f the same queen in a beautiful
statue in black granite, which has been in the Museum at
Marseilles since the beginning of the present century.

These various statues have all an evident artistic relationship to
the beautiful granite figures of the Ancient Empire. The sculptors who
executed them belonged to the same school as those who carved Khephren
out of the solid diorite: there is the same facile use of the chisel,
the same indifference to the difficulties presented by the material
chosen, the same finish in the detail, the same knowledge of the human
form. One is almost tempted to believe that Egyptian art remained
unchanged all through those long centuries, and yet as soon as a
statue of the early period is placed side by side with one of the XIIth
dynasty, we immediately perceive something in the one which is lacking
in the other. It is a difference in feeling, even if the technique
remains unmodified. It was the man himself that the sculptors desired
to represent in the older Pharaohs, and however haughty may be the
countenance which we admire in the Khephren, it is the human element
which predominates in him. The statues of Amenemhait I. and his
successors appear, on the contrary, to represent a superior race: at the
time when these were produced, the Pharaoh had long been regarded as
a god, and the divine nature in him had almost eliminated the human.
Whether intentionally or otherwise, the sculptors idealized their model,
and made him more and more resemble the type of the divinities. The head
always appears to be a good likeness, but smoothed down and sometimes
lacking in expression.

Not only are the marks of age rendered less apparent, and the features
made to bear the stamp of perpetual youth, but the characteristics
of the individual, such as the accentuation of the eyebrows, the
protuberance of the cheek-bones, the projection of the under lip, are
all softened down as if intentionally, and made to give way to a uniform
expression of majestic tranquillity. One king only, Amenemhait III.,
refused to go down to posterity thus effaced, and caused his portrait
to be taken as he really was. He has certainly the round full face
of Amenemhait or of Usirtasen I., and there is an undeniable family
likeness between him and his ancestors; but at the first glance we
feel sure that the artist has not in any way flattered his model. The
forehead is low and slightly retreating, narrow across the temples; hi