Wonders of sculpture

Front matter

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Brigham Young University

WONDERS OF SCULPTURE.

Chapter I

Statue of Ra-em-Ke, of Sepa, of Nesa — Meaning of Egyptian terms — The archaic style — The second artistic epoch — I'he renaissance of art in Egypt — Egyptian statues in the Louvre, in the British Museum — The Rosetta Stone ... 5

Chapter II. Assyrian Sculpture

Influence of Assyrian art on the Greeks, Etruscans, and Hebrews — Palace of Khorsabad — Discoveries at Koyunjik, Karamles, Kalab-Shergat — Colossal Bulls in the Louvre — Assyrian bas-reliefs in the British Museum — Obelisk of Kalab-Shergat ........ 42

CHAPTER HI.

ETRUSCAN SCULP'IURE.

Statues in the Ufhzi Gallery : the Idolino, the ChimDera, and the Orator — The Lydian Tomb — Etruscan Vases (so-called) — Rhytons — Amphorae — Vetri Antichi ....

Till

CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Grecian Sculpture

PAGB

Influence of mythology on Grecian art — Dsedalus — Glaucus — Dipoenusand Scyllis— Dameas— Ageladas— ^Eginetan marbles at Munich — Praxiteles — Phidias — Scopas — Grecian Sculptures in the Louvre : the Venus of Milo, Diana Huntress, Achilles, the Dying Gladiator — at Florence : Niobe and her Children, the Venus of Medici, the Apollino, the Faun,

^the Wrestlers, the Arrotino — at Rome : the Apollo Belvedere, the Laocoon, the Torso Belvedere — at Naples : the Flora, the Hercules, and the Toro Farnese — in the British Museum : the Marbles of Xanthus, the Elgin Marbles, Sculptures from the Parthenon ... 70

Chapter V. Roman Sculpture

Influence of Greece on Roman art — Statues of Emperors and Empresses : of Caesar Agrippina, Augustus, &c. ; of Antinous, Balbus, and others — Busts of Agrippa, Nero, Domitian, Caracalla, &c — Bas-reliefs ; Suovetaurilia, a Conclamatio, the Prietorian Soldiers . . . , . . .181 k

CONTENTS.

ix

Book II. Modern Sculpture

CHAPTER T.

ITALIAN SCULPTURE.

Nicolas of Pisa — Ghiberti — Della Robbia — Sansovino — Verrochio — Agratus — Michael Angelo : his character and mode of working ; his sculptures : Bacchus, the Tombs of the Medici, the Madonna della Pieta, Moses, the Captives, Brutus, &c — Cellini : his group of Perseus and Andromeda, the Nymph of Fontainebleau, &c — Ammanato — Bernini — Algardi — Canova : his Tomb of Maria Christina, his groups of Perseus with the Medusa’s head, and Theseus with the Minotaur ......... 201

CHAPTER II.

SPANISH SCULPTURE.

Vigami — Berruguete — Becerra — Tombs of Isabella of Arragon and Charles V., of Juana la Loca and Philip the Handsome — Cano — Gin^s . . . . . . . .238

CHAPTER HI.

GERMAN SCULPTURE.

Erwin of Baden — Schuffer — Vischer — Dannecker : his group of Ariadne on the Panther — Rauch — Kiss : his Amazon on horseback — Rietschel— Thorwaldsen .... 249 h

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.

FLEMISH SCULPTURE.

PAGE

Tombs of Charles the Bold and Mary of Burgundy, at Bruges — Sluter — Claux de Vousonne — Jacques de Baerz— Hermann Glosencamp : his chimney-piece of sculptured wood . 264

CHAPTER V.

ENGLISH SCULPTURE.

Sir R. Westmacott — Statues of the Duke of Wellington — the Tombs in Westminster Abbey — Sheemakers — Roubiliac — Chantry —Baron Marochetti ...... 270

Chapter VI. French Sculpture

Its development in the Gothic ages — Michault Colomb — Juste — Texier — Demigiano — ^John of Bologna — Jean Goujon — • Cousin — Pilon — Trebatti — Pierre Jacques — Puget: his groups of Milo of Crotona, Hercules in repose, &c —

C oy sevox — G irardon — The C ous tons — Bouchardon — H ou - don — Sculptures by living artists in the Luxembourg. . 283

AMERICAN SCULPTURE.

