A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Volume II Part 17

[185] MASPERO (_Journal Asiatique_, March-April, 1880), _Sur quelques Peintures Funeraires_, p. 137. See also BRUGSCH, _Die Egyptische Graeberwelt_, No. 87.

Finally, in this epoch or perhaps a little later, under the fifth and sixth dynasties, funerary statues were cast in bronze. This notable fact was first proclaimed by M. de Longperier. We quote the observations which he addressed to the Academy of Inscriptions.[186]

[186] _Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Inscriptions_, 1875, p.

345.

"The fact that bronze was employed in Egypt in very ancient times has long been ascertained. The k.n.o.b from the Sceptre of Papi, a Pharaoh of the sixth dynasty, which exists in the British Museum, is enough to prove this fact. M. Chabas has called our attention to the fact that bronze is mentioned in texts which date from a period anterior to the construction of the great Pyramids.[187]

[187] CHABAS, _Sur l'Usage des Batons de Main_, p. 12. (Lyons, 8vo, 1875.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 178.--Wooden statue in the Louvre. Three feet eight inches high. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.]

"That the earliest Egyptian bronzes representing the human figure are much older than was formerly thought, is proved by two statuettes belonging to M. Gustave Posno. One of these is twenty-six inches high, the other nineteen. They merit a short description: 'No 1: A man standing; left foot forward, the left hand closed and raised to a level with the breast. This hand, doubtless, held a spear. The right hand which hangs straight down by the thigh formerly clasped, in all probability, the small sceptre which is represented in many bas-reliefs. The loins are girt with the garment called the _schenti_, the band of which supports a dagger. The hair is arranged into regular rows of small square k.n.o.bs. The eyes and eyebrows, which were inlaid, have disappeared (Fig. 179).'[188]

[188] Catalogue of the Posno Collection, No. 468.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 179.--Bronze statuette. Two feet two inches high.

Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.]

"'No 2: A man standing; his loins girt with the _schenti_, his left foot forward, his right hand raised to the level of his breast, the left hanging by his left thigh. The inlaid eyes and eyebrows have been abstracted. His hair, which is less abundant than that of his companion and allows the contour of his head to be easily seen, is arranged into very small k.n.o.bs. A vertical inscription on the left side of his chest gives the name of the personage, in or after which appears the ethnic _Schasou_, which seems to indicate an Oriental origin.' The Schasous are mentioned in several Egyptian texts and seem to have occupied the country which bordered Egypt on the North-East (Fig. 180)."[189]

[189] _Ibid._, No. 524.

"In these two statuettes the muscles of the arms and legs, and the articulation of the knees, are expressed with a care and truth which denote a very remote age. We cannot fail to recognize a phase of art earlier than the Second Empire. But if the first mentioned figure recalls, by its features and the management of the hair, the sculptures in stone of the fifth and sixth dynasties, the second cannot, perhaps, be referred to quite such an early period. In the latter the vertical line of the back and right leg slopes slightly forward, betraying an attempt to express movement; the dorsal line of the first figure is, on the other hand, quite perpendicular.

"Even in the photographs certain details are visible, such as the form of the hair, the features, the rendering of the anatomical contours, which denote a school anterior to that of the eighteenth dynasty.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 180.--Bronze statuette. One foot seven inches high. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.]

"Egypt, then, was first in the field in bronze casting, as she was in stone and wood carving. One at least of the Posno statuettes carries us so far back in the history of humanity that it is difficult to see where we can look for earlier works of art, especially of so advanced a style. We have already ascertained that the first named of these two figures is far superior, both in style and modelling, to the Asiatic canephorus of Afadj,[190] a work which was dedicated to a G.o.ddess by a king, and must therefore be considered a good example of the art of Western Asia."

[190] DE LONGPERIER, _Musee Napoleon III._ pl. 1.

We agree with M. de Longperier in all but one point, and that one as to which he is careful not to commit himself. According to him the second figure is later than the sixth dynasty and earlier than the eighteenth, so that it would belong to the first Theban Empire. But we do not see why, supposing the Egyptians of the Ancient Empire capable of making the first figure, they should not have made the second.

Between the two statuettes there are but slight differences of handling, differences much the same as those to be found in the wooden and stone statues which we have already mentioned. Neither the artists nor their sitters had quite the same capabilities.

