simple,49 philosophical speculation tame,60 whilst critical histoiy seems
to have been unknown to them. Induction teaches us that the art
of such a race must he analogous ; truthful, but narrow ; practical,
but of no high pretensions; and indeed we find, »upon close observa!
tion, that -it displays very little variety in its forms; hut Within its
narrow range it is distinguished, however, by the utmost fidelity and
truthfulness. Ideal heroic types are entirely foreign to Egyptian art-
we find scarcely any scenes purely mythological, in the abstract sense
of the term (that is, as admired in Hellenic and Etruscan art), among
their numerous reliefs or paintings; the representations of godhead
and subordinate divinities being always brought into connexion with
sacrifices and oblations, which almost seem to have been the only
object of the nation’s religion. The king, his pomp, processions,
and battles, and the individual life, daily occupations, sports and
pastimes of the Egyptians, remain the favourite subjects of the
artists who, for more than two thousand years of routine, constantly
returned to that source, without ever exhausting it, always marking
their composition with the stamp of truth, and preserving the greatest
regard for individuality. Accordingly, the statues, whenever
they represent men, and not gods, are portraits intended to give
the real, and not the embellished and idealized features of the men
represented. But, ■ whilst we. meet with the greatest variety in
respect to the faces, the posture of the statues remains altogether
stereotyped during all the times of Egyptian history.
Statuaiy had, in the valley of the Nile, very few forms of expression
; about six or seven, which were repeated over and over again,
all of them of the most rigid symmetry, without any movement. No
passion ever enlivened the earnest features, no emotion of the soul
disturbed the decent composure and archaic dignity imparted by the
Egyptian sculptor. “No warrior was sculptured in the various attitudes
of attack and defence;' no wrestler, no discobolus, no pugilist
exhibited the grace, the vigour, the muscular action of a man; nor
« As a sample, see De RouaÉ’s French rendering of a hieratic payprns which presents
sundry cunous analogies with the story of Joseph— Revue Archéologique, 1852- vol ix
pp. 385S-97.
60 To judge, that is, by the “ Book of the Dead,” (Lbpsius, Todtenbuch der Ægypter nach
dem Hieroglypldschen Papyrus in Turin, Leipzig, 4to, 1842)'or as Beugsch (Saï-an-Simin, sive
Liber Metempsychosis veterum Ægypliorum, Berlin, 4to, 1851, p. 42) restores Champollion’s
name for it, the “Funereal Ritual,”—wherein, amid the recondite puerilities of a celestial
lodge, with its ordeals, quaint pass-words, and ministering demons, it is evident that an
Egyptian’s idea of a “ Future State” in Heaven never soared above aspirations for a repetition
of -his terrestrial life in Egypt itself! Be it noted here that M. de Rongé has found
the chapter “ On life after death” on a monument of the Xllth dynasty ; thereby establishing
the existence of large portions of this Ritual in ante-Abrahamio days.
were me ueauues, me reeling, ana tHe elegance of female forms displayed
in stone: all was made to conform to the same invariable
model, which confined the human figure to a few conventional
postures.”61
Of groups they knew only two, both of them most characteristic
Sometimes it is the husband with the wife, seated on the same chair
on terms of perfect equality, holding one another’s hand, or putting
their arms round one another’s waist, in sign of matrimonial happiness,
evidently founded upon monogamy and perfect social equalitv
between the sexes.62 Sometimes again it is the husband, in his
character of the head of the family, quietly sitting on a chair, accompanied
by the standing figures of his wife and children, sculptured
as accessories, and considerably smaller in size than the husband
and father.
As to the single statues, they are either standing erect, the arms
hanging down to the thighs in a straight line (though occasionally
the right hand holding a sceptre, whip, or other tool, is raised to the
chest), the left foot always stepping forward; or the figure is seated
with the hands resting on the knees, or held across the breast!
ttlEUde 18 that °f a perSOn kneeling 011 Æe ground, and
holding the shrine of some deity before him. The representation of
a man squatting on the ground and resting his arms upon his knees
which are drawn up to his chin, is the most clumsy of the Egyptian
l l ^ î i ? tUral P°Sture this day by the Eellaheen when restitn0g t tbhee mrasceel>v bees;i nwgh pilesrtp tehteu astteadtu etos
| a crouching position are the most gracefiil for their natural naïveté.
H we add to these few varieties of positions the stone coffins, imita-
mg the mummy lying on its back, and swaddled in its clothes, we
these Ï 6 forc18 of Egyptian statuary. Specimens of
B S P ! ’ °f them e4ually rigid and symmetrical, being
M i 3 tÎ e earÜest monumente of the empire from the IVth
S d tl . r aSty,itCanû0t be doubted tbat Egyptian statuaiy
M B a m M t0 tbeir prioritive sculptural types during the
r a f t ? ° l n7 y Îhirty CentUrieB’ Wbich ™ g bt certainly some
_ ty ° details, but not upon the forms. In fact, the statue
are s t ^ p a r t i a l B l B f l i P P l l °f tU mCimt ESyptians, n. 272. There
the “ Musicians at T T T n g °r rU’e’ SU°h “ tIle “WrestIers at Benihassan,”
same monarch “ sn e a ï “ Eamesses Plat i “g chess at Medeenct-Haboo,” the
battie-tabieanx varin S * ^ cIllef ” at Aboosimbel, an occasional group in grand
oc perhaps ins«nX r e f f r tneSr ,nT ■ E H &°’ ! P « ^ a p p e a r to bo accidental,
Prescribed by theocratic t * t I ? ! “ artists to escaP® from the conventional trammels
1 In the folio plates of Rosellini, Champoilion, Cailleaud, Prisse,
“ Idem, I I . 224 ° authorities—such instances may be found.