The human image in Old Kingdom nonroyal reliefs (Continuación)

The Sixth Dynasty

It is more difficult to determine the ideal vision of man and woman for the nobles of the Sixth Dynasty, since outside the reign of Teti there are fewer great mastabas and fewer large-scale representations of the deceased than in preceding dynasties. Nonroyal monuments from the exceptionally long reign of Pepi II (at least sixty-four years)85 are limited primarily to false doors, whose representations of officials are often less than meticulously sculpted. Larger private monuments can be found outside the Memphite necropolis, but good photographs of these are rare.

In mastabas with the names of Teti or Pepi I we continue to see the stylistic features already attested in the chapel of Ptah-hotep but more marked than before: fairly thick and often full relief,86 very angular knees when the deceased is seated,87 quite large eyes,88 round cheeks,89 and rimmed lips with the rim extending around the corners of the mouth,90 as well as an amiable, even smiling, expression (figs. 68, 69).91 Some officials, such as Izi (Louvre, Paris, E 14329),92 also have a large mouth and a stiff, almost mannered pose;93 others have a nose that descends directly from the forehead.94 The large eyes and mouth are expressionistic distortions that are also to be found in the statuary of the same period. Finally, what distinguishes the smiling faces of the Sixth Dynasty from those of the Fourth are essentially the fullness of the relief and the less youthful appearance of the faces.

The taste for modeling is a highly variable element in the Sixth Dynasty. The relief is generally quite far removed from the splendid mechanics of the Third and Fifth Dynasties, although quite detailed anatomical representations do appear occasionally.95 The deceased is frequently represented on the pillars and door reveals of the tomb (as if preparing to leave it) with full belly and sagging breasts—that is, in the twilight of life.

In portraits of couples, the wife is sometimes shown at a realistic scale with respect to her husband, but occasionally she is miniaturized beside the deceased as a sort of hieroglyph or image for the record.96 This technique had already appeared in statuary of the Fifth Dynasty,97 but only rarely in relief of the same period.98

From this survey it would appear that changes in the concept of the individual, as evidenced by the walls of mastabas, were primarily a function of the spirit of the times, since each dynasty shows a new type of the male and the female figure. This does not, however, preclude the possibility that the taste of particular individuals— artists or patrons—could have overridden the current climate at any given moment during the Old Kingdom.

What seems most striking to me is how the faces of the mastaba owners fall into groups dynasty by dynasty, both in their expressions and in their realism (or lack of it). The severity of faces in the Third Dynasty contrasts clearly with the optimism of those in the Fourth Dynasty, just as the maturity and austerity of Fifth Dynasty faces contrast with the youthfulness of Fourth Dynasty portraits and the serene or smiling fullness of those in the Sixth Dynasty.

Style thus becomes a very concrete and reliable means of dating a relief, although it must remain a supplementary criterion. In matters of style we are always at the mercy of the sculptor's imagination, or that of his model. For that reason it is best to continue classifying the non-royal monuments of the Old Kingdom first of all by criteria less dependent on subjectivity, such as the shape of a chair leg or the length of a necklace.99 It is not impossible that one day a finer stylistic analysis will enable us to date mastaba reliefs reign by reign and not merely dynasty by dynasty—or even to identify particular artists, in the same way that we can easily recognize today the hand of Van Eyck or Titian.

