Egyptian sculpture

178 EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE

behind the head, and the tail goes over the top of the king’s head. In this, as in all the statues of the Ptolemaic time, the stone separating the various parts of the statue from one another is not removed. Note the method of carving the uraeus, and compare it with the same ornament on the heads of kings of the XVIIIth dynasty.

RELIEFS

Early Ptolemaic work shows a certain Greek influence overlying the decadent Egyptian sculpture. The figures of Alexander the Great, and of Philip Arrhidaeus, although conventionalised in the usual Egyptian fashion and worked in the style of the Late Period, are finer than those of the later Ptolemaic era. In the wall-sculptures the figures, whether in low or in hollow relief, follow the Egyptian conventions, though the canon is different from that of the earlier time. It must also be noted how often the hands are wrongly represented, the thumbs often being both on the side towards the spectator; this is evidently the result of inattentive copying, for the artist has often realised that the big toes are not both on the same side and has therefore represented the feet correctly. In this he was both more and less observant than his predecessor of the Old Kingdom, who always put the big toe of each foot towards the spectator, but generally realised the difference between the right and left hands.

The characteristics of the Ptolemaic relief sculpture are: (2) The lumpiness of the faces, the cheeks being represented as very fat, without any true representation of the structure; the same can also be said of the figures. (0) In the women’s figures the breast—there is only one—is represented as being absolutely horizontal and often shaped like a ball.