Egyptian sculpture

14 EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE

of decoration by sculpture. At the same time, the scenes represented in paintings are of great human interest, and give a vivid insight into the life of the time.

In the New Kingdom painting is the usual method of decorating the tomb-chapels of private persons, as is seen in the great cemeteries of Thebes. These also are full of representations of daily life, and in many cases show a keen artistic sense and a certain amount of humour. The royal tombs in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings and the Valley of the Tombs of the Queens are also decorated by painting; but in the royal tombs the scenes are entirely formal and religious, and show the royal personage in company with a series of deities with whom he or she consorts on equal terms. A favourite scheme of decoration in the late New Kingdom tombs of the kings is the journey of the sun through the Other World: as this was a purely religious theme the scenes are quite conventional. The most elaborately decorated tomb is that of Sethy I, of the XIXth dynasty, where both relief sculpture and painting were used; the most beautiful is that of Amenhotep II, of the XVIIIth dynasty, where the walls are painted pale brown, the colour of papyrus, with vertical columns of hieroglyphs in dark green: the subdued effect is very fine.

The only period when painting was regarded as an art in itself is the reign of Akhenaten. It was then that the artists began to use light and shade; and had this artistic impulse had a longer time for development, Egypt might have produced a great school of painting.

In the Late Period painting was used chiefly for the small stelae of private persons. These are generally of wood, covered with a thin layer of stucco, and crudely painted in bright colours with some religious scene, often the Weighing of the Heart or a representation of the deceased making