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"Royal Statuary," Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids

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EGYPTIAN ART IN THE AGE OF THE PYRAMIDS THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK DISTRIBUTED BY HARRY N. ABRAMS, INC., NEW YORK This volume has been published in ulIljunction 1\\1 ri~brs reserwd. No pari 01 Ibis pnhli":II;on 'I'Llnsl:lli,,,,, Iwnl tbe I:relll·b hy .I:III1l·S p. Allen with the exhibition «Egyptian Art in the Age of Illay he reproduced or 'T:lIlSlllilled hy any Ill"ans, of essays hy Nadine CIl<'rpion and .Iean-Philipl'" the Pyramids," organized by The Metropolitan electronic or mechanical, indllding phorocopyin~, I.ann; hy .Iobn McDonald of essays by Niu,las Museum of Art, New York; the Reunion des recording, or information retrieval system, with­ Crilllal, I\ndran I.abrollsse, .Ie'lIl I.edant, and musees nationaux, Paris; and the Royal Ontario out permission from the publishers. Christiane Ziegler; by Jane Marie Todd and Museum, Toronto, and held at the Gaieries Catharine H. Roehrig of entries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, from April 6 John P. O'Neill, Editor in Chief to July 12, 1999; The Metropolitan Museum of Carol Fuerstein, Editor, with the assistance of Maps adapted by Emsworth Design, Inc., from Art, New York, from September 16, 1999, to Ellyn Childs Allison, Margaret Donovan, and Ziegler 1997a, PI'. 18, 19 January 9, 2000; and the Royal Ontario Museum, Kathleen Howard Toronto, from February 13 to May 22, 2000. Patrick Seymour, Designer, after an original con­ Jacket/cover illustration: Detail, cat. no. 67, cept by Bruce Campbell King Menkaure and a Queen Gwen Roginsky and Hsiao-ning Tu, Production Frontispiece: Detail, cat. no. 67, King Menkaure Robert Weisberg, Computer Specialist and a Queen The exhibition is made possible by Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman. Site and new object photography by Bruce Hieroglyphic dedication on page v from White; additional new object photography at Teachings ofPtah-hotep, 509-10. Addironal support has been provided by the Metropolitan Museum by Anna-Marie The Starr Foundation. Kellen and Oi-Cheong Lee, the Photograph Stu­ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data dio, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Egyptian art in the age of the pyramids An indemnity has been granted by the Federal York. For a more complete listing of photograph p. em. Council on the Arts and the Humanities. credits, see p. 53 6. Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sept. 16, 1999­ Educational programs have been supported by Set in Sabon and Adobe Weiss by Professional Jan. 9, 2000. the Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation. Graphics, Rockford, Illinois Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87099-906-0 (HC). - ISBN 0-87099­ The publication is made possible by The Adelaide Separations by Professional Graphics, Rockford, 907-9 (pbk.) -ISBN 0-8109-6543-7 (Abrams) Milton de Groot Fund, in memory of the de Groot Illinois 1. Art, Egyptian Exhibitions. 2. Art, and Hawley families. Ancient-Egypt Exhibitions. 3. Egypt­ Printed and bound by Arnoldo Mnndadori, Antiquities Exhibitions. 4. Egypt-Architec­ Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, S.p.A., Verona, It,tly ture Exhibitions. I. Metropolitan Museum of New York Art (New York, N.Y.) N5350.E37 1999 Copyri~ht <D I \/\/\/ by The Merropolitan 709'·3 2'0747471-----<!C2I 99-22246 Museulll of I\rI, New York elP CONTENTS Lenders to the Exhibition VIII Directors' Foreword Franfoise Cachin, Philippe de Montebello, Lindsay Sharp x Acknowledgments Dorothea Arnold, Krzyszto( Grzymski, Christiane Ziegler XI Contributors to the Catalogue and Key to the Authors of the Entries XIV Maps XVI Notes to the Reader XVIII Chronology A Note on Egyptian Chronology Elisabeth David XIX Dynastic and Regnal Dates James P. Allen XX Introduction Dorothea Arnold, Christiane Ziegler XXI INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OLD KINGDOM 3 Jean Leclant THE STEP PYRAMID PRECINCT OF KING DJOSER Jean-Philippe Lauer PYRAMIDS AND THEIR TEMPLES 21 Audran Labrousse THE TOMBS OF OFFICIALS: HOUSES OF ETERNITY 27 Peter Janosi OLD KINGDOM STATUES IN THEIR ARCHITECTURAL SETTING 41 Dieter Arnold ROYAL STATUARY 51 Krzyszto( Grzymski NONROYAL STATUARY 57 Christiane Ziegler RESERVE HEADS: AN ENIGMA OF OLD KINGDOM SCULPTURE 73 Catharine H. Roehrig ROYAL RELIEFS 83 Dorothea Arnold THE HUMAN IMAGE IN OLD KINGDOM NONROYAL RELIEFS 103 Nadine Cherpion FURNITURE OF THE OLD KINGDOM II7 Julie Anderson STONE VESSELS: LUXURY ITEMS WITH MANIFOLD IMPLICATIONS 121 Dorothea Arnold and Elena Pischikova EXCAVATING THE OLD KINGDOM: FROM KHAFRE'S VALLEY 133 TEMPLE TO THE GOVERNOR'S CITY AT BALAT Nicolas Grimal EXCAVATING THE OLD KINGDOM: THE GIZA NECROPOLIS AND 139 OTHER MASTABA FIELDS Peter Der Manuelian EXCAVATING THE OLD KINGDOM: THE EGYPTIAN 155 ARCHAEOLOGISTS Zahi Hawass CATALOGUE THIRD DYNASTY 168 FOURTH DYNASTY 194 FIFTH DYNASTY 314 SIXTH DYNASTY 434 Glossary 494 Bibliography 495 Indexes 517 Photograph Credits 53 6 ROYAL STATUARY KRZYSZTOF GRZYMSKI tatues of Egyptian rulers form a unique category, office itself, rather than the individual, was considered separate from that of the members of the royal divine. 