The personage in the middle is a priest, standing, wearing the short
wig with little locks of hair in rows one above the other. The bust
is bare, and his only garment is a long skirt falling half way down
the leg, spread out in front into a sort of pleated apron. In his two
hands he bears a sacred insignia consisting of a ram’s head surmounted
by the solar disk, and forming an ægis, the whole set into a staff
of fairly large dimensions: the attitude is one of repose. The third
figure, on the contrary, is full of movement and activity. It is an
officer in semi-military costume of the time of Amenôphis III or of
his successors: a small wig, a clinging smock with sleeves, a short
loin-cloth tightly girded over the hips and scarcely descending to the
middle of the thigh, decorated in front with a small piece of stuff
standing out, pleated lengthwise. These two statuettes are painted
dark red with the exception of the wig, which is black, of the cornea
of the eyes, which is white, and the insignia of the priest, which is
yellow. The old pedestal has disappeared, and with it the name. Like
the limestone and wooden statues of large dimensions, these formed
part of the funerary equipment: they were the supports of souls in
miniature, and served as a body for the double of the model and _kept
alive the name_ of a person who had been loved or well known. There
are a large number of them in the museums, and nearly all are of the
same epoch. Neither the Ancient nor the Middle Empire made them--Saïte
art preferred hard stone: the wooden statuettes that I have so far seen
are of the second Theban period, and belong to the XVIIIth, XIXth, and
XXth Dynasties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account