Absence of interest in the early days — Mrs. Patience Wright — Houdon — Foreign Sculptors — ^John Frazee, the first Sculptor of American birth — Indifference of prominent Americans to the Art — Horatio Greenough — His Statue of Washington — Greenough and Fenimore Cooper — Hiram Powers — The Greek Slave — Thomas Crawford — His Orpheus— His work at Washington - H. K. Brown — His Washington, Scott, and Greene — Henry Dexter — Cemetery monuments — Erastus D. Palmer — His popular works — William Wetmore Story— His literary and artistic powers— Thomas Ball — ^John Quincy Adams Ward -Indian Hunter and Shakespeare — Launt Thompson — John Rogers — Cleveger, Bartholomew, and Akers — Women as Sculptors

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, pa(;e

1. Pre-Historic Remains . ...... 3

5. Colossal Bas-relief, Nineveh, in the Louvre . . • 5*

6. The Infant Apollo with a Duck ..... 63

7. The Venus of Milo, in the Louvre .... 92

8. Achilles, in the Louvre ...... 99

9. Pallas of Velletri, in the Louvre . . . . . ic6

10. Bacchus, in the Louvre ...... 108

11. Mercury, in the Louvre . . . . . .109

12. The Tiber, in the Louvre . . . . . .112

13. The Nile, in the Vatican . . . . . *113

14. P'aun with a Child, in the Louvre. . . . • H5

15. The Pretended Germanicus, in the Louvre . . .116

16. A Discobolus, in the Louvre . . . . .118

17. The Faun of Praxiteles — at Rome . . . .119

18. Niobe — at Florence . . . . . . .125

19. The Venus of Medici — at Florence .... 128

20. Apollino — at Florence . . . . . .131

21. The Musical Faun — at Florence . . . . .132

22. The Wrestlers — at Florence. . . . . .134

23. The Arrotino — at Florence . . . . -135

24. The Dying Gladiator — at Rome . . . . .136

25. Venus leaving the Bath — at Rome . . . • t39

26. The Amazon of the Capitol — at Rome . . . .139

27. The Apollo Belvedere — at Rome . . . . .140

28. The Laocoon — at Rome . . . . . . 141

29. The Torso of the Belvedere — at Rome . . . .142

30. The Dancing Faun — at Naples . . . . - Hi

31. The Farnese Bull — at Naples ..... 146 xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PA(^E

32. Gods. Frieze of the Parthenon . . . . -163

33. Young Man. Frieze of the Parthenon . . . .163

3'j.. Cavalier. Ditto ditto .... 164

35. Cavaliers. Ditto ditto . . . .164

36. Metope of the Parthenon . . . . . .166

37. Heads of Horses — from the Parthenon. British Museum 171

38. Theseus, from the Parthenon . . . . .172

39. The Parcae, from the Parthenon . . . . *175

41. Agrippina of Germanicus — at Rome . . . .183

42. Antinous — at Rome . . . . . . .185

43. Equestrian statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni . , . 207

44. Ivy-crowned Bacchus — at P'lorence . . . .212

45. Statue of Moses — at Rome .... Frontispiece.

46. The Perseus of Canova — at Rome. .... 230

47. Mausoleum of Maria Christina — Vienna . . . 232

48. Theseus vanquishing the Minotaur — Vienna . . . 234

49. Ariadne on the Panther — Frankfort .... 254

50. Bronze monument of Frederick the Great — Berlin . . 257

51. The Amazon — at Berlin ...... 258

52. Goethe and Schiller ....... 259

53. Entrance of Alexander into Babylon .... 262

54. Tomb of the Dukes of Burgundy — at Dijon . . . 266

55. The Flying Mercury ....... 294

56. Fountain of the Innocents — Paris ..... 298

57. Tomb of Pierre de Breze ...... 301

58. Riding-Master of Marly — Paris . . . . .318

60. Voltaire, by Houdon ....... 327

61. The Marseillaise, by J. Rude ..... 333

62. Pediment of the Pantheon, Paris, by David . . . 334

THE

WONDERS OF SCULPTURE.

