Egyptian sculpture

OLD KINGDOM 69

and even more from the artistic side, for it shows far better than the others the methods and style of the art of the period. The Street of Tombs is entirely of the VIth dynasty, and here again the sculpture varies considerably from that of the Vth-dynasty tombs. It is not so well drawn, but in Many ways is more interesting as showing scenes which do not occur in the more religiously designed tombs of the older period. In all these sculptures the method of working is to lower the background, leaving the figures in relief. The relief is usually very low, and the background is often slightly lowered towards the outline. On the raised surface the modelling is effected, and when complete, the whole scene is painted, the background at Saqqara being dark grey, at Meydum pale grey. The colours are laid on in flat tints without any attempt at shading; the conventional flesh-colour for men_is dark red, for women pale yellow; the men’s clothes are white, the women’s, usually red or dark green. The animals are painted, though hardly naturalistically, and the hieroglyphs are also painted in their appropriate colours. In studying the relief sculptures of Egypt the painting is important; it cannot be differentiated from painting on the flat, the only difference being that in the painted reliefs the modelling is effected by actual cutting of the stone, and in the painting there is no attempt at rendering light and shade, for in both the painted reliefs and the paintings on the flat the colours are put in in flat washes.

The procession of offering-bearers is from the tomb of Ra-hotep and Nefert (Pl. XIII.1), at Meydum, whence Petrie removed it during his second excavation in 1910, after the tombs had been largely destroyed by natives The statues of this great official and his wife are deservedly among the recognised masterpieces of the ancient world;