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of Ra-hetep at Mêdûm (Egyptian Vestibule, No. 40), of the IVth dynasty may be specially noted. Several portions of fine and delicately painted bas-reliefs from the temple of Neb-hap-Ra Menthu-hetep, of the XIth dynasty, at Dêr al-Bahari, which are exhibited in Bay 2 of the Northern Gallery, are worthy of careful study. The sepulchral tablet of Sebek-aa, of the XIth dynasty, should be noted (Bay 4, No. 120; see Plate XXIII). Examples of the sunk relief will be found in the Northern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 1. Both paintings

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[No. 164, Wall-case 100, Third Egyptian Room.]

and reliefs, however, are unsatisfactory from the modern point of view, for while the head is given in profile, the eye is represented as if the figure were in a full-faced position. A front view is given of the shoulders, but the view of the other portions of the body is a mixture of profile and full face. These facts are calculated to give a false impression of the

skill of the painter and sculptor, which, as is admitted on all hands, was very great.

The artist was at a very early period fettered by tradition and conventionality, but sufficient proofs have survived to show

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XIIIth dynasty.

[No. 178, Wall case 102, Third Egyptian Room.]

that when free to give rein to his fancy he could produce even caricatures and comic pictures of the most amusing character. Thus, in Papyrus No. 10,016, we see the lion and the unicorn

playing a game of draughts, a fox playing a double pipe while animals of the gazelle class strut in front of him, a cat driving geese, and a cat presenting a palm branch to a mouse which is seated on a chair and holding a lotus. Behind the chair is another mouse bearing a fan and a bag with toilet requisites (see pages 27-30). In the reign of Amen-hetep IV, about B.C. 1420, there was a revolt against the

conventional forms of painting and sculpture approved by the priests. For about twenty-five years, new designs and new colours were introduced, but they did not find favour among the people generally, and, when the king died, traditionalism promptly reasserted itself, and the new capital which he founded near the modern village of Tell al-Amarna fell into ruin, and its splendours were forgotten.

The sculptured reliefs of the IVth and Vth dynasties, and the statues and portrait figures were in beauty and fidelity rarely equalled in later times, and certainly never surpassed. The chief employers of both painter and sculptor in the later dynasties were the priests, who required statues of gods and kings for the temples; massive

strength, an ex

pression of impassibility, and close adherence to existing models were the traditional

characteristics of such works. With private employers

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Queen Teta-Khart, about B.C. 1600.

[No. 187, Wall-case 102, Third Egyptian Room.]

the case was different, for they demanded of the sculptor portrait figures which should be representations of their friends. at once faithful and pleasing. Among early portrait figures of fine work in the British Museum may be mentioned the ivory figure of a king, wearing a robe of elaborate pattern (Table-case No. 197, in the Third Egyptian Room; see

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page 24, No. 7); the statue of the official Nefer-hi of the IIIrd dynasty (No. 150, Wall-case 99, Third Egyptian Room); the statue of Betchmes, of the IIIrd dynasty (No. 3, in the Egyptian Vestibule, see page 110), and the statue of Ankheft-ka, of the IVth dynasty, (Bay 1, No. 33, in the Northern Egyptian Gallery, see page 109).

On the second shelf of Wall-cases 99-109 in the Third

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Head of a colossal statue of Amen-hetep III, B.C. 1450. [Northern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 4, No. 416.]

Egyptian Room is exhibited a typical series of portrait figures in stone which illustrate the work of the period between the IIIrd dynasty and the Roman Period. Special attention may be given to the head of an official No. 186) in crystalline limestone; the figure of Queen Teta-Khart, a wife of Aāḥmes I, B.C. 1600 (No. 187, see page 113); the portion

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