The technical skill shown in these bronzes is extraordinary. The most ancient Etruscan and Greek bronzes are solid castings, on the base of which are rough protuberances, sometimes of considerable length, resulting from the fact that the metal was allowed to solidify in the orifice by which it was poured into the mould. Here there is nothing of the kind. No imperfection in the mechanical part of the work is allowed to interfere with its artistic effect. The casting is light, hollow, and in one piece; the method employed must have been excellent in itself and thoroughly understood.[191] They also understood how to add finish by chasing the metal after its relief from the mould. The small circular ornaments on the chest of the second figure, ornaments which are so delicate in execution that they could not be reproduced in our engraving without giving them too much importance, and the hieroglyphs cut in the same figure, are instances of this.

[191] M. Pisani, who mounted the numerous bronzes in M. Posno's collection, a.s.sures me that their insides are still filled with the core of sand around which they were cast. The outward details of the casting are repeated inside, showing that the method used was what we call _fonte au carton_.

That so few bronze statuettes have come down to us seems to show that the use of the metal by sculptors was quite exceptional. They used wood far more than bronze, and stone more than wood. Most of the sepulchral statues are cut in soft limestone (see Figs. 6, 49, 88, 89, Vol. I., and Fig. 172, Vol. II.). Sometimes these statues are isolated, sometimes they form family groups, often consisting of father, mother, and children.

Statues of men are the most numerous. Differences between one and another are many and frequent, but they are, on the whole, less striking than the points of resemblance. Here we find a head bare, there enveloped in either a square or rounded wig. The bodies are never completely nude, and the garment which covers their middles is arranged in a variety of ways. Fashions, both for men and women, seem to have changed in Egypt as elsewhere. In the statues ascribed to the last dynasties of the Ancient Empire the national type seems more fixed and accentuated than in earlier works. These funerary statues are the portraits of vigorous and powerful men, with broad shoulders, well-developed pectoral muscles, thin flanks and muscular legs.

Ra-nefer, priest of Ptah and Sokar, stands upright, his arms by his sides, and each hand grasping a roll of papyrus (Fig 181).[192] A dagger is pa.s.sed through the belt of his drawers.

[192] A sketch of this statue also appears on page 10, Vol. I.

Fig. 6; but as, according to Mariette, it is one of the best statues in the Boulak Museum, we have thought well to give it a second ill.u.s.tration, which, in spite of its smaller scale, shows the modelling better than the first.

The person represented in Fig. 182 is distinguished from Ra-nefer by the fashion in which he wears his hair and by his costume. His loose skirt is arranged in front so as to form a kind of triangular ap.r.o.n.

This peculiar fall of the garment was obtained by the use of starch and an instrument similar to our flat-iron. It is better seen in the statue of Ti, the great personage to whose gorgeous tomb we have so often referred.[193] The Albanians obtain the curious folds of their kilts in the same fashion.[194] Ti wears a periwig of a different kind from that of Ra-nefer. The Egyptians shaved their heads from motives of cleanliness. The priests were compelled to do so by the rules of their religion, which made purity of person even more imperative upon them than upon the laymen. It was necessary, however, that the head should be thoroughly protected from the sun, hence the wig. The shaved Mohammedans of our day replace the periwig with the turban.

[193] _Notice des princ.i.p.aux Monuments du Musee de Boulak_, No.

24.

[194] Wooden instruments have been found which were used for the pleating of linen stuffs. One of these, which is now in the museum of Florence, is figured in WILKINSON (_Manners and Customs_, vol. i. p. 185). The heavy and symmetrical folds which are thus obtained are found, as we shall see, in the drapery of Greek statues of the archaic period.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 181.--Ra-nefer. Boulak. Drawn by Bourgoin.]

One wooden statue at Boulak offers a variety of costume which is at present unique among the remains of Egyptian civilization. It is, unfortunately, in very bad preservation. It represents a man, standing, and draped in an ample robe which covers him from head to foot. His right arm is free; it is held across the body, and meets the left hand, which is thrust through an opening in the robe. The place where this statue was found, the material of which it consists, and the character of the workmanship, all combine to prove that it is a production of the early dynasties (Fig. 184).[195]

[195] _Notice du Musee de Boulak_, No. 770.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 182.--Statue in the Boulak Museum. Drawn by Bourgoin.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 183.--Statue of Ti. Boulak. Drawn by Bourgoin.]

