The Relative Sizes of the SexesIt is interesting to note the difference in proportions in the representations of men and women. Quite often they are of equal height or their difference in height merely reflects statistical reality. How- ever, the woman is sometimes presented very much smaller than the man. Among these examples there are statues of couples in which the man sits while the woman stands. In these cases the significant difference in proportions can be explained by considerations of composition.
Examples of pairs in which the woman sits and the man stands are
rare. In such cases the proportions of the seated and standing persons
are about equal. The slightly larger size of the male figure is presumably due to the fact that these are high-ranking officials, that is, important personages. A woman could only possess such a high social status if she came from an equally high-ranking family.
Where couples are represented, the woman usually shows her affection through her posture and gestures; she lays her arm around his shoulders and perhaps grasps the man’s arm nearest to her with her other hand. Other couples display a posture emphasizing equality by holding hands.
Types of Statues
In the course of the history of Egyptian sculpture a number of different postures developed that were often repeated and thus became part of the canon. Three basic forms were already present in the Old Kingdom. These are listed below.
The standing figure: Men show a distinct striding posture in which the weight largely rests on the back leg; it is therefore a static posture and only suggestive of striding. Women stand with legs together or display only a slight striding posture. The arms hang loose at the sides of the body and the hands are either open or clenched around a “stone core.” In rare instances, there are some examples where one arm is bent and the fist placed at the opposite breast. Only wooden statues show the long staff familiar from two- dimensional depictions, held in one hand.
The seated statue: The figures are seated on cuboid blocks. The bent arms rest on the thighs and often one hand is clenched around a “stone core.”
The squatting statue: the figures, mostly men, sit cross-legged on a mat or on the ground. If the squatting figure has an open papyrus role on his lap he is considered a “reader;” if he also has a reed in his hand for writing, he is thought of as a “scribe.” “Asymmetrical squatters,” where one knee is drawn up, are rarely found. Rarer still are “kneeling figures” or those squatting on their heels.
One should bear in mind that this terminology is of occidental origin and not Egyptian. Squatting was, in reality, the conventional seating position where-as sitting on a chair was something unusual. The hieroglyph of a seated figure means in Egyptian shepses, “noble,” whereas the hieroglyph of the “asymmetrical squatter” was simply the sign for “man.”
In the dynastic era seated statues were commonly made in stone whereas standing statues before the Third Dynasty were made only in wood. From this time on, the seated statue was the most common type of artifact, followed by standing figures and then squatting figures of all kinds. A special feature of the Old Kingdom are heads and busts that obviously have a different function from that of tomb statues. The same is true for the statues of servants shown preparing food or performing other kinds of duties; these developed only in the Old Kingdom. They are not individually marked (for example, inscribed with a name) but merely represent the task being performed. Standing statues are supported at the back by a pillar whereas groups of standing figures have a common back slab. Seated statues can also have a back slab that has the appearance of a high backrest. Besides freestanding statues there are also those carved from the rock face within the tomb.
The arms and legs of stone statues were connected to the body with pins. Statues made of limestone sometimes had freely worked arms. For technical reasons, this was not possible with figures made of hard stone. Wooden statues had no such technical restrictions with respect to the limbs; generally, these were carved separately and then attached to the body.
Reserve Heads
The rather sober-sounding term reserve heads (also called “replacement heads”) is used for sculptures of life-sized heads found primarily in tombs of the Fourth Dynasty. More than thirty such heads are known, most of them from Giza. They were specifically made as individual heads and were not merely fragments of statues. Their intended placement is known from isolated examples; it was not the serdab but the bottom of the deep shaft leading into the burial chamber. More precisely, they were placed in niches in the wall that sealed the burial chamber off from the shaft. Most of the heads date from the time of Cheops and Chephren.
There have been many attempts to interpret the meaning of these objects and the motives for making and positioning them: firstly, the fear of literally losing one’s head in the hereafter, be it through demons or natural decay; for this reason they have been called reserve or replacement heads. Secondly, they might have been substitutes for the tomb statue; and thirdly, they may have been intended to preserve the look of the dead even when the mummy decayed — mummification methods were not well developed at that time. This preservation was essential not only for life in the hereafter but also to enable the freely moving component of the self (the “soul”) to identify the body.
A more recent theory that these heads were part of a magical practice to prevent the dead from coming back and harming their descendants has not found much support. There are even theories that claim that these heads might have been used as models of the tomb
owner for statues or as decorations in his living quarters.
