f rank
clung to the Egyptians in temple and tomb, wherever their statues were
placed, and left the sculptor who represented them scarcely any liberty.
He might be allowed to vary the details and arrange the accessories
to his taste; he might alter nothing in the attitude or the general
likeness without compromising the end and aim of his work. The statues
of the Memphite period may be counted at the present day by hundreds.

[Illustration: 239.jpg BAKER KNEADING HIS DOUGH]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Bechard. The original
is now in the Gizeh Museum.

Some are in the heavy and barbaric style which has caused them to be
mistaken for primaeval monuments: as, for instance, the statues of Sapi
and his wife, now in the Louvre, which are attributed to the beginning
of the IIIrd dynasty or even earlier. Groups exactly resembling these in
appearance are often found in the tombs of the Vth and VIth dynasties,
which according to this reckoning would be still older than that of
Sapi: they were productions of an inferior studio, and their supposed
archaism is merely the want of skill of an ignorant sculptor. The
majority of the remaining statues are not characterized either by
glaring faults or by striking merits: they constitute an array of
honest good-natured folk, without much individuality of character and
no originality. They may be easily divided into five or six groups, each
having a style in common, and all apparently having been executed on the
lines of a few chosen models; the sculptors who worked for the mastaba
contractors were distributed among a very few studios, in which a
traditional routine was observed for centuries. They did not always
wait for orders, but, like our modern tombstone-makers, kept by them a
tolerable assortment of half-finished statues, from which the purchaser
could choose according to his taste. The hands, feet, and bust lacked
only the colouring and final polish, but the head was merely rough-hewn,
and there were no indications of dress; when the future occupant of
the tomb or his family had made their choice, a few hours of work were
sufficient to transform the rough sketch into a portrait, such as it
was, of the deceased they desired to commemorate, and to arrange his
garment according to the latest fashion. If, however, the relatives or
the sovereign* declined to be satisfied with these commonplace images,
and demanded a less conventional treatment of body for the doubl