Egyptian sculpture

METHODS OF THE ARTIST 15

an offering to a deity. As painting throughout the artistic history of Egypt is always only a cheap substitute for relief sculpture, it is in every period on a lower level than the other forms of art; this is particularly noticeable in the dynasties following the New Kingdom, and can be seen not only on the painted stelae, but on the coffins also. There is no wallpainting at this period nor later; painting as an art died out after the New Kingdom.

TRAINING OF THE ARTIST

The art student began his training by copying the hieroglyph xb ey. . This sign consists of a horizontal line

with a curve below it, the whole design representing a round basket. The beginner was set to copy this design, the master having first drawn or sculptured it at the top of a small piece of limestone. The student then proceeded to copy it, but, judging by the trial pieces which remain, one is forced to the conclusion that the young artist, when he began, was not sufficiently intelligent to look at the master’s example every time that he began a new copy; he merely copies his own work, so that the further he gets from the master’s original the worse his own performance. For sculpture or drawing, beginners used small pieces of limestone such as can be found in any quantity at the foot of the cliffs; good material was never wasted on them. When the student had advanced beyond the b sign, he was then promoted to various hieroglyphs of more or less difficulty. There is in

the British Museum an example of a drawing, by the master, ~' i,

of the ayin-hieroglyph (i.e. of the forearm, showing the hand), and the copy by the student, who has given the hand five fingers as well as a thumb. When the student was promoted