Egyptian sculpture

148 EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE

A charming example of the delicate work of the Tell el Amarna artists is seen in the scene of Tutankhamen and his queen (Pl. XX XIX. 1). The grace of the girlish figure in her flowing robe is very beautiful, and the weary attitude of the young Pharaoh is well rendered. The composition, though well designed, has the defect of so much of the Amarna work in verging on the “‘pretty-pretty.”

PAINTING

In painting, the Tell el Amarna artist struck out an entirely new line; as Petrie expresses it, “the new movement suited the brush muck better than the chisel.”

The most important painting, which has survived, was in the palace of the king—the painted floor. The colours were laid on a mud-plaster basis, and the subject is a pond, bordered at each end by one row of plants, animals, and birds, and on the sides by two rows of similar decoration. It is in these paintings that we see the desire of the Tell el Amarna artist to express himself in naturalistic forms, and for the first time in Egyptian art we find an attempt to represent animals in rapid motion. The running position of the jumping calves (Pl. XT 1-3) shows an observation of nature which is never found before. The fluttering birds are more conventional; such birds are known in the earlier periods. The vegetation is amazingly naturalistic. Here and there are groups of the papyrus plant, represented in the usual conventional manner; these should be compared with the forms of the various kinds of reeds which the artist has delighted to depict. This is the first time in Egypt that the forms of plants are shown with any attempt at true form and colour. Here also we find the animals placed against a background, a method of composition never