The decadence did not begin till after the reign of Merenptah.

When civil war and foreign invasion brought Egypt to the brink of destruction, the arts, like all else, suffered and rapidly declined.

It is sad to follow their downward progress under the later Ramessides, whether in the wall-subjects of the royal tombs, or in the bas-reliefs of the temple of Khonsu, or on the columns of the hypostyle hall at Karnak.

Wood carving maintained its level during a somewhat longer period.

The admirable statuettes of priests and children at Turin date from the Twentieth Dynasty.