3o6 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. stone or wood. As for the statues themselves they must be Hmestone figures similar to those which were actually found in the tomb of Ti (Fig. 183). In the tomb of Obai, at Gournah, we see a sculptor modelling the fore-paws of a lion (Fig. 251). His blows are vertical instead of horizontal, but his instruments are identical with those shown in the tomb of Ti. From the fifth dynasty to the time of the Rameses, the same bronze chisel and pear-shaped mallet had held their own.^ Two paintings at Thebes show us the process of executing a royal colossus in granite (Figs. 252 and 253). Standing upon the plinth and upon the planks of a scaffold, several workmen do their best to hasten the completion of the work, which is already far advanced. Seated upon the topmost pole of the scaffold one Fig. 250. — Bas-relief from the tomb of Ti, workman is busy polishing the front of the pschent ; another stands behind the image, and, holding his palette in one hand and his brush in the other, spreads his colours upon its posterior support. It may be asked what the man is doing who is engaged with both hands upon the chest of the statue. For an answer to that question we must turn to the second picture, in which we are shown a seated colossus under the hands of its makers. The workman who kneels before its head is making use of two imple- ments. With his left hand he applies to the face of the statue a pointed instrument, which he is about to strike with the object ^ Upon the different kinds of chisels used by the Egyptian sculptors, see Soldi, La Sculpture Egyp/ionie, pp. 53 and tii. He includes the toothed chisel and the gouge.
