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BULLETIN

OF THE

METROPOLITAN

some that do-some that are cold and

colorless,inhospitable,even empty-looking
although in fact they contain very beautifuland preciousthings. It is not enough
to show such things. Each room as a
whole, the museum as a whole, must at
least be pleasingto the sight. If it can be
sumptuous,a veritableexpressionof "the
riches of art," so much the better. And
why should
not a museum
dedicated to
-'
plastic art be
used to further
' xv
l
other kinds
of aestheticenjoymentwhich '
will be benei '.
ficial in themselves and will
'
attract people
^
^

whomightnot

otherwiseseek
its collections?
What most

surely and l

;'
t

~'-?

'B

MUSEUM

OF ART

which the Museum obtained by purchase

a few years ago in Cairo. The dealer
who sold them said they came fromthe
Delta and his word is corroboratedto a
great extent by the textureof the stone
and by the peculiar dark gray and brown
stainson them,similarto thoseon so many
pieces which have been found in the city
ruins of Lower Egypt. If then, as is
probable,they
do come from
* -.. , .
the North,
that is enough
in itself to
make theminteresting, for
the great ma<,".pjF .OWR EY
;.' ONE.?
jority of the
Egyptiananti-

stone
ba-eifw

quitiesin our

museumsoriginatedsouthof
the Delta in
Upper Egypt;
but in addition
theslabs themselves present
a number of
curiextremely
ous, if not
unique, characteristics.
In the first
place, both
slabs are complete in themselves. They

widelyattracts
our people today is music.
Is there any
good reasonthat is, any
unsurmount'
able reason^i. _
'
why at certain
times music
should not be
were not parts
A KINGWEARING
THE ( ROWN OF LOWER EGYPT
provided for
of largerlimeLIMEsTONE
themin our art
museums as it is in our parks, but of a stone bas-reliefs which decorated the
walls of a tomb or a temple, for their
higherqualitythan is thereappropriate?
edges show that they could not have
M. G. VAN RENSSELAER.
joined other stones. Blocks with roughly
BAS-RELIEFS FROM THE
finished margins can often be shown
to have been parts of door-framesof
EGYPTIAN DELTA
stone built into brick walls, but these
theThirdEgyptian
Room two could not have formedparts of such
BYrearranging
ithasprovedpossibleto placeonexhibition constructions,for one of them shows a
two small,sculptured
slabs of limestone1complete border on all sides. Nor again
can we conceive of them as having been
1M.M.A. II.150.30-31. Dimensions,26x21.5
of art, because the
x 3.5 cm.,and 26.5 x 21.5 x 6 cm. The limestone made simplyas objects
appears to be of the nummulitictype although Egyptian never showed any desire to
make what we mightcall easel pictures.
no nummulitesare visible.
64

BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

He did, however, make trial sketches
for his larger compositions, which he
carried to more or less complete states.
Some of these were experimentsin details
to be used in larger compositions;others
were schemes for the arrangementof
familiar motives within the limits of a
space to be decorated; still others were
copies of existingworksto be incorporated
in a new decoration. Even
as early as
the Sixth Dynasty we know
that the sculptormade use of
^
such aids as .'
:
^
plaster masks
*.
cast from the
featuresof his
\
.
subject,1and it
<
.
may well be ?
.
imagined that
'
'
models and
'.
'
sketcheswerea
large factor in
t h el o n g a pJ> a 7
'
prent iceship
^
*
whichtheseartists evidently
'".
served. In the '"'
EleventhRoom
one can see the
i
*,
pen and ink
. ,
sketches on
;
.^.
stray flakes of
whitelimestone

madebyartists

TITLES

OF THE KING OF

of conscientious endeavor to return to

earlier traditions and at some period
sculptorsnot only squared offthe decorations in the Fifth Dynasty temples at
Abusir to make hand copies of them,but
they even cast details here and there to
procuremoretrustworthy
replicas.
There can be little doubt that the two
slabs in the Third Room belong to one
of these classes
of studies,trial
_
_
r
oieces,
c
.
pi
/
copies-to say
which would
perhaps be to
straintheargument too far.
We can only
conclude that
theyare not of
the Saite or
Ptolem aic
series of sculptor'smodelsbecause they are
z d sing
notmadeofthe
4
fine soft lime-.h'i
.ct.Dyna:ty,wn.
' f,
te stonewhichthe
,;. t,.[,:~.
later artisans
'",t
.invariablyemployed for the
"'.!
.:..'.
purpose,norare
",'
~.,
were
made
finished
athey qJ:
.i ::i,":.~:.
back and
":.'on
sides with the
_,______
,...:_
smooth, true
surfacesthelate
LJPPER AND LOWER
EGYPT
workman so