BOOK I.

ANCIENT SCULPTURE.

IN a former work, the “ Wonders of Pamtingf we made the preliminary remark, that of the three arts of design, universally styled “ The Fine Arts!' painting was the latest in age, in historical date. For a long time it was but the handmaid, the accessory, the finisher of the other two. Sculpture, also, although it preceded painting, long remained subordinate to architecture, which, of course, was the earliest of the three. From the first appearance of our race upon the earth, man required a habitation to shelter him from the cold and heat, from the fury of the elements, and from the attacks of wild beasts. Soon arose a demand for palaces as dwellings for those whose superior .‘trength or skill had made them chiefs of tribes and kings of nations ; and temples had to be raised

B

ANCIENT SCU1.PTURE.

in honour of the powers of nature, which man, in his wondering ignorance and awe, deified and worshipped— invoking their blessings and deprecating their wrath by presents and sacrifices.

Sculpture, which employed the same materials as architecture, wood, stone, and marble, soon stepped in and supplied the earliest ornaments ; and like architecture, it was at first content to derive its ideas as well as its materials from inorganic nature. \A column was a tree trunk in white marble, a capital represented the sprouting of branches and leaves. Gradually, however, arch'- tecture became perfected, embellished, transfigured ; it became an art, and from the useful sprang the beautiful. At the same time, sculpture insensibly attained to importance and independence, i

Relics of the first crude efforts at sculpture and drawing have been preserved to us from the Stone Age in the clumsy carvings on rocks or bones found in caverns, once occupied by the men of that remote period, and in the ruins of those lake cities which are almost as ancient as the caves which sheltered the first inhabitants of our planet.

Sculpture, as an art, gradually advanced as man became interested in the study of organised nature, of animals, and, finally, of himself. He was no longer content to represent things, he endeavoured

ANCIENT SCULP TUBE.

to imitate living creatures, and to reproduce his own im: i^e. “ After admiring the universe,” says M, Charles Blanc, “ man began to contemplate himself ; he realised that the human form is adapted to the spirit, that it is, so to speak, its clothing ; that its proportions, its symmetry, its ease of motion, its superior beauty, render it alone, of all living forms, capable of fully manifesting thought.

Fig. 2. — Stone Age.

Therefore he copies the human body, and sculpture is born.” We add : from this moment it may be called statuary. But as the human mind required

ANCIENT ^SCULPTURE.

the gradual training of ages before painting produced what we call a picture, so a long period of actual and mature civilization was needed before sculpture, freed from its vassalage to architecture, could bring forth those independent works which we name bas-relieis and statues.

Chapter I Egyptian Sculpture

Far back in that remote and primitive civilization which witnessed the birth and growth of the fertile Nile, we must look for the origin of all the arts. The Egyptians excavated the sepulchres of Samoun and the temple of Karnak from the rocks, and raised the great pyramids of Djizeh (Geezeh) on the borders of the desert ; they engraved epitaphs on stelae or tablets ; they placed rows of sphinxes resting on pedestals in the avenues of the temples which contained the images of their gods and all but deified Pharaohs. Until the present day it was not unreasonably believed that Egyptian art under the influence of the priesthood, or rather, practised by the priests alone — who had arrested its progress by condemning it to the limits of an unchangeable law, and placing it under the restrictions of religion — must have been purely sacerdotal from its origin

EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE.

and early development to its total extinction. Recent discoveries have distinctly proved this to be an error. It is certain, that before they were restricted by dogma, Egyptian artists were able freely and truly to represent animate and inanimate forms in all their variety. M. Francois Lenormant justly remarks: “Now that we are well acquainted with its various phases, (^art in Egypt appears to have followed a contrary direction in its development to that of any other country. Other nations began with purely sacer-* dotal art, and only subsequently and gradually attained to true and free imitation of nature.

