DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0098
66 EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE.
change in the treatment of forms. Colossal statues now give place to works
more unpretending in size, but finished with the painstaking care of a cameo
or miniature painting. The broad, massive treatment and sketchy surface of
older statues are now exchanged for roundness in detail, and astonishing neat-
ness of manipulation. Although the inherited general forms are retained,
there is a decided attempt to make them more agreeable by mellowing their
sharp lines, and bestowing upon them delicacy of execution. But the works
of art thus produced lack the vigor of the older period. Portraits now lose
their realistic character beneath a veil, as it were, of elegance, frequently
robbing them of any particular interest.
Among the most perfect of the works of this time is the statue, now in
Boolak, of Queen Ameneritis, a lady who played a most important part
in the history of her day. She was the wife of one of the Ethiopian kings of
the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, and grandmother to Psammetichos I. The figure of
this queen, 1.67 meter high, is in costly Oriental alabaster, and appears to have
been surmounted by two golden plumes, unfortunately now gone. She is clad
in a tightly fitting robe, her arms are clasped by admirably executed bracelets,
and her head is covered by the elaborate head-dress of the goddesses. One
inscription teaches us that this choice figure of the queen was executed while
she lived; and another, on the pilaster at the back, is the dedicatory invocation
to the gods.
Of the powerful and enlightened kings of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, so
few portraits remain, that it would seem as though they had either been
destroyed or carried off in the repeated invasions of the Persians ; but of the
o-ods and private persons, numerous representations exist. Although the light
point where centres the art-interest of this long-checkered period is the
Twenty-sixth Dynasty and the house of Psammetichos, yet its peculiar excel-
lences continued unabated down to about the time of the Greek occupation.
In a tomb at Sakkarah, belonging to the Thirtieth — the last — Egyptian
Dynasty, three figures in serpentine, now in Boolak, were discovered by Mari-
ette, which admirably illustrate all the peculiarities of this last renaissance of
Egyptian art.97 These small figures are scarcely 91 centimetres (3 feet) in
height, and represent Osiris ; Isis, who shared in the protection of the dead ;
and a high functionary of state, Psammetichos, standing under the protection
of the goddess Hathor, who has the form of a cow. A more careful model-
ling in such obdurate material, equalled only by its elaborate finish, it would
be difficult to find than is evident in these statues, having thereby more the
charm of the cameo than of bold statuesque rendering.
In relief of the Sai'tic period, as in statuary, a few formal changes are evi-
dent. The representations of the ritual, the ordeals of the departed, and the
army of judicial gods, still invade the tomb; and a few scenes like those of
the Ancient Empire, quiet and rural, may be seen. But these arc no longer so
change in the treatment of forms. Colossal statues now give place to works
more unpretending in size, but finished with the painstaking care of a cameo
or miniature painting. The broad, massive treatment and sketchy surface of
older statues are now exchanged for roundness in detail, and astonishing neat-
ness of manipulation. Although the inherited general forms are retained,
there is a decided attempt to make them more agreeable by mellowing their
sharp lines, and bestowing upon them delicacy of execution. But the works
of art thus produced lack the vigor of the older period. Portraits now lose
their realistic character beneath a veil, as it were, of elegance, frequently
robbing them of any particular interest.
Among the most perfect of the works of this time is the statue, now in
Boolak, of Queen Ameneritis, a lady who played a most important part
in the history of her day. She was the wife of one of the Ethiopian kings of
the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, and grandmother to Psammetichos I. The figure of
this queen, 1.67 meter high, is in costly Oriental alabaster, and appears to have
been surmounted by two golden plumes, unfortunately now gone. She is clad
in a tightly fitting robe, her arms are clasped by admirably executed bracelets,
and her head is covered by the elaborate head-dress of the goddesses. One
inscription teaches us that this choice figure of the queen was executed while
she lived; and another, on the pilaster at the back, is the dedicatory invocation
to the gods.
Of the powerful and enlightened kings of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, so
few portraits remain, that it would seem as though they had either been
destroyed or carried off in the repeated invasions of the Persians ; but of the
o-ods and private persons, numerous representations exist. Although the light
point where centres the art-interest of this long-checkered period is the
Twenty-sixth Dynasty and the house of Psammetichos, yet its peculiar excel-
lences continued unabated down to about the time of the Greek occupation.
In a tomb at Sakkarah, belonging to the Thirtieth — the last — Egyptian
Dynasty, three figures in serpentine, now in Boolak, were discovered by Mari-
ette, which admirably illustrate all the peculiarities of this last renaissance of
Egyptian art.97 These small figures are scarcely 91 centimetres (3 feet) in
height, and represent Osiris ; Isis, who shared in the protection of the dead ;
and a high functionary of state, Psammetichos, standing under the protection
of the goddess Hathor, who has the form of a cow. A more careful model-
ling in such obdurate material, equalled only by its elaborate finish, it would
be difficult to find than is evident in these statues, having thereby more the
charm of the cameo than of bold statuesque rendering.
In relief of the Sai'tic period, as in statuary, a few formal changes are evi-
dent. The representations of the ritual, the ordeals of the departed, and the
army of judicial gods, still invade the tomb; and a few scenes like those of
the Ancient Empire, quiet and rural, may be seen. But these arc no longer so