Egyptian sculpture

LATE PERIOD 161

The bronze statuette of Queen Karomama (Pl. XLVII.1) » a

is of the XXVth dynasty; it is probable that it has been cast by the cive perdue process. The figure has at some time held between the hands some object which is now lost. The face is not entirely conventional, and the workmanship is goodas it always is in metal—especially when compared with the stone statues of its period. The head-dress is the conventional wig, under which the lady’s own hair is seen, cut in a fringe across the forehead, not unlike the figure of Mertitefs. It is difficult to say whether the circle on the top of the head is in itself a crown or is the support to which a crown of a different material would be attached. The modelling of the figure owes much of its charm to the arrangement of the dress, which is brought in folds across the breast and tied with a ribbon in the high-waisted style which was fashionable in Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The skirt is represented as if made of wings folded round the figure, as in the wooden statue of the Ptolemaic period. The short pleated sleeve is like the sleeve of the XIXth dynasty, as in the basalt statue of Rameses II, now at Turin.

The well-known basalt statues of Osiris and Isis (Pl. XLV. r, 2) are purely conventional in type, but are good examples of the style of the XX VIth dynasty. The two deities sit on thrones in the usual stiff attitude of the enthroned god. Osiris holds the emblems of divinity and wears his usual headdress with the uraeus in front, the tail going in a wavy line up the crown. The god’s figure is covered by the long swathing garment from which the hands only protrude; the points of the elbows are represented very sharply, but otherwise there is no modelling in the figure. The face is entirely conventional, the long, narrow form and the sharply-cut features are characteristic of the period. The figure of Isis is in more detail;

she wears the ordinary costume of the women, and it is 13