. . . Alone of all the world, the Egyptians began with living reality to finish with hieratic convention. ^

The proof of this well-founded assertion was completely seen in the last Universal Exhibition. The most indifferent visitors, ignorant alike of archaeology and art, were struck dumb with admiration before a wooden statue which has come down to us from these most remote ages. “ A miracle alike of preservation and art,” says M. F. Lenormant, “ this statue, as a study of nature, as a striking and life-like portrait, is unsurpassed by any Grecian work. . . . From the inscriptions on the tomb in which it was discovered, we know that it represents

EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE.

a certain Ra-em-Ke, a man of some importance during several reigns of the fifth dynasty. . . . The sculptor has represented him on foot, calmly walking in some town under his government. . . . Parts of this figure have been much injured ; ... it has lost the thin coating of coloured stucco which originally covered it, and on which the sculptor probably added his finishing touches. What must it not have been when intact and free from the ravages of time 1 Everything is faithfully copied from living nature ; ... it is evidently a true portrait. . . . The modelling of the body is marvellous, . . . but it is the head which most challenges admiration ; it is a prodigy of life. . . . The mouth, parted by a slight smile, seems about to speak. The expression of the eyes is almost distressing. The eyeballs are shaded by lids of bronze, and are formed of pieces of opaque white quartz, . . in the centre of which are inserted rounded bits of rock crystal to represent the pupils. Under each crystal is fixed a shining nail, which indicates the visual point and produces the astonishing and life-like expression.

As this Ra-em-Ke lived under the fifth dynasty, his iconic statue must have been executed about the year 4000 B.C. More than 5800 years have therefore passed over these fragile pieces of cedar

EGYFTIAN SCULPTURE.

and mimosa wood without effacing the marks of the artist’s chisel. At the same Universal Exhibition was to be seen the colossal statue in diorite

Fig. 3. — Ra-em-Kd

Fig. 4. — Schafra.

(a substance harder than basalt) of a Pharaoh of the fourth dynasty, the celebrated Schafra (the Chephren of Herodotus), who had the second of the great pyramids built as a sepulchre for him-

self. Schafra lived more than a century before Ra-em-Ke.

At the Louvre we have two statues in calcareous stone, one of the High Priest of the White Bull, named Sepa, and the other of his wife Nesa^ preserved from that early age which witnessed the elevation of the first great pyramids, under the third, or, perhaps, the second dynasty. To conclude, the Egyptian museum of Montbijou at Berlin, in addition to some bas-reliefs from the tomb of Amten of the time of Senefru I. of the third dynasty, contains the entrance gate of the pyramid of Sakkara (Sagara), the construction of which carries us back to the still more remote age fixed by the tables of Manetho (the correctness of which has now been so completely established) as the first of the twenty-six there ascribed to Egypt. The ornaments on this gate cannot be less than seven or eight thousand years old. “ Such figures are overwhelming ; ... it is a stupendous antiquity for the work of a man’s hand, still more for a monument of true art. No relics from ages so near to that of the origin of our race have been found in India, China, or Assyria. But the most overwhelming thought is, that instead of savage races, we find a firmly constituted society, the formation of which must have required long centuries of

EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE.

development, a civilization far advanced in science and art. and possessed of mechanical processes suitable to the construction of huge monuments of indestructible solidity.” — Francois Lenormant.

The primitive period from the first to the sixth dynasty is usually called the ancient empire, or Memphian Egypt. As we have before remarked, its monuments show freedom, indeed, secularity of art. Not until after that confused and obscure period between the sixth and eleventh dynasties, did the middle empire or Theban Egypt, known to the Greeks, commence, under which Egyptian art, condemned by religion to immobility, became purely sacerdotal and hieratic.

We must here call to mind that paramount and universal idea which pervaded the religion, the politics, laws, sciences, arts, public and private customs, and, indeed, the very amusements and recreations of ancient Egypt. We allude to the belief in immutability and eternity. Nothing must change, nothing must perish. The living must lead a life of uniformity, and even the dead must last for ever. Weary of this perpetual monotony, foreign nations pronounced Egypt dull and melancholy.

