Egyptian sculpture

12 EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE

but without lowering the background. The result is that only the highest parts of the modelled surface are on a level with the background, while the outline may be cut down to any depth required, sometimes as much as half an inch. The time and skill needed in removing the background are thus saved, and the sunk relief is consequently a cheaper method of decoration than bas-relief.

In the Old Kingdom, sunk relief was used merely as a variety in the scheme of decoration, chiefly for hieroglyphs; these, when without detail, being only flatly incised; details, such as the feathering of a bird’s wing or the plaiting of a basket, were either more deeply incised or were left in relief. When the method was applied to human figures the details were, of course, more highly developed, but the artist clearly depended for his effect upon outline rather than on modelling. It was a form of sculpture which became increasingly popular from the Vth dynasty onwards. In the Old Kingdom, hollow reliefs are usually found in the outer chambers of mastaba-tombs or for the figures on false doors, which are really the determinatives of the titles and name, and are consequently little more than enlarged hieroglyphs (cp. Pl. XI. 1). The depth of the hollow is very slight, and the modelling is much less than on the bas-reliefs, though the details, such as the necklaces, are often extremely elaborate. The general effect, however, is that the hollow relief is a cheaper and lesser type of decoration, and that it was used when the owner of the tomb could not afford the finer style, or when, to the artist’s eye, bas-relief required the variation of hollow sculpture. In the Middle Kingdom hollow relief became of more consequence and reached its highest development. It was employed for important sculpture in tombs and temples.

In the New Kingdom, bas-relief was largely used during