Egyptian sculpture

OLD KINGDOM 55

the open left hand rests on the other knee. In this, as in other statues of the period, the upper part of the body is of the finest workmanship; for in these early statues the sculptor seems to excel in the representation of the shoulders; every muscle is indicated with truth and accuracy, and where the bone is visible under the skin, as at the point of the shoulder, the sculptor’s knowledge of the structure underlying the skin is obvious. The face is one of the finest in the whole range of Egyptian sculpture. Although it is intended to be a portrait, there is in it something more than the portraiture of a man; the king being considered divine, there is in this portrait an expression of divinity and of that aloofness which one associates with divinity. The face is wide, the cheek-bones rather prominent, the nose is straight or slightly aquiline, rather narrow between the eyes. The eyes are large and well opened; the fossa is not exaggerated, as the eyes themselves are cut in the stone without being inlaid: the eyebrows are not artificially indicated. The firm mouth has a very slight Cupid’s bow, but there is no sharp edge to the lips; and it is to the delicacy with which the muscles of the face, especially those round the mouth, are delineated, that we owe the “precision of the expression, combining what a man should be to win our feelings, and what a king should be to command our regard.” The ears are set in the right position, and are practically of the natural size. The greater part of the throat is covered by the beard and the lappets of the head-dress, but in the small portion which is visible the sculptor has not shirked the anatomy; it is truly a throat, not a cylindrical column as in statues of a later period. The head-dress consists of the striped nemes, the stripes, however, are not shown on the part which covers the head; the lappets only are lined horizontally, representing pleats of the same width. The