east, restored by the
Ptolemies and the Caesars, retain but a part of the stone facing with which
they were then clothed in order to mask the ravages of time. The lower part
of the head-dress has fallen, and the diminished neck looks too slender to
sustain the enormous weight of the head. The nose and beard have been
broken off by fanatics, and the red hue which formerly enlivened the
features is almost wholly effaced. And yet, notwithstanding its fallen
fortunes, the monster preserves an expression of sovereign strength and
greatness. The eyes gaze out afar with a look of intense and profound
thoughtfulness; the mouth still wears a smile; the whole countenance is
informed with power and repose. The art which conceived and carved this
prodigious statue was a finished art; an art which had attained self-
mastery, and was sure of its effects. How many centuries had it taken to
arrive at this degree of maturity and perfection? In certain pieces
belonging to various museums, such as the statues of Sepa and his wife at
the Louvre, and the bas-reliefs of the tomb of Khabiusokari at Gizeh,
critics have mistakenly recognised the faltering first efforts of an
unskilled people. The stiffness of attitude and gesture, the exaggerated
squareness of the shoulders, the line of green paint under the eyes,--in a
word, all those characteristics which are quoted as signs of extreme
antiquity, are found in certain monuments of the Fifth and Sixth
Dynasties. The contemporary sculptors of any given period were not all
equally skilful. If some were capable of doing good work, the greater
number were mere craftsmen; and we must be careful not to ascribe awkward
manipulation, or lack of teaching, to the timidity of archaism. The works
of the primitive dynasties yet sleep undiscovered beneath seventy feet of
sand at the foot of the Sphinx; those of the historic dynasties are daily
exhumed from the depths of the neighbouring tombs. These have not yielded
Egyptian art as a whole; but they have familiarised us with one of its
schools--the school of Memphis. The Delta, Hermopolis, Abydos, the environs
of Thebes and Asuan[42], do not appear upon the stage earlier than towards
the Sixth Dynasty; and even so, we know them through but a small number of
sepulchres long since violated and despoiled. The loss is probably not very
great. Memphis was the capital; and thither the presence of the Pharaohs
must have attracted all the talent of the vassal principal