Egyptian sculpture

140 EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE

this been found in Greece no surprise would have been expressed at the beauty and accuracy of the sculpture, but being found in Egypt it is so different from the purely conventional methods of the periods which precede and succeed Akhenaten that it is impossible to suppose that the art which produced it was indigenous.

The well-known little ebony head of a queen (Pl. XXXV. 2) found in the Fayum and now in the Berlin Museum, is remarkable as the presentment of what is so rare in Egyptian work, a woman beyond the age of youth. The suggestion that this is Queen Tyi is hardly one to commend itself to any person who has closely studied the portraits of that queen; the only likeness is the downward curve of the mouth. The type of face follows the conventions of Tell el Amarna, but the shape of the nose, the line of the forehead, the curve of the chin, are entirely unlike the portraits of the great queen. Thereis, in the profile, a suggestion of negro origin. The sloping eyes are inlaid, in the usual manner, with white limestone and black obsidian; the angle at which they are set should be compared with the eyes of the portrait-head of Queen Tyi, found in Sinai, and the profiles should be compared also. The sculpture is extremely fine, as is always the case in work in wood; this is in ebony, which lends itself very well to delicate modelling and careful detail. The whole face of this little head is full of expression and of life. The head-dress is remarkable as representing a great mass of hair piled out round the head, and above it has been some form of crown of a different material, of which the tenon alone remains. The double uraeus has obviously been above the brow, for the mortise holes are still to be seen. The rosette ear-rings should also be noted.

The series of heads found at Tell el Amarna and now in the Berlin Museum are perhaps the most remarkable series of