Bronze and gilded wood were not always good enough for the gods of Egypt.
They exacted pure gold, and their worshippers gave them as much of it as
possible. Entire statues of the precious metals were dedicated by the kings
of the ancient and middle empires; and the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Dynasties, who drew at will upon the treasures of Asia,
transcended all that had been done by their predecessors. Even in times of
decadence, the feudal lords kept up the traditions of the past, and, like
Prince Mentuemhat, replaced the images of gold and silver which had been
carried off from Karnak by the generals of Sardanapalus at the time of the
Assyrian invasions. The quantity of metal thus consecrated to the service
of the gods must have been considerable, If many figures were less than an
inch in height, many others measured three cubits, or more. Some were of
gold, some of silver; others were part gold and part silver. There were
even some which combined gold with sculptured ivory, ebony, and precious
stones, thus closely resembling the chryselephantine statues of the Greeks.
Aided by the bas-relief subjects of Karnak, Medinet Habu, and Denderah, as
well as by the statues in wood and limestone which have come down to our
day, we can tell exactly what they were like. However the material might
vary, the style was always the same. Nothing is more perishable than works
of this description. They are foredoomed to destruction by the mere value
of the materials in which they are made. What civil war and foreign
invasion had spared, and what had chanced to escape the rapacity of Roman
princes and governors, fell a prey to Christian iconoclasm. A few tiny
statuettes buried as amulets upon the bodies of mummies, a few domestic
divinities buried in the ruins of private houses, a few ex-votos forgotten,
perchance, in some dark corner of a fallen sanctuary, have escaped till the
present day. The Ptah and Amen of Queen Aahhotep, another golden Amen also
at Gizeh, and the silver vulture found in 1885 at Medinet Habu, are the
only pieces of this kind which can be attributed with certainty to the
great period of Egyptian art. The remainder are of Saite or Ptolemaic work,
and are remarkable only for the perfection with which they are wrought. The
gold and silver vessels used in the service of the temples, and in the
houses of private persons, shared the fate of the statues. At the beginning
of the present century, the Louvre