Nonroyal Statuary (Continuación)

The Second Style

Fig. 42. Pepi-ankh "the Black."
Fig. 42. Pepi-ankh "the Black."

The Second Style was probably created at Saqqara during the reign of Unis. It developed during the course of the Sixth Dynasty and was broadly disseminated at the moment that the emergence of provincial power centers offered artists new sources of patronage for their work. During this period statues in wood were made in great numbers. These are usually small in scale and show such an idiosyncratic view of the human form that it is possible to speak of mannerism77 or exaggeration78 in describing them. The head is disproportionately large; the body is elongated, with a pinched waist; and the musculature is only minimally delineated. The face is characterized by immense and often staring eyes, a short, stubby nose, and a strong mouth. The corners of the lips can be marked with a vertical stroke or left open. The vitality of the countenance is heightened by the emphatic use of grooves emanating from the nose and from the corners of the upper lip. Also characteristic of the statuary of this dynasty is the pairing of the slender and often nude figure of an adolescent with depictions of the same person when mature,79 probably in an attempt to immortalize the individual at various stages of life. Examples of this practice have been found in the necropolises at Akhmim (figs. 42, 43) and Meir.

The stone and wood standing figures of Tjetji from Saqqara (Metropolitan Museum, 26.2.8, 26.2.9) illustrate the distinctive features of the style:80 a flaring wig revealing the ears, hair either cut short against the skull or bristling, and a long kilt. The navel, which had long been shown as a semicircle, becomes a circular hollow; and the limbs are cut free of the body, creating negative space.81 Unfortunately these works cannot be assigned to a particular reign.

The limestone statue of Nekhebu (fig. 41), interred at Giza during the kingship of Pepi I, has very pronounced features: huge almond-shaped eyes that convey a haggard look, a large nose, and a thick mouth.82 The work can be compared with the seated statue of Qar (fig. 40), governor of the province of Edfu in the time of Merenre I.83 Less distorted, however, than the statue of Nekhebu, the latter is done with care and simplicity. The various surfaces of the figure are sharply differentiated. The pinched waist and the elongated fingers and toes are also noteworthy. The flaring wig curves to frame a face with Second Style features.

Fig. 43. Pepi-ankh "the Black."
Fig. 43. Pepi-ankh "the Black."

A pose unusual for its asymmetry came into fashion during the Sixth Dynasty. The subject is shown seated on the ground with one knee drawn up and the other flat on the ground (cat. no. 186).84 Numerous isolated instances of the type are known, and it occurs in a series of statues recently found at Saqqara that are inscribed with the name Ipi.85

In this era of innovation, themes abandoned after the Fourth Dynasty were rediscovered. Ima-pepi, governor of Balat in the time of Pepi I, chose to be shown seated with his wife, and the couple share an unusual chair with lion-footed legs (figs. 44, 45).86 The slimness of his body, the thickness of his lips, slightly notched where they join, and the furrows accentuating the nostrils are all typical of the Sixth Dynasty style. But the provincial artist, who used a local limestone, returned in this work to a theme introduced at Giza in the rock-hewed statues of Queen Mer-si-ankh III—that of figures closely intertwined. Similarly, Izi of Edfu and Pepi-ankh the Middle of Meir, two local governors who served under Pepi I and Pepi II, respectively, are each shown seated on a chair with a very high back slab in the company of their wives, who make affectionate gestures.87

Do such stylistic changes reflect the determination of new patrons—more and more of whom were commoners living in the provinces—to impose their own values?88 The stylistic trend began at the start of the Sixth Dynasty, at a time when the power of the pharaoh was not threatened by provincial elites, and the contrary is likely: it is probable that royal statuary created in the Memphite region and the focus of cults in the Ka Houses helped to spread the new style throughout Egypt.89 The reasons for this change, perhaps religious in origin, were in any case sufficiently profound that this late Old Kingdom style persisted in the workshops of the First Intermediate Period and at length inspired the early masterpieces of the Middle Kingdom.

Christiane Ziegler

  1. Vandersleyen 1982, col. 1076.
  2. Russmann 1995a, p. 271.
  3. Pepi-ankh, "the Black," Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 60 and CG 236; the two royal statues of copper found at Hiera-konopolis may express this duality.
  4. Russmann 1995a, p. 269, n. 5.
  5. This practice, known since the Fourth Dynasty, had already been adopted for some statue types, particularly scribes, dwarfs, and most model sculpture.
  6. Smith 1946, pp. 84-85, pl. 26a-c.
  7. Ibid., p. 88.
  8. Also see the statue of Niankh-re, Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 53150, which probably dates to the Fifth Dynasty; Cherpion 1998, p. 105.
  9. Russmann 1995a, p. 272.
  10. Valloggia 1989, pp. 271-82.
  11. Izi of Edfu, Louvre, Paris, E 14399; Pepi-ankh the Middle, Mallawi Antiquities Museum; see Hittah and Misihah 1979, p. 23, pi. 26; and Ziegler 1997a, pp. 96-99.
  12. Donadoni 1993, p. 104.
  13. Russmann 1995a, p. 277.
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