king's funerary chapel. So that in all
probability the XIth Dynasty reliefs from Der el-Bahari are the work
of Mertisen and his son, and in them we see the actual "forms of going
forth and returning, the poising of the arm to bring the hippopotamus
low, the going of the runner," to which he refers on his tombstone. This
adds a note of personal interest to the reliefs, an interest which is
often sadly wanting in Egypt, where we rarely know the names of the
great artists whose works we admire so much. We have recovered the names
of the sculptor and painter of Seti I's temple at Abydos and that of the
sculptor of some of the tombs at Tell el-Amarna, but otherwise very few
names of the artists are directly associated with the temples and tombs
which they decorated, and of the architects we know little more. The
great temple of Der el-Bahari was, however, we know, designed by Senmut,
the chief architect to Queen Hatshepsu.

It is noticeable that Mertisen's art, if it is Mertisen's, is of a
peculiar character. It is not quite so fully developed as that of the
succeeding XIIth Dynasty. The drawing of the figures is often peculiar,
strange lanky forms taking the place of the perfect proportions of the
IVth-VIth and the XIIth Dynasty styles. Great elaboration is bestowed
upon decoration, which is again of a type rather archaic in character
when compared with that of the XIIth Dynasty. We are often reminded of
the rude sculptures which used to be regarded as typical of the art of
the XIth Dynasty, while at the same time we find work which could not
be surpassed by the best XIIth Dynasty masters. In fact, the art of
Neb-hapet-Ra's reign was the art of a transitional period. Under the
decadent Memphites of the VIIth and VIIIth Dynasties, Egyptian art
rapidly fell from the high estate which it had attained under the Vth
Dynasty, and, though good work was done under the Hierakonpolites, the
chief characteristic of Egyptian art at the time of the Xth and early
XIth Dynasties is its curious roughness and almost barbaric appearance.
When, however, the kings of the XIth Dynasty reunited the whole land
under one sceptre, and the long reign of Neb-hapet-Ra Mentuhetep enabled
the reconsolidation of the realm to be carried out by one hand, art
began to revive, and, just as to Neb-hapet-Ra must be attributed the
renascence of the Egyptian state under the hegemony of Thebes, so must
the revival of art in his reign be attributed to his great art