Much of the well-preserved private sculpture of the Twenty-fifth and Tweny-sixth Dynasties comes from the Karnak Cachette and other Theban temples, but there are enough examples from other parts of Egypt to show that statuary throughout the country developed along much the same lines. No new statue poses were developed during these two dynasties, but almost all of the older statue types were continued from previous dynasties or revived from earlier periods. Standards of quality remained at least as high as in earlier periods. Archaism, however, not only increased, but became more eclectic: a single statue might combine a pose, a costume, and a hairstyle derived from three different periods. The greatest innovation, however, is the fact that, to a much greater degree than in any earlier period, the faces of male statues, and occasionally also their bodies, were sometimes shown with individualistic signs of age.
All of these characteristics may be found in the statues of Montuemhet who, as mayor of Thebes, was the virtual ruler of all southern Egypt, from the late Twenty-fifth Dynasty into the Twenty-sixth. Numerous statues or statue fragments of Montuemhet have survived. In Montouemhat, his magisterial 1961 survey of the man’s monuments, Leclant discussed 19 statues and statue fragments. Other fragments have been found since then. A standing figure of Montuemhet from the Karnak Cachette, near life size (figure 41.6) (Saleh and Sourouzian 1987: no. 246), shows him with a rounded face marked by fleshy creases from the nostrils to the sides of the mouth, and the suggestion of a cleft chin. It is a mature face, with a stern expression that conveys the power and authority which Montuemhet certainly wielded. This face is framed, however, with an elaborate shoulder-length ‘‘double wig’’ of New Kingdom type and set atop a youthful, muscular body which, like the short pleated kilt, is derived from the Old Kingdom. The body is so similar to those of the Kushite kings that this statue may well have been made in a royal sculpture workshop as a mark of the king’s favor.
Another standing statue from the Karnak Cachette, contemporary to that of Montuemhet and in the same pose and costume but on a smaller scale, shows his contemporary Horemakhet, a Kushite prince who was the High Priest of Amun at Karnak (Russmann 1989: no. 80, pp. 175-7, 220-1). The priest’s strong, youthful body is slightly narrower through the waist and hips than that of Montuemhet. The ridge atop his shaven skull and the bold features that seem almost to crowd his narrow face may be intended to suggest his Kushite identity, although they do not resemble the features of his royal relatives. A second ‘‘portrait’’ image of Montuemhet, is the bust of a statue found in the ruins of the temple of the goddess Mut at Thebes (figure 41.7) (Russmann 1989: no.79, pp. 173-4, 220). On this image, Montuemhet’s head is bald on top, with a flap of hair that covers the back and sides, hiding the tops of his ears. This hairstyle is a tonsure, of a type shown since the New Kingdom on statues of the devotees of certain goddesses. The broken area at the bottom of his chin and beneath it is what is left of his hand, which was held to his
Figure 41.6 Standing figure of Montuemhet; from the Karnak Cachette; Dynasty 25-6; granite, h. 137 cm.; Cairo, Egyptian Museum, CG 42236. Photograph courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum, Corpus of Late Egyptian Sculpture (Saleh and Sourouzian 1987: no. 246).
Mouth in the ritual gesture of begging characteristic of this cult. Montuemhet looks considerably older on this bust than he does on his standing figure. His face is also notably longer, especially from the base of the nose to the chin. Thus these two ‘‘portraits’’ of a single figure cannot represent his real appearance at different ages. This discrepancy should be a warning to the modern viewer that such faces, seemingly so individualistic, cannot be considered portraits in our sense of the word.
