Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/321

The Principal Conventions in Egyptian Sculpture. 291 the most conspicuous object among the Egyptian jewels in the Louvre (Fig. 245), an object which can never have been intended for the fmger ; it is too large : it must have been made for use only as a seal. It is thus described by iSI. Pierret : " Seal formed of a ring and movable bezel, both of gold. Upon one face of the bezel the oval of King Armais, the last prince of the eighteenth dynasty, is engraved. Upon the other a lion passatit, the emblem of royal power ; it is surmounted by the words N'ep- khopesch, lord of valour. Upon the third and fourth sides are a scorpion and a crocodile respectively. The execution of this little work is admirable ; the desig^n and action of the lion are especially fine." ^ The ring given by Pharaoh to Joseph as a sign of the authority delegated to him, may have been such as this."- The cheapest rin^s had bezels of faience or schist covered with enamel. 1 he scarabs were cut as a rule from soft stone. In gem-cutting the Egyptians made use both of the intaglio process and of relief, but the greater fitness of the former for the work to be done by a signet made it their especial favourite. They were ignorant of the process we call cameo, in which the differently coloured layers of the sardonyx are taken advantage of to produce contrast of tint between the relief and its bed. A few Egyptian cylinders, in earthenware or soft stone enamelled, are known. They bear royal ovals ; the British Museum has one which seems to date from the twelfth dynasty. Their employment seems never to have become very general.^ § 9. The Principal CoJiventioiis in Egyptian Sculpture. Whether it were employed upon wood, upon limestone, or upon the harder rocks, whether it were cutting colossi in the flanks of the sandstone hills, or carving the minute images of its gods and kings in the stone of a signet ring, the art of Egypt never shook itself free from those intellectual conceptions w^hich were impressed upon its first creations ; it remained true to the ^ Pierret, Catalogue de la Salle Historiqiie, No. 481. 2 Genesis xli. 42. 3 Birch, History of Ancient Pottery, p. 72. Pierret, Catahgue de la Salle Historique du Louvre, Nos. 499, 500, 505.