The art which conceived and carved this prodigious statue was a finished art; an art which had attained self- mastery, and was sure of its effects.

How many centuries had it taken to arrive at this degree of maturity and perfection?
In certain pieces belonging to various museums, such as the statues of Sepa and his wife at the Louvre, and the bas-reliefs of the tomb of Khabiusokari at Gizeh, critics have mistakenly recognised the faltering first efforts of an unskilled people.

The stiffness of attitude and gesture, the exaggerated squareness of the shoulders, the line of green paint under the eyes,--in a word, all those characteristics which are quoted as signs of extreme antiquity, are found in certain monuments of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties.

The contemporary sculptors of any given period were not all equally skilful.

If some were capable of doing good work, the greater number were mere craftsmen; and we must be careful not to ascribe awkward manipulation, or lack of teaching, to the timidity of archaism.