A few kneeling statues have also been found. The anonymous personage whose portrait is reproduced in Fig. 185 is upon his knees. His clasped hands rest upon his thighs. His eyes are inlaid; they are formed of numerous small pieces skilfully put together.[196]

[196] _Ibid._, No. 769.

There is no less variety in those groups where the sculptor has been charged to represent a whole family reunited in the tomb. Sometimes the husband is sitting and the wife standing. She has her left arm round his neck, the left hand resting on his left shoulder, while with her right hand she holds his right arm (Fig. 88, Vol. I.). Sometimes a father and mother are seated upon the same bench, but here too the woman confesses her dependence on, and shows her confidence in, her master by the same affectionate gesture (Fig. 186). Both are of the same height, but between them, and leaning against the bench upon which they are seated, appears their child, quite small. His gesture is that to which the Egyptian artist has recourse when he wishes to express early childhood (Fig. 187). We also find the husband and wife standing erect in front of a slab; the relation which they bear to each other is here also indicated by the position of the woman's arms (Fig. 188).[197] Sometimes the woman is altogether absent (Fig. 89, Vol. I.). The head of the family is placed by himself, on a raised seat. In front of this seat, and hardly reaching to their father's knees, are two children, boy and girl, the boy holding the right leg, the girl the left. The boy has the lock of hair pendent over the right ear, which, like the finger in the mouth, is a sign of tender years.

He is nude; the girl is dressed in an ornamental robe reaching to her ankles. There is a piquant contrast between these two tender little bodies with their childish heads, and the virile power of the father and protector who towers so high above them.

[197] _Notice_, No. 793. These two people were called Nefer-hotep and Tenteta. The latter is also described as _related to Pharaoh_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 184.--Wooden statue, Boulak. Drawn by Bourgoin.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 185.--Statue in limestone, Boulak. Drawn by Bourgoin.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 186.--Limestone group in the Louvre. Height twenty-eight inches. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 187.--Wooden statuette, Boulak. Drawn by Bourgoin.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 188.--Nefer-hotep and Tenteta. Boulak.]

These limestone groups do not, as a rule, appear to have been executed with any great care. Their makers do not seem to have taken much pains to give them an individuality of their own; but in spite of this feebleness of execution, they please by their composition. They are well arranged, their att.i.tudes are simple and their gestures expressive. As a whole they have an air of calmness and repose which is thoroughly in accord with the ideas of the Egyptians on the question of life and death.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 189.--Limestone statue, Boulak. Drawn by Bourgoin.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 190.--Limestone statue, Boulak. Drawn by Bourgoin.]

From the same memphite tombs many limestone statues have been recovered, representing, not the defunct himself, but those who mourn his decease and the crowd of retainers attached to his person. All these are expected to carry on their labours for his benefit and to be ready to satisfy his wants through all eternity. Here we find one seated upon the ground, his hand upon his head in sign of grief (Fig.

189).[198] There a young man, completely naked, advancing with a sack upon his left shoulder which falls down to the centre of his back. He carries a bouquet of flowers in his right hand (Fig. 190).[199] A man seated upon the ground holds a vase between his knees, into which he has plunged his right hand (Fig. 191).[200] Another bends over a wide-mouthed jar of mortar in which he is mixing flour and water (Fig.

192). A young woman, in a similar att.i.tude, is occupied over the same task (Fig. 193). Other women are rolling the paste thus obtained on a plank, or rather upon a stone slab, before which they kneel upon the ground. The muscular exertion necessary for the operation is rendered with great skill (Figs. 193 and 194).[201] Women are still to be encountered at Elephantine and in Nubia, wearing the same head-dress and carrying out the same operation in the same att.i.tude and with exactly similar utensils. We reproduce two sketches by M. Bourgoin, which show the details of this head-covering, which, among the women of the lower orders, supplied the piece of the wig; it consists of a piece of stuff held upon the head by a ribbon knotted at the back of the neck (Figs. 196 and 197).

[198] _Notice du Musee de Boulak_, No. 768.

[199] _Notice_, No. 771. This is the person represented in profile in Fig. 47, Vol. I.