Egyptian sculpture

METHODS OF THE ARTIST 13

the XVIIIth dynasty, but hollow relief became very general in temple sculpture from the XIXth dynasty onwards. It was particularly used by Rameses IT and Merenptah. In tomb stelae it degenerated into little more than incised outline.

In the late periods hollow relief follows the same course of degradation and decadence as the bas-relief; generally rather more exaggerated, as it was evidently then, as in earlier times, a cheap form of decoration.

PAINTING

Painting in Egypt was never an art in itself, but was always subordinate to sculpture, statues and reliefs alike being painted. But even as early as the beginning of the Old Kingdom flat surfaces were occasionally decorated in colour without first being sculptured. Generally, painting was used as (a) a substitute for relief sculpture, (0) for unimportant details, (c) for elaborate details which could not be easily reproduced otherwise. Such details are the representations of large mats woven in coloured designs; these are found in the decorations of the tomb of Ra-hesy, of the IIIrd dynasty, as well as in the tombs of a later date.

In the Middle Kingdom painting had superseded relief sculpture to a very great extent; the best-known examples are the series of tomb-chapels at Beni-Hasan. It is hardly fair to institute comparisons between the paintings of the Old Kingdom and those of the Middle Kingdom, for the latter were chiefly in the provinces and probably executed by local talent, while the Old Kingdom paintings were from the royal cities, the great centres of civilisation and artistic culture—Meydum and Memphis. The Middle Kingdom paintings are inferior to the sculpture, and show that the art was merely a cheap substitute for the more expensive mode