e vanished,
those great qualities which stamp the immortal works of early times. The
difference is much like that between the Parthenon and the Niobids, or
between Jacopo Avanzi and Caracci. In this change is the whole
difference between the art of character and the art of emotion; and
though the emotional side is the more popular, as needing less thought
to understand it, yet the unfailing canon is that in every age and land
the true quality of art is proportionate to the expression of character
as apart from transient emotion. This may perhaps apply to other arts as
well as to sculpture and painting. If we accept frankly the emotional
nature of this age, we may admire its graceful outlines, its vivacious
manner, its romantic style, with an occasional sauciness which is
amusing and attractive. It revelled in rich detail, and close masses of
lines, as in wigs and ribbed dresses. It sported with a seductive Syrian
type of face, especially under Amenophis (Amenhotep) III.; but we find
the anatomy giving way to mere smoothness of surface, for the sake of
contrast with the masses of detail. The romantic element increased,
solemn funereal statues show husband and wife hand in hand; and it
culminated under Akhenaton, who is seen kissing his wife in the chariot,
or dancing her on his knee. An overwhelming naturalism swamped the older
reserves of Egyptian art, and the expression of the postures, actions
and familiarities of daily life, or the instantaneous attitudes of
animals, became the _dernier cri_ of fashion. It was all charming and
wonderful, but it was the end,--nothing could come after it. The XIXth
Dynasty, at its best under Seti I., could only excel in high finish of
smoothness and graceful curves; life, character, meaning, had vanished.
And soon after, under Rameses II., mere mechanical copying, hard
lifeless routine of stone-cutting, regardless of truth and of nature,
dominated the whole.

(A) In sculpture there is a certain baldness of style at first, as in
the Amenophis I. at Turin or Mutnefert at Cairo. More fulness and
richness of character succeeded, as in Tahutmes (Tethmosis) III. and
Amenophis III. (Plate IV. fig. 42, British Museum). And the feeling of
the age finds greater scope in private statues, many of which have a
personal fascination about them, as in the seated figures at Cairo and
Florence, and the freer work in wood, of which the ebony negress (Plate
IV. fig. 45) is the best example. The burst of n