Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/309

The Principal Themes of Egvptiax Scui.ptlke. 279 anything more than skilful tracings from reality. In the sepulchral system the sculptor supplies relays of bodies, stone mummies which may take the place of the embalmed corpse when it is worn out ; in the temples his business is to set up concrete symbols of an idea, emblems of one of the divine powers, or of the majesty of Pharaoh. The infinite number of combinations which may be obtained by the association of several persons of difterent ages and sexes in one action, makes the group the highest achievement of an art at once passionate and scientific, such as the sculpture of Greece and Florence. To such a height the Egyptians never soared, but the)' well understood the more or less conventional methods which are at the command of the sculptor. They produced figures in the round by thou- sands ; most of them were smaller than nature, many were life-size, while a few surpassed it with an audacity to which no parallel can be found elsewhere. Here and there we find a figure, no more than some three or four inches high, to which its maker has contrived to o-ive a freedom of attitude, a breadth of execution, and a nobility of presence which are quite astonishing. Look, for instance, at the reproduction of a little wooden statuette which borders this page (Fig. 234) ; it is identical in size with the original. Its date is unknown, but we should be inclined to refer it to the Ancient Empire. The air of this little personage is so proud and dignified that he might well be a reduction from a colossus. What we call busts, that is, figures which consist of nothinof but the head and the upper part of the trunk, were not unknown to the Egyptians. All the descriptions mention the existence in the Ramesseum of two colossal busts of Rameses II., the one in black, the other in a parti-coloured black and red, granite. It would seem that all the colossi were of stone, especially of Fig. 234. — Wcoden statuette belonging to M. Delaroche-Vernet. Drawn by Saint- Elme Gautier.