It is of the purest Egyptian type, not the heavy, brutal type which
predominates in the Memphian age and among the fellahs to-day, but
an elegant refined type of which numerous examples are provided by
statuettes of all periods. The forehead appears to be rather low, but
we cannot be sure if it was so by nature, or if it is the wig which
conceals its height. The eyes are long, almond-shaped, slanting towards
the temple, widely opened. The eyelids are drawn clearly, almost
sharply, and meet at an acute angle both at the inner corner and at the
outer commissure. The globe of the eye is rather prominent, the pupil
was added with the brush, and a sort of greyish tone vaguely marks the
place. The eyebrows are a flattened bow, thin and regular. The nose
is attached to the superciliary arcade by a fairly accentuated curve;
it is straight, thin, rounded at the end, with delicate nostrils.
The lower part of the face is thick-set, and of so firm a cut that
with age--if age ever came--it would have become hard. The lips are
full, thick, edged the whole length, split in the middle: they are
pressed together as if to keep back a smile. The whole face changes in
character and almost in century, according to the angle from which it
is looked at. Seen from the front it is round and full, with neither
superabundance nor softness of flesh: it is the little middle-class
girl of Thebes, pretty, but common in form and expression. Seen from
the side between the hanging pieces of the wig, as if between two long
ringlets falling on the shoulders, it assumes a malicious, roguish
expression not ordinarily usual in Egyptian women: it might be one of
our contemporaries who from caprice or coquetry had put on the ancient
coiffure.
Who was she in her lifetime, and what was her name? The fragment
which represents her was found at the bottom of a funerary pit, in
the court-yard of the tomb of Menna, and Menna flourished under the
XIXth Dynasty. Was she one of his wives, or daughters, or sisters? The
inscription which might have told us is heaven knows where, and it will
be a great piece of good fortune if it is ever found.
XX
THE LADY TOUÎ OF THE LOUVRE AND EGYPTIAN INDUSTRIAL SCULPTURE IN
WOOD[84]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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