Within its immense encircling walls the Step Pyramid complex miraculously held one supreme masterpiece surviving, against all the odds, the depredations of nearly fifty centuries. This is the seated life-size statue of the King, old and robed for his jubilee, which was found in its little serdab or enclosed chapel set before the northern face of the pyramid and to the east of the entrance to Netjerykhet’s mortuary temple. There Netjerykhet was left to sit, his eyes aligned with a narrow vantage point through which he could observe, for all the eternity he had no doubt confidently expected, the service of perpetual rituals designed to give him life forever and, with that life, prosperity for Egypt.
The serdab statue is one of the world’s great masterpieces, a work for all time; in it indeed lies Netjerykhet’s immortality. It is carved from a block of limestone: the king sits heavily, for he is old, his head massive under the weight of a great wig and its cover. His cloak is wrapped round him; one arm lies awkwardly across his thighs, the other at his side. His feet are enormous.
Netjerykhet’s face, despite the damage which was done to it when his rock crystal eyes were gouged out, is arresting. It corresponds well with the young king shown on the faience tiles but with one notable difference: the young king has an almost Semitic cast of feature, as though somewhere in his ancestry what might in later centuries be called a Bedu strain from the desert people had entered his blood. But with the old king his ancestry is suggested as something more southern; indeed, Netjerykhet’s features in old age are distinctly African.
His statue is the most perfect expression of the majesty of an Egyptian god-king to survive. His power is not merely absolute: he is power itself. The nobility of his countenance is supported by the dignity of his body, old though he is. He needs to make no further statement; he can only be approached with awe. Even when viewed from behind, the power that Net-jerykhet exudes is still formidable. The great head is like a mountain top; the wig cover making it seem still more immense, adds to the dimension of might and splendour which inhabits.
Not only is the survival of the serdab statue miraculous (it was discovered only in the thirties of the last century)13 and the statue itself a supreme work of art, it is the ancestor of all royal portraits, the archetype of the king enthroned in majesty. It deserves to be recognized as one of the wonders of the world.
World History
