Egyptian sculpture

CHAPTER II

4

_— <a cic PROTO-DYNASTIC PERIOD J-1¥ eye an

THERE is a certain amount of representation of the human form in prehistoric Egypt, but it can hardly be regarded as art. This was probably due to the prejudice, common to many primitive peoples, that to represent the likeness of any person was fraught with danger to that person. Here and there a statuette may be found with some attempt at naturalism, but the vast majority of the early figures have little or no pretensions to artistic representation.

With the beginning of the historic period a change came over the ideas of Egyptian art; a new element was introduced into the civilisation and affected the artist. No longer did he represent the human figure in the rough-and-ready manner of his predecessors; on the contrary, he studied his subject and produced a naturalistic school of portraiture which was never equalled again in Egypt. The actual size of the statue was also increased. The prehistoric figure is always small, seldom more than nine inches in height, whereas the figures of the early dynasties are usually half life-size. The earliest known statues of a deity are of even greater height, and must have been, when complete, at least thirteen feet high. These are, however, unique as to size for that period.

When art emerged from the little tentative attempts of the pre-dynastic period, the artist was untrammelled by tradition; the only conventions which bound him were

those common to all primitive art. Being thus free he used 29