Another standing statue of Montuemhet shows him holding a figure of Osiris, the top of whose tall crown reaches to Montuemhet’s chest (Leclant 1961: Doc. 3). Standing statues of this type usually hold a figure of Osiris (Bothmer 1960: nos. 28, pl. 25; 39, pl. 36; 44, pl. 41; 48, pl. 44) or a naos containing the image of Osiris or another god (De Meulenaere and MacKay 1976: no. 47, pl. 19). Standing poses of this kind may be considered a variation on the even more popular kneeling statues, discussed below. One of the finest statues of Montuemhet, probably from the Karnak Cachette, shows him wrapped in a long cloak and seated on a low-backed, cuboid seat (Wildung 2000: no. 89, pp. 173, 187). This pose is derived from a type of statue that had originated in the Middle Kingdom and continued into the New Kingdom. As on the earlier examples of these seated statues, Montuemhet has one hand uncovered
Figure 41.7 Bust of Montuemhet; from Karnak, temple of Mut; Dynasty 25-6; granite, h. 48 cm.; Cairo, Egyptian Museum, CG 647. Photograph courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum, Corpus of Late Egyptian Sculpture (Saleh and Sourouzian 1987: no. 246).
And open, palm down, on his chest; his other hand rests on his lap, clutching the edge of his cloak to hold it closed. Beneath the lower arm, a line of inscription runs down to the bottom of the cloak. Montuemhet’s finely striated, shoulder-length hairdo, set low on his forehead without any indication of a part, recalls the style of earlier periods, but his short chin beard has very few parallels in either period - or, for that matter, on other representations of Montuemhet. The face of the seated figure is finely modeled, but its features do not correspond with either of the ‘‘portrait’’ statues discussed above, nor, for that matter; with the faces of any of his other statues (most fully discussed and illustrated in Leclant 1961).
Other cloaked statues include an extremely fine example in New York’s Metropolitan Museum. Only the head and shoulders of this figure are preserved, with his left hand emerging from his cloak (Bothmer 1960: no. 10, pp. 11-12, pl. 10). According to the inscriptions that cover both the front and back of the cloak, the statue represents a man named Ankhemtenenet, who was a priest at Memphis. A double wig, like that worn by the standing statue of Montuemhet, described above, frames a face that combines elements of both idealizing and individualistic types. It is broad and round, with rather large, wide-spaced eyes, flesh folds running down from the nostrils of his now damaged nose, and a wide, narrow-lipped mouth.
Several statues of Montuemhet showed him seated on the ground with his legs bent up in front of him and his body enveloped in a cloak (Leclant 1961: Docs. 10,11: pls. 16-20; both have lost their heads). This type of statue, which originated in the Middle Kingdom, is usually called a block statue. In the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Dynasties, as in the Middle Kingdom, block statues are normally cloaked, although some are shown wearing a long kilt. Most late block statues, but not all, have back pillars. They differ from block statues made during the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties primarily in having less of their surfaces devoted to texts, normally just the front of the cloak or kilt, as well as the back pillar, and the base. The images of gods that had been so popular on block statues of the Third Intermediate Period were now rarely included. Characteristic examples of Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Dynasty block statues may be seen in Josephson and Eldamaty, which is also a good place to observe the non-portrait faces that, as in every period, were more common than the portrait features that are described here in some detail.
On several of Montuemhet’s other statues he is shown kneeling, holding a stela before him (Leclant 1961: Docs 5-7, pls. 6-11). Kneeling figures of servants had first appeared during the Old Kingdom, but the pose was not used to represent men of importance until the New Kingdom. During the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Dynasties, as in the earlier Third Intermediate Period, the kneeling pose was one of the most popular forms of temple statuary, along with the block statue. Kneeling statues normally held or presented something: a stela, like those held by the kneeling figures of Montuemhet, or a figure of Osiris, who is usually shown standing in a small naos. More rarely, the figure holds nothing but rests his hands palms down on his thighs (Bothmer 1960: nos. 37, 52B). A kneeling statue of the Vizier Nespakashuty, a younger contemporary of Montuemhet, shows him with an elaborate wig and an unusual short chin beard (Russmann 2001: no. 129, pp. 234-7). He holds an object in the form of a pillar topped by a cow-eared head of the goddess Hathor, with a superstructure in the shape of a temple facade. This object imitates a sistrum, a musical rattle that jingled in a manner thought to please the goddess.
