DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0165
THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE.
14c
their shortcomings, the old Memphite sculptors were of that
stuff of which the early Florentine school was made some
fifty-five centuries later. As for portraiture, properly so
COLOSSAL HEAD OF A IIYKSuS KING.
(Supposed to be Salatis.) Sculptured in black granite, and discovered by Marietta
at Tell Mokhdam, in the Favftm.
called, namely, heads, faces, expression, and that indescriba-
ble something which indicates character—or in other words,
the outward modifications wrought upon the features by the
workings of the mind—no artists of any age have therein
excelled the sculptors of the Ancient Empire.
The next great school of Egyptian portrait sculpture is
that of the Middle Empire, which culminated under the
Twelfth Dynasty.
The sculptors of this age excelled in the skill with which
they cut and polished the hardest stones, such as basalt,
diorite, and granite. A vast crowd of Twelfth Dynasty
Pharaohs, their queens and families, carved in these obdu-
10
14c
their shortcomings, the old Memphite sculptors were of that
stuff of which the early Florentine school was made some
fifty-five centuries later. As for portraiture, properly so
COLOSSAL HEAD OF A IIYKSuS KING.
(Supposed to be Salatis.) Sculptured in black granite, and discovered by Marietta
at Tell Mokhdam, in the Favftm.
called, namely, heads, faces, expression, and that indescriba-
ble something which indicates character—or in other words,
the outward modifications wrought upon the features by the
workings of the mind—no artists of any age have therein
excelled the sculptors of the Ancient Empire.
The next great school of Egyptian portrait sculpture is
that of the Middle Empire, which culminated under the
Twelfth Dynasty.
The sculptors of this age excelled in the skill with which
they cut and polished the hardest stones, such as basalt,
diorite, and granite. A vast crowd of Twelfth Dynasty
Pharaohs, their queens and families, carved in these obdu-
10