. A history of art in ancient Egypt . hine-like and instinctivefashion. Imagination was dead, and the best that could be hopedfor was the faithful repetition of those forms which the genius ofthe race had conceived in its last moments of original thought. Under the Salt princes, under the Psemetheks and Nekau,under Apries and Amasis, Egypt was delivered from her enemiesand again became mistress of Syria and of the Island of Cyprus. Shethus recovered confidence in herself and in her future, and a periodensued which had an art of its own with distinctive featureswhich we shall endeavour to trace
. A history of art in ancient Egypt . hine-like and instinctivefashion. Imagination was dead, and the best that could be hopedfor was the faithful repetition of those forms which the genius ofthe race had conceived in its last moments of original thought. Under the Salt princes, under the Psemetheks and Nekau,under Apries and Amasis, Egypt was delivered from her enemiesand again became mistress of Syria and of the Island of Cyprus. Shethus recovered confidence in herself and in her future, and a periodensued which had an art of its own with distinctive featureswhich we shall endeavour to trace. In the intervals of pre-carious repose which characterized the Persian domination, the Change Observable in Egyptian Art. 79 Egyptians had leisure neither to invent nor to improve. Theycopied, as well as they could, the monuments of the twenty-sixthdynasty. Art became a mere collection of technical precepts, kepttogether and transmitted in the intercourse of the studio, byinstruction and practice; it became a mere matter of routine. Fig. 51.—Ouah-ab-ra, 26th dynasty. Louvre. Grey granite, height 37 inches. implying, perhaps, great technical skill, but displaying no sincereand personal feeling Nature was no longer studied or cared knew that the human figure should be divided into so manyparts. They knew that in the representation of this or that goda certain attitude or attribute was necessary; and they carved the o A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. statues required of them after the traditional ? recipes. ThusEgyptian art became conventional, and so it remained to the it was in the time of Diodorus. The sculptors whom thathistorian saw at work in Memphis and Thebes, during the reign ofAugustus, carved a statue as a modern mechanic would make thedifferent parts of a machine ; they worked wuth a rapidity and aneasy decision more characteristic of the precise workman thanof the artist.^ Thought was no longer necessary to them. Thedue proportions and measure
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