That the Egyptians early practised portrait-painting, is evident from the discovery of mural sculpture, at a date anterior to the time of Rameses, representing painters delineating men and animals, and sculptors carving out of granite the very figures reproduced in another material, in the Egyptian Court of the Crystal Palace. Herodotus records the fact that Amasis sent his portrait painted on wood to Cyrene as a present; and some portraits of this kind were found in the tombs at Thebes. On comparing the heads of Rameses and Amenoph, several of which are to be seen in the Egyptian court, the individuality of each is at once perceived. Rameses has an aquiline nose and thin lips, while Amenoph has the turned-up nose and thick lips of the African. In Clarac’s “Musée de Sculpture,” are collected many accurate engravings of the portraits of the Egyptians contained in the Louvre, which, according to this authority, are all verified, as many as eighty-six of them having their names attached. In the Imperial Library, at Paris, there is a collection of a hundred Chinese portraits of great antiquity. They were brought from China by the well-known Jesuit missionary, Père Ameot. Pauthier, author of a History of China, refers to these portraits, and considers them to be those of celebrated men and women living at a period long anterior to Confucius. Croesus, King of Lydia, had the image of his baking woman set up in gold: and Herodotus has preserved the names of two Argive youths, Biton and Cleobis, who for their piety in drawing their mother, the priestess of Juno, to the temple, when the oxen for her car in a great solemnity did not arrive, had their statues placed by their countrymen at Delphi. To the Greeks, indeed, we owe the finest examples of portraits in Sculpture. Their temples, forums, and other public places, as well as their private dwellings, were ornamented with the busts and statues of heroes, kings, poets, orators, and others distinguished by their achievements. Many of these examples have fortunately been rescued from destruction, and preserved to the present time. The Romans, although not themselves, either by the gift of Heaven, or by their own tastes, artists, were great patrons of art. Many a rich Roman citizen had the court of his house converted into a kind of forum, which he adorned with his favourite portrait statues. From the precious ruins of Ancient Rome--from her temples, palaces, villas--countless statues and busts have been dug out. Her tombs also were furnished with portraits, busts, and statues, recumbent, or in other postures.