It was in obedience to their national idea that the Egyptians, from the earliest ages, built up the pyramids of Djizeh on imperishable foundations,

EG YP TIAN SCULP TUBE.

and excavated the gates of the kings, the temple of Karnak, the sepulchres of Samoun and Thebes from granite rocks, and finally condemned arts of decoration, such as sculpture, never to chang^e their subjects, their forms, or their proportions. ( Fearing that free imitation of nature in art might infect the human spirit with a love of independence, the priests restricted it by immutable rules, and imposed models, which it was bound to copy for eveti. (Jt is also very probable that, for greater security, they reserved to themselves the exclusive culture of the arts, as they had that of the sciences, astronomy and medicine, and of literature — public records and national chronicles — leaving only the trades to the laityj^ Thus limited, art could merely add to the images of the gods those of the kings, ministers, and pontiffs ; it ignored the exploits of heroes and conquerors, whether in trials of mental or bodily capacity ; and thus checked in its development, it could only manifest itself in purely mechanical delicacy and polish. All its phases of progress, elevation, debasement, renaissance, and decadence, were confined to the narrow limits of simple execution. So that Plato, in his day, could justly observe that painting and sculpture, practised in Egypt for so many centuries, had produced nothing better at the end than at the beginning ; and

EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE.

M. Denon in our own age remarks with equal truth : “ The lapse of time may have led to some perfection in Egyptian art, but each temple is so exactly alike in all its parts, that it seems to have been sculptured by the same hand ; nothing better, nothing worse, no negligence, no sudden flights of a superior genius.” M. Denon’s words apply equally to statuary, which was but the accessory of architecture. We think excelleiice would have been a more accurate term to employ than perfection.

We will presently endeavour to describe those works in the various collections of Egyptian relics most worthy of study and admiration. But before we turn to this world of the tomb, which seems never to have been really alive, and review its sleeping lions, pensive sphinxes, sluggish heroes, and recumbent gods, without speech, hearing, sight, or motion, and notice those strange and gross combinations intended to embody the divinity, and which, if meant to exalt, in reality debased it, it will be as well to make some preliminary remarks. In the first place, we may learn to recognise the divinities by their forms and symbols, which were as unchangeable as the creed itself ; and, secondly, we may discover at about what period their images were made, and connect them with the correspond-

EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE.

IS ing phase of Egyptian art, so as to be able to say, when before any particular figure : “ This represents such a divinity, it belongs to a certain period of Egyptian art, and consequently to a corresponding era of Egyptian history.”

To begin with, we give the meaning of the names of different parts of the clothing of Egyptian statues,

Pschent^ a cap or crown worn by divinities or Pharaohs. It is double, composed of the schaa and the teshr.

Schaa, a conical cap, forming the upper part of the pschcnt. It is white.

Teshr, a cylindrical cap with an inclined peak behind, and a spiral ornament in front, forming the lower part of the psche^it. It is red.

Al/(3.tf }), the crown of Osiris and other divinities, composed of a conical cap resting on the horns of a goat, and flanked by two ostrich feathers. The alf has a disk in the centre of the frontlet.

Tesch. Royal military cap.

Het, the cap of Upper Egypt.

Claft, a head-dress with long lappets pendent on the neck and shoulders.

Oskh, a semicircular collar or tippet round the neck.

Schenti, a short tunic worn round the loins. The statues of the Pharaoh.s also wear the royal apron.

EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE.

Gom, a kind of sceptre, terminating in the head of the animal called Koukoupha.

Now follow the forms and emblems of the chief divinities of Egyptian mythology. When possible, we shall add the name of the corresponding Grecian and Roman divinities, and that of the town where they were held in most honour.

A human form (male), wearing the teshr surmounted by two feathers ; or a human form with a ram’s head. Ameii, Hammon, or Ammon^ “the hidden.” The supreme God, king of the gods. Zeus, Jupiter. Thebes.

A female form (woman), wearing the teshr. Moitth, “the mother,” wife of Amen. Hera, Juno. Thebes.

