Simbel and Thebes still witness to the
incomparable skill of the Theban sculptors in the difficult art of
imagining and executing superhuman types. The decadence of Egyptian art
did not begin until the time of Ramses III., but its downward progress
was rapid, and the statues of the Ramesside period are of little or no
artistic value. The form of these figures is poor, the technique crude,
and the expression of the faces mean and commonplace. They betray the
hand of a mechanical workman who, while still in the possession of the
instruments of his trade, can infuse no new life into the traditions of
the schools, nor break away from them altogether.

[Illustration: 040.jpg THE KNEELING SCRIBE AT TURIN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Petrie; the
scribe bears upon his right shoulder, perhaps tattooed, the
human image of the god Amon-Ra, whose animal emblem he
embraces.

We must look, not to the royal studios, but to the workshops connected
with the necropolis, if we want to find statues of half life-size
displaying intelligent workmanship, all of which we might be tempted to
refer to the XVIIIth dynasty if the inscriptions upon them did not fix
their date some two or three centuries later. An example of them may be
seen at Turin in the kneeling scribe embracing a ram-headed altar:
the face is youthful, and has an expression at once so gentle and
intelligent that we are constrained to overlook the imperfections in the
bust and legs of the figure. Specimens of this kind are not numerous,
and their rarity is easily accounted for. The multitude of priests,
soldiers, workmen, and small middle-class people who made up the bulk of
the Theban population had aspirations for a luxury little commensurate
with their means, and the tombs of such people are, therefore, full
of objects which simulate a character they do not possess, and are
deceptive to the eye: such were the statuettes made of wood, substituted
from economical motives instead of the limestone or sandstone statues
usually provided as supporters for the "double."

[Illustration: 041a.jpg YOUNG GIRL IN THE TURING MUSEUM]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Petrie.

[Illustration: 041b.jpg THE LADY NEHAI]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. de Mertens.
Enamelled eyes, according to a common custom, were inserted
in the sockets, but have disappeared.

The funerary sculptors had acquired a perfect mastery