Ancient Egyptian Sculpture

Abstract

MR. C. S. GULBENKIAN'S loan to the British Museum (Bloomsbury) of fourteen pieces of ancient Egyptian sculpture from his collection, for a period of eighteen months, which is now on view in the entrance hall, not only illustrates Egyptian art for a period of 2,000 years from the Middle Kingdom to Ptolemaic times, but it also serves to bring out in a marked degree certain characteristics in which the masterpieces of that art stand out, as against the products of the classical period, and in which it is, in fact, closely akin to the aims of certain schools of modern art. Egyptian art, and more especially Egyptian sculpture, when freed from the conventions imposed by the necessities of formal presentation for State or official purposes, showed a remarkable, and indeed an exceptional, ability to express character and individuality in portraiture. While this is generally admitted in the obvious instance of the Tell el-Amarna school under the influence of Akhnaton, which usually, though not invariably, emphasizes and idealizes a defect, it would seem, in preference to strength, it is equally true of the more robust tradition, which can be traced so far back as the Fourth Dynasty and produced, for example, such well-known specimens as the statuette of Khufu and the effigy of the “Sheikh ed-Beled”. That this tradition persisted through a prolonged period can be seen in some of the later exhibits in the British Museum loan collection, such as, for example, the remarkable head of a man in green schist of the sixth century B.C., though possibly many may consider the gem of the collection to be the head in obsidian attributed as a portrait of Amenemhat III to the Twelfth Dynasty, in which the characterization is no less remarkable than the technical skill, which could subdue so refractory a material to its purpose. Another exhibit, in bronze, though of a different genre, attracts attention, and charms by its unusual subjecta cat with two kittens playing.