are at their posts. All these were sold whole-
sale, and kept in the workshops in sections; the customer ordered
at will, according to the sum at his disposal, a full granary, cooks,
one or two butchers, brewers, a company of archers or of heavily
armed soldiers, vessels with a more or less numerous crew, and
the salesman arranged the scenes according to the instructions




FIG. l68.— A COMCKKT (Museum, Cairo). (Phot. E. Brugsch.)

received. It happened sometimes that the sailors were too large
for the boat that had been chosen, or that the coopers were not
in proportion with the house, but no one was disturbed by these
inequalities; when once they had been blessed and shut up in
the tomb, badly composed scenes were just as efficacious as the
others. They are amusing to us in spite of their shortcomings,
and they are the great delight of visitors to museums ; the room
in our Museum at Cairo where the archers and pikemen of Meir
are exhibited (Fig. 169) is always crowded. They have, indeed,
traces of the qualities we find in the bas-reliefs of which they
are copies. They live, they act, they move, they adapt themsel-
ves to one another, and even when their modelling is summary,
we feel that the workmen who carved them had been trained in
a good school ; by nature and education, they tended to produce
works of art, even when they were working at modest prices for
the poor and humble.

90



MEMPHITE ART

Examples of the minor arts are not numerous, or at least of
such as have some claim to beauty as well as to utility. Domestic
pottery is for the most part coarse; certain forms in use through-
out centuries in an earlier age persisted, notably the red variety