ABOU SIMBEL. 2G3

gave human form. Consummate masters of effect, they
knew precisely what to do and what to leave undone.
These were portrait statues; therefore they finished the
heads up to the highest point consistent with their size.
But the trunk and the lower limbs they regarded from a
decorative rather than a statuesque point of view. As
decoration, it was necessary that they should give size and
dignity to the facade. Everything, consequently, was
here subordinated to the general effect of breadth, of mas-
siveness, of repose. Considered thus, the colossi are a
triumph of treatment. Side by side they sit, placid and
majestic, their feet a little apart, their hands resting on
their knees. Shapely though they are, those huge legs
look scarcely inferior in girth to the great columns of Kar-
nak. The articulations of the knee-joint, the swell of the
calf, the outline of the peroneus longus are indicated rather
than developed. The toe-nails and toe-joints are given in
the same bold and general way; but the fingers, because
only the tips of them could be seen from below, are treated
en Mac.

The faces show the same largeness of style. The little
dimple which gives such sweetness to the corners of the
mouth, and the tiny depression in the lobe of the ear, are,
in fact, circular cavities as large as saucers.

How far this treatment is consistent with the most per-
fect delicacy and even finesse of execution may be gathered
from the sketch. The nose there shown in profile is three
feet and a half in length; the mouth, so delicately curved,
is about the same in width; even the sensitive nostril,
which looks ready to expand with the breath of life,
exceeds eight inches in length. The ear (which is placed
high and is well detached from the head) measures three
feet and five inches from top to tip.

A recent writer,* who brings sound practical knowledge

# * " L'absence depoints fouillei, la simplification voulue, la restric-
tion desdetails et des ornements a quelques sillons plus ou moins
hardis, l'engorgement de toutes les parties dedicates, demontrent que
les Egyptiens etaient loin d'avoir des precedes et des facilites in-
connus."—" La Scripture Egyptienne," par Emile Soldi, p. 48.

" Un fait qui nous parait avoir du entraver les progres de la sculp-
ture, c'est l'babitude probable des sculpteurs ou entrepreneurs
Egyptiens d'entre prendre le travail a menie sur la pierre, sans avoir
prealablement cberebe le modele en terre glaise, comme on le fait de
nos jours. Une fois le modele fini, on le moule et on le reproduit