Egyptian sculpture

LATE PERIOD 167

very marked, especially in the case of Hathor (here called Isis). The chief characteristics of the head are the long narrow face, the height of the head, the close-set eyes and pinched features, the position and size of the ears, the straightness and stifiness of the neck and the wig-lappets. On comparing these with the Hathor of Menkaura, the difference in style leaps to the eye. In the rendering of the body the same contrast is found. In this figure the shoulders slope without any attempt at modelling, there is no indication of muscular structure in the arms, the hand is merely closed and does not grasp the object it holds. As in all later sculpture, the abdomen is made prominent and the navel is too large and important; there is no modelling whatsoever in the body, merely rounded masses; there is no indication of the dress, except at the ankles. The difference in the method of representing the disk and horns in the early and the later examples should also be noted. The figure of the second goddess is a replica of the first, except for the head-dress, whereas in the triad of Menkaura the faces are carefully differentiated.

The head of the Pharaoh Hakar (Pl. XLIV. 4) is one of the latest examples of the purely native art before the Ptolemaic period. It has the conventions of the XXVIth dynasty, and though not good, has in it the promise of a finer and more original school of sculpture which might have come into existence had the condition of the country been favourable to the development of art. The facial muscles are not indicated, the cheeks being merely rounded masses and the eye entirely conventional, but there is a good deal of observation shown in the mouth and nose. The style of the memes head-dress should be compared with that of Khafra.

The head of Nectanebo, found at Abydos, is perhaps the very last piece of sculpture in the round belonging to the pure