The first part of the Third Intermediate Period consisted of the Twenty-first to the Twenty-fourth Dynasties. It was the first of two periods, along with the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, when Egypt was ruled by Libyan settlers in the Nile Delta, who still retained many of their traditional ways. During most of the period, the capital was Mendes in the Delta, but many of the northern cities were ruled by high-ranking Libyans. In the south, at Thebes, the High Priest of Karnak temple was also important, either as a competitor or an ally. Most ofthe surviving statues inscribed for these rulers, especially the earlier ones, are older monuments that they usurped by reinscribing them. During the Twenty-first Dynasty, Psusennes I, in particular, reinscribed many of the royal statues in the temple at Tanis, often adding his name to images that had already been reinscribed for Ramesses II and Merneptah. Two statues of Pinedjem I from Karnak show him in royal regalia, although he was just the High Priest of Amun. Both of these statues had almost certainly been usurped. One, a kneeling figure holding round nw pots, from the Karnak Cachette, has its identifying inscription located, most unusually, on the fronts of its upper arms (Brandl 2008: no. VK 3,4, p. 270, pl. 149a). The second, a standing colossus in red granite at Karnak, had probably been made for one of the later Ramessid kings (but see Kitchen 1995: 258 n. 80).
Shoshenq I, the founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty, apparently had a fine seated statuette of Thutmose III at Karnak reinscribed for his predecessor, Psusennes II (Brandl 2008: no. VK 2.2, p. 268). Shoshenq I also appears to have relied on reinscribing earlier royal statues for himself, most spectacularly on a colossal Middle Kingdom sphinx from Tanis, nowin the Louvre (Fay 1996). His successor, Osorkon I, is best known for a statue bust found in Byblos and now in the Louvre. The statue was certainly made in Egypt and the large cartouche on its chest is certainly that of Osorkon; but scholars disagree over whether it was made for him or usurped by him while it was still in Egypt (Brandl 2008: VK 2.3, pp. 268-9, pl. 151). As for Osorkon II, his best-known statue is a large kneeling figure, the head of which is in Philadelphia and the body in Cairo. It has recently been shown to be a usurped piece, made in the early Nineteenth Dynasty (Brandl 2009: 60-6). Not until late in the Twenty-second Dynasty, or somewhat later, do we find a find royal statue of fine quality that seems almost certainly to have been made for the king named on it: a small limestone figure found in the Karnak Cachette and now in the Cairo Museum. The statuette shows Osorkon III kneeling and reaching forward to launch a small boat model (figure 41.1) (Russmann 1989: no. 72, pp. 155-7, 220). Other royal statues of the Third Intermediate Period are for the most part fragmentary or made of metal (discussed at the end of this chapter).
Like their rulers, some private individuals of the Third Intermediate Period equipped themselves with statues by reinscribing pieces made earlier for other people. Examples of these usurped statues have been collected by Brandl (2008: 218-61, pls. 122-136). On most of them little has been changed except to add the new owner’s inscription and images, in place of the original text. The earliest of these usurped statues date back to the Middle Kingdom, among them a very fine standing figure in Baltimore at the Walters Art Museum (Brandl 2008: no. U-1.1, pp. 218-19, pl. 122). Most of the reused statues, however, were made during the New Kingdom. One example
Figure 41.1 Osorkon III kneeling and pushing a small boat; from the Karnak Cachette; Dynasty 23; limestone, red colour on headdress and kilt, possibly an undercoat for gilding, now lost, h. 18 cm.; Cairo, Egyptian Museum, CG 42197. Photograph courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum, Corpus ofLate Egyptian Sculpture.
Is a standing figure from the Karnak Cachette that was made in the Eighteenth Dynasty and reinscribed for a High Priest of Amun in the Twenty-second Dynasty (Russmann 1989: no. 66, pp. 142-5,219). The great majority of statues of private people during the Third Intermediate Period, however, were made at that time. In most cases these statues repeated the poses, costumes, and even facial types that had been popular during the New Kingdom. Nevertheless, the later statues can be differentiated fairly easily from their models. They are handsome, but, in an almost generic way; the only signs ofindividuality occur in the inscriptions and images that now covered almost all of the figure’s clothing as well as the base and the back pillar. Given such emphasis on texts and illustrations, it is not surprising that the most popular statue pose was the block statue, on which only the face and hands were uncovered (figure41.2) (Brandl2008: no. O-5.2.38,pp. 176-7, pls. 96-97; also see Russmann 1989: nos. 74-75, pp. 159-63, 220).
In the past, almost all studies of Third Intermediate Period private statues dealt primarily with their inscriptions. Thus the recently published Untersuchungen zur steinernen Privatplastik der Dritten Zwischenzeit, by Helmut Brandl, which focuses on their appearance, represents a major step forward. Dr Brandl describes and illustrates over one hundred statues, and discusses almost every aspect oftheir style, including the differences between statues made at this time in northern Egypt and in the south.
World History
