Egyptian sculpture

PROTO-DYNASTIC PERIOD 31

worked from the living model and from observation, not from memory only. The work is not too detailed, the main masses are given with care, and the whole shows a high standard of artistic achievement. The nose comes as a straight line with the forehead in the manner with which we are familiar in the Greek sculptures. This form is, with the exception of some portraits of Akhenaten, unknown in Egyptian art, for in the later periods the nose is always at an angle from the forehead. The width between the eyes is remarkable, also the angle of the eyebrows. The sharp fossa of the eye is noticeable, but not over-emphasised. The lips protrude, although there is no hint of prognathism; the face is wide, the cheeks full; the chin is unfortunately broken away, but the curve suggests that there was a beard.

The ivory statuette of a king (Pl. V. 2) is a beautiful example of Proto-dynastic art. The figure of an old man, bent with age and wrapped in a heavy quilted cloak, is rendered with a delicacy and truth which was never equalled in any later period. Naturalism was the chief characteristic of the early work, and in this statuette it is seen in perfection.

Pl. V. 3 is the figure of Kha-sekhem, of the IInd dynasty. It was found at Hierakonpolis in 1898, and is now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. It is of hard limestone; now, unfortunately, much damaged. Though not so fine as the Narmer head, it has much of the same naturalism. There are, however, a certain number of conventionalities in the sculpture. The shape of the face has not the severity of Narmer, the fossa is very much more marked and is increased in length, the eyebrows are indicated by a raised band, and the long line of paint with which the eyes were decorated has been carried, also as a raised band, to the