Egyptian sculpture

OLD KINGDOM 57

plants of Upper and Lower Egypt. In the original woodwork this was probably openwork; here, however, it is represented merely in relief, the edges being rounded down to the back; there is no detail in the plants except a few incised lines. The falcon behind the head of the king is symbolic of the god, or totem, of the Pharaoh. It spreads its wings round his head and thus protects him. In a statuette of Khafra’s immediate successor, Menkaura, the king has become one with the bird; the face is a portrait of the man, but the back of both head and body are those of a falcon (Pl. IX. 2). ' An unusual group is that of Mertitefs, who is represented in two figures exactly alike standing side by side, and on the left of the figures is a naked boy. The exact purport of this group is unknown. The importance of it is perhaps more historic than artistic, as Mertitefs held a position in the court of three kings, and in that way we obtain not only the sequence of reigns, but some definite idea of their length. The chief peculiarity of the figures is the exaggerated size of the eyes; with this exception the face is naturalistically rendered (PI. IX. 3). It is that of a woman beyond youth; the large coarse features, the drooping mouth, the thick lips, are as plebeian as those of the queen of Menkaura. The modelling of the face is of the usual fine style of the Old Kingdom, though, as Petrie remarks, “‘in her type of face and the treatment of it, we see an earlier race and earlier work than that of pyramid times.” The eyes are painted, not inlaid, the © fossa being therefore not elongated unduly; they rise sharply from the nose and, although of unnatural size, are well shaped. The eyebrow is represented by araised band, following the line of the orbit and ending in a point. The nose is wide with rather distended nostrils; the modelling of the upper lip is summarily represented by a deep groove with sharp edges. The hair is a wig, parted in the middle, with