NADINE CHERPION

  1. Vercoutter 1992, p. 332.
  2. This is especially true in the reign of Teti: Ka-gemni (Bissing 1911, pl. 5; Porter and Moss 1978, pp. 522 [12], 524 [28]), Sabu-Ibebi (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 1418), Nefer-seshem-ptah (photograph Marburg 154981), Mereruka (Duell 1938, vol. 1, pls. 1-68, vol. 2, pls. 123, 125, 127, 138, 154), Ipy (fig. 69), Ni-ankh-nesut (fig. 68), Mehu (Altenmüller 1998, pls. 18, 30, 55). The relief seems thinner under Pepl I: compare Senedjem-ib (Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen, 15002), Khuen-khnum (Cherplon 1989, pl. 47), and Ankh-meryre (Altenmüller 1998, pls. 81, 86).
  3. For instance, Ankh-ma-hor (Capart 1907, pl. 21 = facade), Sabu-Ibebi (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 1418), Nefer-seshem-ptah (photograph Marburg 154981), Mereruka (Duell 1938, vol. 1, pl. 63, vol. 2, pls. 113, 120, 171), Ni-ankh-nesut (Cleveland Museum of Art, 30.735; photograph 7853 of the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, Brussels), Mehu and Ankh-meryre (Altenmüller 1998, pls. 15, 64, 81, 86).
  4. For instance, Ankh-ma-hor (Capart 1907, pl. 21 = facade), Ka-gemni (Bisyng 1905, pl. 15; Bissing 1911, pl. 5; Porter and Moss 1978, pp. 523 [20], 524 [28]), Izi (Louvre, Paris, E 14329; Ziegler 1990b, pp. 79, 81), Ipy (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 1536), Senedjem-ib (Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen, 15002).
  5. For instance, Ka-gemni (facade), Mereruka (Duell 1938, vol. 1, pl. 63, vol. 2, pls. 179, 183), Ni-ankh-nesut (fig. 68), Sabu-Ibebi (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 1418).
  6. For instance, Ka-gemni (Bissing 1905, pl. 15; Bissing 1911, pls. 5, 37; Porter and Moss 1978, pp. 523 [20], 524 [28], 525 [41J), Ankh-ma-hor (Capart 1907, pl. 21 = facade; the rim describes a very large circle around the corners; the lips here are also especially fleshy, and this, together with a flat nose, gives the deceased an African appearance), Ipy (fig. 69), Senedjem-ib (Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen, 15002), Mereruka (Duell 1938, vol. 1, pls. 16, 63, 96, vol. 2, pls. 151, 156).
  7. For instance, Ni-ankh-nesut (fig. 68; the sweet smile has an almost feminine quality), Ankh-ma-hor (Capart 1907, pl. 21 = facade), Ka-gemni (Bissing 1905, pl. 15; Bissing 1911, pl. 5 and facade; Porter and Moss 1978, pp. 523 [20]; 524 [28]; the face is much less affable in Bissing 1911, pl. 37; Porter and Moss 1978, p. 525 [41]), Sabu-Ibebi (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 1418), Idut (Porter and Moss 1979, p. 617), Mereruka (Duell 1938, vol. 1, pl. 63, vol. 2, pls. 151, 181, 184).
  8. Ziegler 1990b, ill. pp. 79, 81.
  9. The same kind of pose appears in the mastaba of Ankh-meryre (Altenmüller 1998, pl. 86).
  10. Khuen-khnum (Ägyptisches Museum der Universität Leipzig, 48; Schäfer 1908, p. 14, fig. 14; Cherplon 1989, pl. 47), Tjetju (Firth and Gunn 1926, vol. 2, pl. 38), Ipy (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 1536).
  11. For instance, Ka-gemni (facade), Ankh-ma-hor (Capart 1907, pls. 21 [facade], 50), Ni-ankh-nesut (Cleveland Museum of Art, 30.735; photograph 7853 of the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, Brussels; modeling in the upper part of the body).
  12. Duell 1938, vol. 1, pls. 9, 17, 26, 39, 46, 48a,d, 57, 63, 71. In contrast, the wife is shown at a more realistic scale in Duell 1938, vol. 1, pls. 14, 23b,c, 35b, 40b, 41, 48c, 91.
  13. And perhaps also of the Fourth Dynasty, since there is as yet no manual for dating the private statuary of the Old Kingdom. For group statues, see Vandersleyen 1973, p. 14.
  14. Moussa and Altenmüller 1971, pls. 26, 30.
  15. Cherplon 1989, pp. 19-24.
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