A young man with a single lock of hair upon his head, and the crescent of the moon. Chouns or Chons, “force,” son of Amen and of Mouth. Heracles, Hercules. Thebes.

A human form with a goat’s head. Noinn, “ water,” called by the Greeks Zeus Chnoumis, “ creator of mankind.” Poseidon, Neptune. Elephantine.

A female form wearing a circular crown of feathers. Aneka, wife of Noum. Hestia, Vesta. Elephantine.

A female form wearing the het, with a goat’s

EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE.

horn on either side. Sate, “sun’s arrow or beam.” Another Juno, another wife of Jupiter Chnoumis. Elephantine.

A bandy-legged child or dwarf, with a scarabaeus on its head, or a human form swathed like a mummy. Phtak or Phta, god of fire, creator of the sun and moon. Hephaestus, Vulcan. Memphis.

A female form with a lion’s head. Pash't or Pacht (Bubastis), “ the lioness,” wife of Phtah. Artemis, Diana. Memphis.

A human form with the head surmounted with two high feathers and a lily. Atum-Nefer, called “ the guardian of the nostril of the Sun,” supposed to be the son of Phtah and of PasPt. Memphis.

A human form with a hawk’s head, wearing two long feathers. Mount, personifying the solar power. Ares, Mars. Harmonthis.

A female form with a shield upon her breast, or often with two wings, trampling the serpent Apoph under her feet. Neith, goddess of wisdom and the arts. Athena {Athene), Minerva. Sais.

A simple female form with the head of a cow. A thor or Hathor, goddess of beauty, personification of the cow which produced the sun. Aphrodite, Venus. Latopolis and Athos.

A human form, hawk-headed, wearing the solar

1()

EGYPTIAN ECULPTUPE.

disk. Ra (Re), son of Athor, personification of the rising sun. Helios. Heliopolis.

A human form wearing the pschent on the head. A toum, the personification of the setting sun.

A kneeling human form with the solar disk upon her head. Maott, “ brilliancy,” personification of the light of the sun.

A human form with a crocodile’s head. Sebak, “ the subduer.” Crocodilopolis (Ombos).

A human form with a goose upon its head. Sep (Seb), “star,” god of time. Chronos, Saturn.

A female form with a pitcher of water upon her head. Nupte, Nutpe or Nepte, “ abyss of Heaven,” wife of Seb. Rhea, Cybele.

A human form with the head of an ibis, sometimes wearing the lunar crescent. Thoth, Logos, or the word,” son of Ra, inventor of speech and writing, scribe of the gods. Hermes, Mercury. Hermopolis.

A human form with four feathers on the head. En-pe or Emeph, “ leader of the heaven,” son of Ra, another form of the god Thoth.

A mummy wearing the het. Ousri (Osiris), eldest son of Seb and Nupte, then called Oun-Nefer (Onnophris), “ the manifester of good or opener of truth.” Dionysiu.s, the Bacchus of the Greeks. Busiri.s.

EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE.

A mummy wearing the A If. Osiris, then called Pethempame7ttes, “ he who is resident in Hades.” The Pluto of the Greeks. Abydos.

A female form with a throne upon her head. Isis, “ the seatp the daughter of Seb and Noiipte, sister and wife of Osiris. Demeter, Ceres. Abydos.

A female form wearing on her head the hieroglyphics of the words mistress and palace. Nep-t-a (Nephtys), “the mistress of the palace,” another daughter of Seb and Noupte., sister and concubine of Osiris. Persephone, Proserpine. Abydos.

A human form with a hawk’s head, wearing the pschent. Haroer (Harueris), son of Sep and Noupte. His eyes are supposed to represent the sun and the moon. The elder Horus, Apollo. Apollinopolis Magna.

(Osiris, Isis, and Horus represent the beneficent principle.)

A human form with an ass’s head, or an old dwarf in a lion’s skin, wearing feathers. Seth, “ the ass,” son of Seb and Noupte, the spirit of evil. Typhon. Ombos.

