OCR Text |
Show 112 GENERAL REMARKS ON JCONOGRAPllY. type is neither grand nor handsome; but they arc truthful and most lively portraits of Egyptians, stamped with such a striking individuality, as to leave the impression that they must have resembled their originals, notwithstandiug that the imitation of nature is with them not at all painfully scrupulous, and rather evinces considerable artistical tact in the execution. Tho col1'ectness of the position of the ear in these early Egyptian monuments is peculiarly inicrcsiing, since it confirms the observation of Dr. Morton, before alluded to, that its misplacement on tho later and more ordinary monuments is not founded upon sLrict imitation of nature, but that it belongs altogether to conventional hieratic mannerism. Tho relief portrait of king MEN-ICA.-IIER, of the Vth dynasty (Plate VIT.)-[say, about 30 centuries D. o.J certainly deserves a place of honor as the earliest royal ffigy in cxistcnco, not muiilat d in its featurcs.~3 It was found, 1851-4, by M. Mariette, on the lower side of a square calcareous stone employed by later hands in a construe. tion of the XIXth Dynasty [14th century n. c.] in the S rapcium of M mphis. The stone belonged originally to a di:ffcrcnt monument, probably destroyed by the llyksos, the ruins of which were thus adopted for building materials by a posterior and irreverent age,just as Mehcmet Ali and his family have destroyed Pharaonic and Ptolemaic temples for the construction of barracks and factories, out of stones inscribed with the signs of a much higher civilization than that of Egypt's present rulers.04 It is remarkable that tho car of MEN-KA-IIEll is placed too high on this relief, whereas on tho relief of the "royal daughter" liETA (IVth Dynasty), lithographed by Lepsius for the lJenlcmale1·, it is entirely correct. The greatest pains have been taken to present a correct fac-simile of this ante-.Abrahamic Pharaoh's beautiful face. The original was stamped, drawn, and colored at the Louvre, by Mrs. Gliddon; and tho shade of paper on which it is lithographed, is intended to resemble that of the stone, which has been divested of its pristine colors. Under the Xllth Dynasty [n. o. 22 centuries] the expression of statues becomes peculiarly refined, and the short and clumsy proportions are more elongated. "It seems," says De Roug6,65 "that in the course of centuries the race has become thinner and taller, under the influence of climate," -or perhaps by the infusion of foreign 113 Those of SnuPno and others at Wndee l\fagb.ra nrc rather effigies than likenesses, and are too abraded to be relied on. "GLIDDON, .Appeal to the antiquarie3 of Europe on the de3lruction of tlte monument3 of Egypt, London, 1841:-PmssE n'AVENNES, Oollectiom d'.A11tiquites ~gyptiennea au Kaire, Revue Arcb6ologique, 15 Mara, 1846. 65 Notice Som., p. 24 :-In., Rapport 3Ur lu Ooll. dgypliennu en Europe, 1851, p 14. Pahou er- nowre . Skh em ka . ' Profll~ l 1 LouvrP Mus cum |