LIME ;S' adzONE

of the Empire
of flnt, or whch treadily and so
who workedin the royal tombsat Thebes, universallyobtained. On thecontrary,they
a profileora are leftroughhewn except on the sculpnowpractisingthedraughtingof
hieroglyphic
sign,or again hastilysketching tured surfaces,still plainly showing how
in a schemefora wall to determinetheexact they were chopped out with a metal
divisionofa religioustextintocolumns. A adze, the badly nicked cutting edge of
case in the ThirteenthRoom is filledwith which was slightly curved. This rough
those models, which every later sculptor adze dressingmightindeed be taken as a
kepton hand to guidehis assistantsthrough hint of a primitivecraftsmanship. The
all the stages in carvinga capital,a statue, copperadze was inventedat the end of the
or a relief,fromthe original squaring off prehistoric
periodforwoodworking. In the
of the surface to the final completionof Second Dynasty,when.the firstattempts
the minutest details. Religious art in weremade at masonry,theyworkedwithan
Egypt went throughmore than one phase adze of flint,for which they had already
'Quibell,Saqqara III, p. 112 and PI. LV.
substituted one of metal in the Third

65

BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

Dynasty and the latter was used on the Third Dynastytombsat Meidum. In the
Great Pyramid in the Fourth Dynasty.' known monuments of the succeeding
In later periods the chisel was commonly dynasties and later, they almost invariemployedforthe greaterpart of the stone ably springfromthe centerof the stem.3
dressing,and whilethe less practicalchop- The bee is clumsilydrawn,remindingone
was always retainedit was of the hieroglyphics
on the seals found in
pinginstrument
usually only forthe edges of stones. Too the very early royal tombs at Abydos or
much stressshould not be put on the use those in the tomb decorationsat Meidum.
of the adze alone-occasionally stones Beforethe FifthDynastyit had been more
were so worked at all times-but the accurately observed, and was almost
circumstanceis at least suggestive.
always given a thin wasp-like waist beThis suggestion of an early date be- tween thorax and abdomen.4 The uraeus
comes much morecredibleon an examina- serpenthas a peculiar corrugatedband on
tionofthe reliefsthemselves. One ofthem the frontof the hood, totally unlike anyrepresentsthe head and shoulders of a thing in the late periods and different
king wearing the Crown of the North; even-less gracefuland studied-from the
the other,part of the titles of a Pharaoh. similar feature as drawn in the Fifth
On this latter slab the firstfour hiero- Dynasty reliefsat Abusir.5 While singly
glyphics spell the title "King of Upper these featuresmight be found as excepand Lower Egypt." Below are the vul- tions in any period,collectivelythey give
ture and the serpent, attributes of the an air to these signs which suggests a
two protectinggoddesseswho watchedover style not later than the Fourth Dynasty,
the Two Kingdoms of the South and or at least of a local school which preof that period.
North. The two animalsthemselvesdrawn servedcharacteristics
standingon hemisphericalbaskets became
Turning to the other slab, this archaic
word signs for anothertitle, "Lord of the style, while possibly less tangible-less
Diadems (of the Two Kingdoms)," and readily established by referenceto other
even though there was no room for the monuments-is none the less existent.
baskets at the bottomof this littletablet, The curious Red Crown of Lower Egypt
there is every probabilitythat its maker with its stiffhigh back and the twisted
had the title in mind. Now usually each wire extendingforward,lacks the uraeus
of these two titles preceded one of the on the foreheadalmost universallyplaced
divine names assumed by every king at there,at least fromthe Middle Kingdom
his coronation,but in the dawn of Egyptian onward. It is here shown with close,
historythey are commonlyfound united straightridges from top to bottom. In
just as here, and it would seem that the all other cases it is invariably smooth
artistwas copyingor planningan inscrip- except-and this is important-the one
tion with the titles juxtaposed. Kings worn by the prehistoric King Namer,
of the firstthree dynastiesalmost invari- whose crown was of some cross-woven
ably had their titles so written; in the basket material.6 The false beard is
Fourth,Fifth,and Sixth Dynastiessuch an interesting. It is held in place by a
arrangementwas an increasingrarity,and real strap which passes under the crown
and throughthe beard itself,the latter
later whollyexceptional.2
the signs themselveshave fallingfromthe chin in stiff,regularcurls
Furthermore,
fromthe easy, gracefulcurves
a strongarchaicflavor. The leaves of the fardifferent
as
each
other
plant sign overlap
just
Medum,Pls. IX, X, XII, etc. Bor3Petrie,
they do in the hieroglyphicsin the late chardt,Sa'hu-re'II, Pls. 19,28,44,47,etc.;an
is on PI. 29.
mentionsof adzes made exception
'See the following
period,Diospolis 4Petrie,RoyalTombs II, Pls. VIII, XXII,
by Petrie:in the prehistoric
parva,p. 24; II Dyn., Royal Tombs,p. 13; XXIII; Medum,PI. XVII; Borchardt,
ibid.,
of Pls. 28, 29, 3 , etc.; an exceptionis on P1. 30.
III Dyn.,Medum,p. 16; IV Dyn.,Pyramids
Gizeh,p. 85.
5Borchardt,
ibid.,Pls.64,etc.
Livre
2As may readilybe seen in Gauthier,
I, PI. XXIX.
des RoisI, passim.
Hierakonpolis
6Quibell,
66

