Egyptian sculpture

CHAPTER III

OLD KINGDOM T¥-¥Y 1472) - 49771

THE art of the Old Kingdom shows that, the technical

difficulties being now overcome, the sculptor was free to express himself in a manner impossible in the earlier periods. The long struggle to understand and represent the human form in all its beauty was ended for a time, and the Old Kingdom must be regarded as the fulfilment of the promise shown in the IIIrd dynasty. Life-sized statues gave the sculptor an opportunity of showing his powers, and the work of the Memphite School of this period is unsurpassed. Religious convention, though it might be hampering at times, had a restraining influence and gave dignity and repose to the statues. The majestic figure of Khafra could not have been conceived except under a religious impulse; it represents the Pharaoh in his divine aspect, not as a mere human being.

In the IVth dynasty the art of the Old Kingdom is at its »''

finest for realism and vitality of the sculpture. In the Vth dynasty the general level is slightly lower, there is a tendency to greater softness, though even here the splendid figure of Ra-nefer can stand comparison even with the Khafra. The artists of the VIth dynasty continued on the same lines as their predecessors, as the statues of Pepy I and of Ha-shet-ef show; but at the end of the dynasty there seems to have been a general decline of civilisation, probably incident on invasion, and with that decline came a decrease in the

appreciation of beauty in sculpture. 45