Egyptian sculpture

OLD KINGDOM 73

The variation in the artistic ability and in the rendering of the human figures in these two groups suggests that more than one sculptor has been at work. In the right-hand group the standing man and the two men who lift the feet are in true profile, their action is spontaneous and natural, but the man on the bull’s back and the man holding the tail are a complete failure anatomically; the artist has not understood how to represent the arms and shoulders in action. Compare these two figures with the men who drag at the horns of the bulls in both groups, and the difference will be apparent at once. It is evident that the two scenes have been designed by one mind, and indicate the methods used of tackling and throwing a standing or a charging animal. In spite, then, of minor defects, these two spirited groups are among the finest examples of the art of their period: the lines of the composition, the variety of action, the skilful rendering of the masses, the subordination of detail to the general effect, combine in a result which has seldom been equalled.

PAINTING

The celebrated fresco of geese is one of the earliest wallpaintings in existence (Pl. XIV. 2). The tomb of Nefermaat dates to the late IlIrd or early IVth dynasty. The painting was on the wall of the forecourt, and was part of a series of such paintings, now, alas! destroyed. A few scraps and fragments were found by Petrie when he excavated the tomb twenty years later, showing what the beauty of the frescoes must have been, and how much might have been preserved with careful handling in the original excavation by Daninos. Fortunately this one painting has been preserved intact, and shows what the artists of the period could do. The six geese are divided into two companies