nx, came once
again to the surface, and was developed anew. Amenhotep III. was not
content with statues of twenty-five or thirty feet in height, such as were
in favour among his ancestors. Those which he erected in advance of his
memorial chapel on the left bank of the Nile in Western Thebes, one of
which is the Vocal Memnon of the classic writers, sit fifty feet high. Each
was carved from a single block of sandstone, and they are as elaborately
finished as though they were of ordinary size. The avenues of sphinxes
which this Pharaoh marshalled before the temples of Luxor and Karnak do not
come to an end at fifty or a hundred yards from the gateway, but are
prolonged for great distances. In one avenue, they have the human head upon
the lion's body; in another, they are fashioned in the semblance of
kneeling rams. Khuenaten, the revolutionary successor of Amenhotep III.,
far from discouraging this movement, did what he could to promote it.
Never, perhaps, were Egyptian sculptors more unrestricted than by him at
Tell el Amarna. Military reviews, chariot-driving, popular festivals, state
receptions, the distribution of honours and rewards by the king in person,
representations of palaces, villas, and gardens, were among the subjects
which they were permitted to treat; and these subjects differed in so many
respects from traditional routine that they could give free play to their
fancy and to their natural genius. The spirit and gusto with which they
took advantage of their opportunities would scarcely be believed by one who
had not seen their works at Tell el Amarna. Some of their bas-reliefs are
designed in almost correct perspective; and in all, the life and stir of
large crowds are rendered with irreproachable truth. The political and
religious reaction which followed this reign arrested the evolution of art,
and condemned sculptors and painters to return to the observance of
traditional rules. Their personal influence and their teaching continued,
however, to make themselves felt under Horemheb, under Seti I., and even
under Rameses II. If, during more than a century, Egyptian art remained
free, graceful, and refined, that improvement was due to the school of Tell
el Amarna. In no instance perhaps did it produce work more perfect than the
bas-reliefs of the temple of Abydos, or those of the tomb of Seti I. The
head of the conqueror (fig. 197), always studied _con amore_, is a marvel
of reserved and sensitive grace. Ramese