A hippopotamus standing erect, with a crocodile’s tail and a woman’s head. Taur or Ta-Her (Thoueris), wife of Seth. Ombos.

Seth (Typhon) and Taur represent the evil principle.)

c

EGYPTIAN SCULP TUBE.

A child with weak legs, and locks of hair on either side of its head. Her, “ the path of the sun,” son of Osiris and Isis. The younger Horus, Harpocrates. Apollinopolis Parva.

A human form with a dog’s head. Anoup (Anubis), surnamed “ the embalmer of the dead,” and the “watcher of the gate of the Sun’s path,” son or brother of Osiris. Lycopolis.

A priest seated in a chair unrolling a volume. I-Emp-Hept, “ coming in peace,” son of Thoth. Asclepios, Aesculapius. Philae (Philoe).

A pied bull with the solar disk on its head. Hepi (Apis), “ the hidden number,” the eternal son of Phtah. Memphis.

A gryphon with the head of an ass. Bar, god of the Assyrians and Phoenicians (Philistines), the Baal of the Bible.

A human form in Asiatic costume, with a diadem bearing an onyx cross on the frontlet. Renpou (Rephan), god of the Semitic races.

A human form with the head of an oryx. Nubi (Nubia), or Nashi, “the rebel,” god of the black people.

A female form wearing the het, and carrying the shield and spear. Anta (Anaitis), goddess of the Armenians and Syrians.

After this long list of gods, or rather of different

EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE.

manifestations of the same god, which the Egyptians worshipped under so many forms, we will pass to the second part of our preliminary remarks.

We have already stated the nature of early Egyptian art when still secular and free from the restrictions of dogma. It is, I believe, admitted that after its submission to the hierarchy theCart, like the history of Egypt, may be divided into four principal epochs!)[ The earliest or “ the archaic style,” is entirely included in the middle empire^ and (Extends from the 6th to the I2th dynast;^(about the year 2000 B.C.) At that time architecture, simple, massive, and colossal, was content with piling up masses of stone ; and sculpture, equally solid, seems to have entirely forgotten its early excellence and freedom from tutelage. ^In the statues of this period the face is large and common, the nose long and coarse, the forehead projecting, the hair, of scarcely varying thickness, falls in straight heavy curls, and the body is thick-set and clumsy.^ However the execution, and to a certain extent the style, improved steadily until the twelfth dynasty.

At^e seconchepoch, when architecture was more refined, varied, and richer in ornaments and combinations, employing columns and triglyphs, &c-

EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE.

(as seen in the sepulchres attributed to Beni Hassan) ; statuary was advancing to relative perfection, and growing in grace and delicacy. (_We now find more symmetry and proportion in the limbs of the figures, greater truth and finish in the features, the hair is better shaded, and falls in more graceful curls ; indeed, Csome statues are handled and finished with the delicacy required for cameosy Bas-relief became more and more uncommon, and disappeared entirely on the accession of Rameses II., surnamed Sesostori (“the son reared by the Creator ”), who became the Sesostris of the Greeks.

The invasion of the Arab Kouschites, called shepherds (Hyksos), under the seventeenth (about 2200 B.C.), led to the immediate decline! or rather cessation,^{and disappearance of art in Egypt^ which did not reappear until the expulsion of the invaders five centuries later. (After the deliverance of Egyptyby Amosis (in the seventeenth century B. C.), under the famous reigns of Moeris, Sesostris, Rameses III., and Amenophis, called the new

Architecture reached its highest perfection. Vast rectangular temples were raised with walls covered with sculptured ornaments, vestibules with conical domes, columns surmounted by capitals representing flowers or papyrus and lotus buds. The empire, was a renaissance of Egyptian renaissance of statuary was remarkable for a complete return to the archaic style, and palpable imitation of early sacerdotal sculpture. This, however, applies to the style alone, the execution was different. The limbs were freer and more rounded, the muscles more fully developed, the features sufficiently refined and varied to raise them a second time to the dignity of portraits. The details were completed with the most minute care, and the general effect is produced by the finish of every part, rather than by the breadth and harmony of the whol^