Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/249

Sculpture under the Ancient Empire. 221 mysterious beings who personified for her the forces which had created the world and preserved its equihbrium. She had her kino-s, children of the sun, present and visible deities who maintained upon the earth, and especially in the valley of the Nile, the ever-threatened order established by their divine progenitors. Until quite recently it was impossible to say for certain whether or no the Egyptians of the Ancient Empire had attempted to impress upon the images of their kings the national belief in their divine origin and almost supernatural power. But Mariette — again Mariette — recovered from the well in the Temple of the Sphinx at Gizeh, nine statues or statuettes of Chephren. The inscriptions upon the plinths of these statues enable us to recos^nize for certain the founder of the second pyramid. Most of these figures were broken beyond recovery, but two have been successfully restored. One of these, which is but little mutilated, is of diorite (Fig. 205) ; the other, in a much worse condition, is of green basalt (Fig. 56, 'ol. I.).^ An initial distinction between these royal statues and the portraits of private individuals is found in the materials employed. For subjects even of high rank, wood or limestone was good enough, but when the august person of the monarch had to be immortalized a substance which was at once harder and more beautiful was employed. The Egyptians had no marble, and when they wished to do particular honour to their models they made use of those •volcanic rocks, whose close grain and dusky brilliance of tone make them resemble metal. The slowness and difficulty with which these dense rocks yielded to the tools of the sculptor increased the value of the result, while their hardness added immensely to their chances of duration. It would seem that figures which only took form under the tools of skilful and patient workmen after years of persevering labour might defy the attacks of time or of human enemies. Look at the statue on the next page. It is very different from the figures we have been noticing, although it resembles them in many details. Like many of his subjects the king is seated. His head, instead of being either bare or covered Notice du Musce de Boi^/al', "Sos. ^-jS and 792. The discovery was made in i860 ; Mariette gives an account of it in his Lettres a M. de Rouge sur ks Rcsnltats des Fouilles entreprises far ordre du Jl'ce-roi d'Egypte. (Rei-ue Anheologique, Xo. 5, vol. ii. pp. 19, 20.)