BULLETIN

OF THE

METROPOLITAN

MUSEUM

OF ART

withwhichthe hair of Libyans,forin- lines than the early dynastic Egyptians;

stance, was representedin the Fifth theyhad larger,moremassive,and broader
witha heads and faces; their foreheads were
Dynasty. The eye is represented
long line of paint drawnbackwardfrom flatter,wider, and more retreatingabove
the cornerin a way mostunusualin the their salient overhangingeyebrowridges;
Old Kingdom. It is veryinteresting
to their noses were longer,more prominent,
discoverthatone of the rarecases where and less broad and flat; and finally as
it is foundis on the ThirdDynastyhead comparedto the native Egyptian'sslender
of King Khasekhem
fromHierakonpolis.1pointedjaw, theyhad heavy,broad,square
Butitis inthecastofthecountenance
that chins.2 So much has been reconstructed
thispieceis moststriking.The massive, by the anthropologistsfrom the skulls.
thick-setfeaturesare rendereduncom- Here we can almost say we are face to
The beetlingbrows,wide- face with such a man in the life, with
promisingly.
open eye,heavycurvednose,thickpout- every feature that characterized the
if vulgar,ex- "Armenoid" foreigner.
inglips all have a forceful,
is in markedconThe foreignersintermingledwith the
pression.Everything
trasttothegraceaffected
byFifthDynasty people of the Delta and the mixed stock
whoadopteda convention
with that resulted became the ruling class of
sculptors,
a refined,
slender
modeled Lower Egypt just beforethe great pyraface,a delicately
an oblique,narroweye,and sensi- mids of Gizeh were built. Could we
profile,
tive lips.

hazard a guess, we might say that here

In fact,the cast of countenance

here we have a figureof that period,drawn in
calledun-Egyptianthe Delta, where the foreignrace had
maybe unhesitatingly
so far as we knowthat art in its usual made the strongestimpresson the people
Butcon- and where its featureswere for the time
UpperEgyptianmanifestations.
sideringwhat an accumulationof the familiarenoughin every-dayintercourse.
pointstouchedon aboverelatesthesetwo
In style we are justifiedin seeing in
pieces to the periodwhichended with thesetwo littletabletssamplesof the work
the Fourth Dynasty, and consideringof about 2900 B. C. and they therefore
theiroriginin theDelta,thereis a possible merit an unusual attention. That they
explanationof the foreignaspect of the are actual works of the period is a point
faceoftheking.
to be treated with more caution. It is
ElliottSmith,in hisstudieson thephy- always possiblethat they are copies made
sical remainsof the ancientEgyptians, by some sculptor of a later date, but
discovered
thatat thedawnofhistory
the even if this be the case thereare so many
peopleoftheNilevalleywereofonehomo- unusual and characteristically archaic
geneousrace, but that duringthe first featuresabout them both that we must
thereenteredthe Delta a people accept themas veryfaithfuland consciendynasties
of what has been termed"Armenoid" tiousreplicasiftheyare not to be regarded
stock,whohaveat all timeswithinhuman as originals.
madeup the greatsubstratum
knowledge
H. E. W.
ofthepeopleofAnatoliaandSyria. They
2ElliottSmith,Arch.Surveyof Nubia, Bulwerebuilton farsturdier
and morerobust letin
vol.II, pp.27,34;
6, p. 22; Report1907-08,
ibid,PI.XXXIX.
1Quibell,
AncientEgyptians,p. o108.

67