It was, in fact, only a variation from the original Egyptian type seen
in the tombs of the earliest dynasties. There was a great quantity of
art produced during the Theban Period, and of a graceful, decorative
character, but it was rather monotonous by repetition and filled with
established mannerisms. The Egyptian really never was a free worker,
never an artist expressing himself; but, for his day, a skilled
mechanic following time-honored example. In the
Saitic Period the seat of empire was once more in Lower Egypt, and art
had visibly declined with the waning power of the country. All
spontaneity seemed to have passed out of it, it was repetition of
repetition by poor workmen, and the simplicity and purity of the
technic were corrupted by foreign influences. With the Alexandrian
epoch Egyptian art came in contact with Greek methods, and grew
imitative of the new art, to the detriment of its own native
character. Eventually it was entirely lost in the art of the
Greco-Roman world. It was never other than conventional, produced by a
method almost as unvarying as that of the hieroglyphic writing, and in
this very respect characteristic and reflective of the unchanging
Orientals.
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