Sometimes a kneeling figure holds nothing, but rests his hands, palms down, on his thighs. That is true of two large quartzite statues made toward the end of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, for a man named Nekhthorheb. One is now in the Louvre and the other in the British Museum (Russmann 2001: no. 131). These statues are remarkable for their simplicity: Nekhthorheb’s face and body are fully modeled, but the details of his hair and kilt are not indicated, and even the inscription is kept to a minimum. In an unusual detail, his head is slightly raised. Combined with the simplicity of his figure, Nekhthorheb’s upward gaze conveys a sense of religious belief that is seldom communicated across so many centuries.
The pose ofa scribe, seated on the ground with his legs crossed and his kilt stretched taut between his thighs to form a writing surface, had originated in the Old Kingdom (Ziegler in Metropolitan Museum 1999: 61, fig. 33). Even then it must have been mostly symbolic, since it showed men of high rank in the most humble stage of their profession. That would have been even more true in the Late Period, when the pose again became popular, although it is perhaps the only major statue pose that has not been recorded for Montuemhet. It was used for a statue of his contemporary Petamenophis that was found in the Karnak Cachette (Josephson and Eldamaty 1999: 31-5, pl. 15a-d). Like his Old Kingdom predecessors, Petamenophis sits with his right hand poised to grasp a pen and his left hand holding the rolled end of the scroll that is spread across his kilt, its inscription oriented toward his eyes, rather than to the viewer. Also traditional is the way in which each foot is tucked under the opposite leg, leaving only two toes visible on each. Unlike earlier examples of the scribe’s pose, which were destined mostly to be hidden away in tombs, this statue has Petamenophis’s name on the vertical edge of his kilt where it would be easily visible to a temple viewer. His short-cropped hair recedes at the temples to suggest advancing age which, with the possible exception of the flesh folds beside his nostrils, is not reflected in the bland, stylized features of his face. Nespakashuty, whose kneeling statue is discussed above, also chose the seated scribe pose for one of two statues that were found in the Karnak Cachette. Nespakashuty’s broad shoulders and strong torso mirror those of Montuemhet and other Twenty-fifth Dynasty notables, but his smiling face already reflects the blander images of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. Instead of holding a pen with the papyrus scroll spread on his lap, as on earlier scribe statues, Nespakashuty grips the front edge of his kilt with both hands (figure 41.8) (Josephson and Eldamaty 1999: 79-82, pl. 34).
A second statue of Nespakashuty from the Cachette is much smaller and, exceptionally for a temple statue, carved in limestone (Russmann 1989: 176, 178-9, 221). It shows him seated on the ground with one knee raised and his other leg, bent and flat on the ground, passing beneath it. This pose first appeared late in the Old Kingdom, as a variation on the scribe’s pose (Metropolitan Museum 1999: 458, no. 186, p. 458). Although it never became very popular, there are several examples from the Kushite and Saite Periods.
During the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Dynasties statue groups of two or more figures usually showed them on a rather small scale and in very high relief, standing within an inscribed niche. A typical example, now in the Metropolitan Museum, shows a father and son who, except for their hair styles, appear virtually identical. The inscription tells us that this monument was made for them by the son of the younger man (Bothmer 1960: no. 26, pl. 22, fig. 52; formerly in the Gallatin collection).
The upper section of a more unusual type of group statue shows Montuemhet beside his son and heir, Nesptah, against a round topped stela (Leclant 1961: Doc. 12. pp. 79-86, pls. 21-6). The two are identically garbed, their left shoulders covered with a leopard skin, with an inscribed band running diagonally across the chest and a large emblem of the goddess Bat on a neck cord. With their identical striated, shoulder-length wigs and their youthful faces, they appear to be the same age. It is interesting, therefore, to notice that Montuemhet alone has slightly slanted eyes and a small pursed mouth, suggestive of the features of the Libyan Twenty-sixth Dynasty kings. As a holdover from the previous regime, Montuemhet may well have felt the need to demonstrate his loyalty to the new dynasty in every possible way.