3 An Egyptian royal sculpture was not an exact family, nobles, and ordinary human beings. representation of a particular human being but a depic­ SWhen admiring the superior workmanship and tion of the divine aspects of an individual who held the artistry of Old Kingdom royal statuary, we must keep in highest office. Such sculptures did, however, often dis­ mind that Egyptian art was not made for purely aesthetic play elements unique to a particular king, distinguishing purposes but was in fact primarily functional. The royal him from his predecessors and successors. The ruling statues had a specific role: to make manifest the position pharaoh was the image of a god on earth; the statue of the ruler in Egyptian society. The king was the key ele­ embodied this fact and therefore legitimized the ruler's ment of the society, not because of the political power of exalted status. Certain conventions and symbols were his office but because of his centrality to Egyptian ideol­ used when depicting the king. The workmanship had to ogy and religion. Without a king there would be no soci­ be of superior quality, and the pose, regalia, and choice ety to speak of, no state, no order; there would be only of material and color all had symbolic meaning. Inter­ chaos. Any Old Kingdom pharaoh could state ''l'Etat, estingly, the Egyptian royal sculptures seem to appeal to c'est moil) with far more justification than Louis XIV. the modern viewer more than any other sort of Egyptian The exact nature of the king and kingship in Egypt is art. These three-dimensional figures, despite such pecu­ an often-discussed issue. While some scholars stress the liarities as the use of so-called negative space and back divine character of Egyptian kingship, others emphasize pillars, are highly realistic to our eyes. The inimitably its human aspect. I There are few literary sources that Egyptian depiction of the body in two-dimensional relief, give an Egyptian account of the character of kingship. which strikes some modern viewers as awkward, is not Thus, scholars attempt to define Egyptian kingship through a factor here. study of royal iconography, whether in sculpture, paint­ Depictions of statues on First Dynasty seal impres­ ing, or relief, with literary and religious texts providing sions and stone vessels indicate that the Egyptians some elucidation of symbolism and conventions. At the produced royal statuary from the beginning of their very least the king had a semidivine, superhuman status civilization. 4 Early textual evidence confirms that royal and acted as an intermediary between the gods and statues, particularly of copper or gold, were manufac­ humankind. One is tempted to see the royal statue serv­ tured in the Archaic and Old Kingdom Periods. Interest­ ing the same cuitic function as did any other statue of a ingly, almost all of the statues referred to in the texts were divinity. However, among the preserved Old Kingdom made for the temples of various gods and not for the sculptures royal statues outnumber statues of gods by a mortuary complexes that are the source of most of the wide margin. Moreover, most of the known royal statu­ known examples. Royal funerary statues are, however, ary comes from mortuary temples and is therefore an mentioned in at least one Old Kingdom text, from the expression of the cult of the deceased king and not of the famous Abusir papyri (cat. no. II?), which refers to a living ruler. In this context it is often not clear whether a festival honoring royal statues of the deceased pharaoh. royal statue depicts a divine king, the embodiment of None of the Old Kingdom royal statues bears the sig­ Osiris, ruler of the netherworld, or whether it simply rep­ nature of a sculptor, except perhaps for one from the time resents the king's ka. 2 of Djoser. 5 It is generally, albeit incorrectly, assumed that Whatever the relationship between the divine and Egyptian artists worked anonymously. In fact, the names human aspects of the king, it is almost certain that the of several artists, including sculptors, were preserved in King Menkaure and a Queen (cat. no. 67) Fig. 28. Detail, Khafre Seated with the Horus Falcon behind His Fig. 29. Detail, Djoser Seated. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 6008 Head. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 14 I " the paintings and reliefs that served as tomb decorations. symbolic and religious significance, although this remains Some of these scenes depict the actual making of sculp­ an open question. The examples most often cited to tures, thus allowing art historians to reconstruct the pro­ establish such meaning were the royal statues of Djedefre. duction process and techniques used by the Egyptians.6 The magnificent head of this king (cat.
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