of mediocre repute, and where the artists did not receive
orders enough to enable them to correct by practice the defects of their
education. We find but few productions of the Theban school exhibiting
bad technique, and if we had only this one monument of Luxor from which
to form our opinion of its merits, it would be sufficient to prove that
the sculptors of Ramses II. were not a whit behind those of Harmham or
Seti I. Adroitness in cutting the granite or hard sandstone had in no
wise been lost, and the same may be said of the skill in bringing
out the contour and life-like action of the figure, and of the art of
infusing into the features and demeanour of the Pharaoh something of
the superhuman majesty with which the Egyptian people were accustomed to
invest their monarchs. If the statues of Ramses II. in the portico are
not perfect models of sculpture, they have many good points, and their
bold treatment makes them effectively decorative.

[Illustration: 235.jpg THE COLONNADE OF SETI I. AND THE THREE COLOSSAL
STATUES OF RAMSES II. AT LUXOR]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

Eight other statues of Ramses are arranged along the base of the
facade, and two obelisks--one of which has been at Paris for half a
century*--stood on either side of the entrance.

* The colonnade and the little temple of Thutmosis III. were
concealed under the houses of the village; they were first
brought to light in the excavations of 1884-86.

The whole structure lacks unity, and there is nothing corresponding to
it in this respect anywhere else in Egypt. The northern half does
not join on to the southern, but seems to belong to quite a distinct
structure, or the two parts might be regarded as having once formed
a single edifice which had become divided by an accident, which the
architect had endeavoured to unite together again by a line of columns
running between two walls. The masonry of the hypostyle hall at Karnak
was squared and dressed, but the walls had been left undecorated, as
was also the case with the majority of the shafts of the columns and the
surface of the architraves. Ramses covered the whole with a series of
sculptured and painted scenes which had a rich ornamental effect; he
then decorated the pylon, and inscribed on the outer wall to the south
the list of cities which he had captured. The temple of Amon then
assumed the aspect which it preserved henceforward for centuries. The