Just as Montuemhet’s career spanned the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Dynasties, so did the statue types popular during the earlier dynasty continue into the later one. There were, however, a few innovations, designed to express loyalty to the Saite kings. Some of their subjects chose to have the royal names inscribed on the shoulders of their statues. Most examples seem to come from Memphis (Bothmer 1960: no. 49, p. 56, pl. 43, figs. 110-11), or from the Delta (De Meulenaere and MacKay 1976: no. 42, pl. 17a; no. 51, pl. 21a). At least one, however, a standing figure of a man
Figure 41.8 Nespakashuty in the pose of a scribe; from the Karnak Cachette; Dynasty 25-6; greywacke, h. 80 cm.; Cairo, Egyptian Museum, CG 48634. Photograph courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum, Corpus of Late Egyptian Sculpture (Josephson and Eldamaty 1999: 79-82, pl. 34).
Named Harbes, with the cartouches of Psamtik II on his shoulders, was found in the Karnak Cachette (Bothmer 1960: no. 48, p. 55, pls. 44-5, figs. 106-9). Subjects of the Saite kings often had themselves shown with Libyan features like those of their kings. Since many, if not most, of these ‘‘Libyan’’ faces appear on statues made in northern Egypt, where many ethnic Libyans lived, it is possible that many of them reflect the actual ethnicity of the statue owners. That may also be true of the upper half of a kneeling statue from Thebes, whose very slanted eyes and pursed lips give an almost exaggerated impression of Libyan features (M. Seidel in Schulz and Seidel et al. 2009: no. 50, pp. 124-5; Libyan appearance disputed).
Libyan ethnicity may also be suspected in the face of a scribe statue of a man named Bes, who governed the Delta city of Mendes. At first sight, one is struck by the statue’s sunken eyes and the large pouches beneath them; together with the sharp ridges of the collarbones, they make the figure look aged, or even ill. But the eyes have a definite slant which, given the high office Bes held in an area dominated by the Saite kings, strongly suggests that he, too, was of Saite descent (Bothmer 1960: no. 20, pp. 22-4, pls. 18-19). Also from the north of Egypt comes the limestone statue of another man named Bes, who is shown in the asymmetric pose of a scribe sitting on the ground with one knee raised (Bothmer 1960: no. 29, pp. 34-5, pl. 27). This Bes has a full-cheeked face, and his torso and limbs are decidedly plump. Once again, his Saite heritage is indicated by his slanted eyes and pursed mouth. His political allegiance is demonstrated by the cartouche of Psamtik I on his shoulder.
Toward the end of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty an official named Psamtik commissioned three statues for his tomb at Saqqara (Saleh and Sourouzian 1987: nos. 250-2). As we have noted above, private sculpture in this period was almost always made to be placed in temples. This set of tomb statues, all carved in greywacke and all about the same height, has other unusual qualities. One shows the tomb owner, Psamtik, who was an Overseer of Seals, wearing a long kilt, with a seal hung from a cord around his neck. He stands under the chin of a cow that wears the plumed headdress of the goddess Hathor, whom she represents (figure 41.9) (Russmann 1989: no. 86, pp. 185-8). This type of statue had been invented during the New Kingdom, when it always showed a king under the protection of the Hathor cow (for example, Saleh and Sourouzian 1987: no 138). In the Late Period, however, it was always a private person shown under Hathor’s chin. The two other statues in Psamtik’s tomb group are seated figures of the god Osiris and his consort Isis. In the past, such statues would have been considered appropriate only for temples, or perhaps royal tombs, but never for tombs of officials. One can only wonder that Psamtik could so disregard the old rules. As one would expect in this period, however, the faces of both the gods reflect the features of the Saite king, as does the face of Psamtik.
The continued production of ‘‘portrait’’ heads throughout the Twenty-sixth Dynasty may be typified by the white quartzite head of a man in the British Museum (Russmann 2001: no. 133, pp. 243-4). He wears a flaring wig of New Kingdom type. His cheekbones project above the sagging, creased skin on his cheeks and chin, leaving no doubt he is shown in middle age or even later. His narrow, almost squinting, eyes and the rather taut folds at the sides of his mouth make his expression hard to read; this is one of the most enigmatic of the many Late Period portrait heads.
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