Egyptian sculpture

METHODS OF THE ARTIST II

amazingly fine results. The decorative arrangement of the figures, the delicate modelling, the appreciation of line, are remarkable.

In the Old and Middle Kingdoms, the relief sculptures seldom depict more than the ordinary incidents of daily life or the details of the funerary ceremonies. Almost all these sculptured scenes are in the tomb-chapels of nobles, for until the New Kingdom, decorated temples and royal tombs are rare.

Raised Reliefs

In the Old Kingdom the regular method of wall sculpture was by bas-reliefs, where the background is cut away and the figure is left. The figures were then worked over till the right degree of modelling had been obtained, and were finally painted in flat “washes” of colour. Though the Old Kingdom often leaves much to be desired in regard to technique, there is a life and fire in its sculptures which are entirely wanting in the more technically beautiful work of the XIXth dynasty. In the Middle Kingdom the work is still fine, though not so vivid as the early forms; the figures still show energy and are well designed. In the New Kingdom, however, the sculptor was sacrificing everything to technique, and if his work were technically good, it was nothing to him that the artistic expression was lost. To compare the work of the Old Kingdom with that of the New Kingdom is like comparing the work of a sculptor with a stonemason’s. Hollow Relief (‘‘Relief en creux’’)

This form of sculpture, when skilfully used, forms a variation from the ordinary bas-relief. The method of working is to cut the outline and model the figure as in raised reliefs,