Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-22
MASTER SCULPTOR
CARVED TUT STATUE
Likeness in Granite SO Good
That Scientist Knew Kinq
Had tuberculosis.
HY JOHN L. BALDERSTON.

American Newspaper Alliance.
CAIRO, December o2.-In Tut.ankh.
Amen we have a character who will
henccforth. | think. receive more at
tention from schoolmasters, and per
force from school boys. than probably
any other man who has ever lived
more even than Caesar or Alexander
OF Napoleon
Not of course. for x few years: not
until the prohibitions against photo
graphing. sketchiuc or even deScrib
ing his treasures are removed: not
until the tomb has been cleared. every
thing placed on exhibition and in
telligent books writteu-and there will
be- libraries of them when all the
facts are available.
Little Tuts future fame. of course,
Will rest not upon who or what he
was. but on his possessions. 1t is
even possible, if there arc no his
torical or personal documents in the
tomb. that his biography will always
be speculative: but the great artists
who worked for him have seen to it
that the boy Pharaoh from now to
our remote posterity will grip the
worlds Imagination and fascinate
generations TO come.
In my last article | promised to
produce proof that one OF Tut-ankh-
Smen's court sculptors was among
the worlds great masterS. worthy to
be named with any sculptor who ever
lived. 1t seemed rash promise. even
for an art critic to make. and I am
no art critic. But I doubt whether
any sculptor has ever enjoyed
greater posthumeus triumph, or
whether any more definite proof of
artistic genius has ever been pro-
duced than | Am able 20 present here
for the first time.
Died Of Tuberculosis.
Tut -ankh- Amen, it is now believed.
died OF consumption at the age of Is.
Prof. Derry, assisted by an ECyp-
tian doctor. has established the
;-ce of the mummy and both experts
aro strongly inclined to think, before
the final examination has been com
pleted, that they have determined the
cause of death. What follows Is based
on that assumption. now The strongest
of probabilities
There was found in 1904, deep in
the rubbish of the temple OF the
Theban Ptah. at Karnak. statue
bearing the name of Horemheb. the
powerful general who made himself
Pharaoh after Tuts aged successor.
y. had died. IIoremheb tried to
stamp out the memory OF poor Tut,
and had effaced Tut's name from this
statue. which was bust in -ra y
granite.
Prof. Iaspero. the great ESyp-
tologist. viii is now dead, examined
this bust and wrote o. il. in 1914:
This shows perfection of technique
and freedom of handling which is the
more remarkable since the ma terri. |
is one of the hardest known and most
difficult to work with. The Phara oh
shows the symptoms Of an individual
stricken with consumption. Alaspero
then continues a painful and minute
catalogue, which ! will not transcrihe
In detail. of the symptoms he notes
in the cra nite-the temples. the eyes.
the cheeks and mouth. the neck. ana
he concludes: "A doctor would prob
ably be able to furnish a complete
diagnosis Of his condition and inform,
us what state of the malady had beer,
reached when he posed for that
statue" That was written when
Tut -ankh-Amen was a name and no
more. when nothing whatever wa=
known about him. The statue is that
of boy of Il or Is.
Another Statue of Tut.
In the Cairo Museum is another
statue. also in gray granite. of Tut
ankhAmen. 1t was broken up, and its