Egyptian sculpture

170 EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE

young god stands upon crocodiles, which are often realistically represented; the sinewy tail and muscular scaly body are finely rendered. In many instances the artist has succeeded better with the reptiles than with the human figure, although in all examples there is a strenuous attempt to render the rounded forms of childhood in the nude figure of Horus. The fat chubby face and the soft curves of the young body are always indicated; but it is only rarely that an artist is found who had skill enough to carry out the intention in a convincing manner. In his hand the god holds various magical animals, usually scorpions, sometimes a lion or gazelles. On the slab beside him are emblematic figures in hollow relief. The best examples of Cippi date from the XXVIth dynasty, and follow the fine detailed type of work of the Renaissance, more attention being paid to detail than to construction. As the Cippi were for religious purposes they are always of one type, with little variation in the main figure (Pl. XLVIII. 2).

It is interesting to see, in the few relief sculptures of the XXVth dynasty, that the later canon of proportion was already established; at the same time the figures have reached their narrowest outline, narrower even than in the XXth dynasty and in the Ptolemaic period.

The relief sculpture of the XXVIth dynasty is, like the sculpture in the round, an imitation of the work of the Old Kingdom. Bearers of offerings are not at all uncommon; they should be compared with their prototypes of the Old Kingdom, in order to realise the superficial likeness and the vast intrinsic difference. The attempt of the artist to represent the figure in profile results, as in the case of the paintings of Beni-Hasan, in a distortion which is most unpleasing. Here, as in all the later sculpture, the articulation of the joints is not rendered in any way, the surfaces are merely rounded;