figure, and so causing it to stand out in
relief upon the wall; or by sinking the design below the wall-surface and
cutting it in relief at the bottom of the hollow. The first method has the
advantage of being expeditious, and the disadvantage of not being
sufficiently decorative. Rameses III. made use of it in certain parts of
his temple at Medinet Habu; but, as a rule, it was preferred for stelae and
small monuments. The last-named method lessened not only the danger of
damage to the work, but the labour of the workman. It evaded the dressing
down of the background, which was a distinct economy of time, and it left
no projecting work on the surface of the walls, the design being thus
sheltered from accidental blows. The intermediate process was, however,
generally adopted, and appears to have been taught in the schools by
preference. The models were little rectangular tablets, squared off in
order that the scholar might enlarge or reduce the scale of his subject
without departing from the traditional proportions. Some of these models
are wrought on both sides; but the greater number are sculptured on one
side only. Sometimes the design represents a bull; sometimes the head of a
cynocephalous ape, of a ram, of a lion, of a divinity. Occasionally, we
find the subject in duplicate, side by side, being roughly blocked out to
the left, and highly finished to the right. In no instance does the relief
exceed a quarter of an inch, and it is generally even less. Not but that
the Egyptians sometimes cut boldly into the stone. At Medinet Habu and
Karnak--on the higher parts of these temples, where the work is in granite
or sandstone, and exposed to full daylight--the bas-relief decoration
projects full 6-3/8 inches above the surface. Had it been lower, the
tableaux would have been, as it were, absorbed by the flood of light poured
upon them, and to the eye of the spectator would have presented only a
confused network of lines. The models designed for the study of the round
are even more instructive than the rest. Some which have come down to us
are plaster casts of familiar subjects. The head, the arms, the legs, the
trunk, each part of the body, in short, was separately cast. If a complete
figure were wanted, the _disjecta membra_ were put together, and the result
was a statue of a man, or of a woman, kneeling, standing, seated,
squatting, the arms extended or falling passively by the sides. This
curious collection was discovered