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Turism&Travel : Berlin lends statue of Pharaoh to Metropolitan Museum for 10 years
Saturday 06 August 2011A monumental ancient Egyptian statue of a seated pharaohâprobably Amenemhat IIâwill be lent to The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Berlin's renowned Ăgyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz for a period of ten years, beginning this month.
Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum, commented: âThanks to the generosity of our colleagues in Berlin, this splendid statue will be on loan to the Met for the next ten years, allowing a very rare glimpse at such monumental Egyptian sculpture in the United States. To celebrate its arrival, we are installing this imposing pharaoh for the coming year in our Great Hall, where it will surely awe our visitors and encourage them to explore the Met's own outstanding Egyptian collections.â The single block of stone (granodiorite) from which the sculpture was carved was quarried at Aswan, then shipped north over more than 500 miles to the area of Memphis, near present-day Cairo. The sculpting was completed in this location, and the statue was erected in a temple complex. The sculpture depicts a seated kingâwearing only a kilt around the hips and upper legsâon a simple cubic throne with a short vertical seatback. A kind of blanket spread over the top of the seat hangs down at the back. The ceremonial bull's tail that all pharaohs woreâattached to their belts, as a sign of their strengthâis seen between the king's legs. On his head is the royal head cloth called nemes; and over the forehead is the royal cobra, symbolizing the ruler's awesome power. The pharaoh also wears a ceremonial (false) beard, and in his right hand he holds a piece of cloth, which is a status symbol (perhaps originally a cloth to wipe sweat from the forehead). On the basis of style, the sculpture has been assigned to the reign of the 12th Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat II (ca. 1919â1885 B.C.). Some six centuries later, the 19th Dynasty kings Ramesses II (reigned ca. 1279â1213 B.C.) and Merneptah (reigned ca. 1213â1203 B.C.) had their names and titles inscribed on it. (At this time, the statue was probably transported to Piramesse, the capital of the Ramesside kings, in the eastern Delta.) The incised broad collar and a pectoral with the names of Ramesses II, and underneath it Merneptah on the chest of the statue, are also later additions. Some of the facial featuresâsuch as the mouth and ears, as well as portions of the eyes, nemes, and cobraâalso were altered to resemble images of Ramesses II. The statue was moved again, 200 years later, to Tanis (now called San el-Hagar), the residence of the kings of Dynasty 21 and 22. Probably at this time the name of Seth in titularies of Ramesses and Merneptah was erased, because this godâalthough revered at Piramesseâwas otherwise a very ambivalent figure. Traces of repair on both sides of the throne indicate that the sculpture may have broken during transport from Piramesse to Tanis. Early in the 19th century, the statue was uncovered at Tanis. Autor: eTurboNews |
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