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The block statue is a type of memorial statue that first emerged in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt.[1] The block statue grew in popularity in the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period, and by the Late Period, this type of statue was the most common. These statues were used in temples typically as funerary monuments of non-royal yet important individuals.[2] According to primary sources from the New Kingdom, the posture of the statue was possibly intended to resemble a guardian seated in the gateway of a temple.[3] In addition, their simple shape provided ample flat surfaces for inscriptions of offerings and invocations.
Block statues consist of a man squatting with his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms folded on top his knees. Often, these men are wearing a "wide cloak" that reduces the body of the figure to a simple block-like shape.[4] Most of the detail is reserved for the head of the individual being depicted. In some instances the modeling of the limbs has been retained by the sculptor.[5] There are two basic types of block statues: ones with the feet completely covered by the cloak and ones with the feet uncovered.[6]
In 1903, more than 350 block statues were discovered by the French archaeologist Georges Legrain as part of the "Karnak cachette".[7]
- ^ Bernard V. Bothmer. Egyptian Art: Selected Writings of Bernard V. Bothmer. Edited by Madeleine E. Cody, with Paul Edmund Stanwick and Marsha Hill. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
- ^ Egyptian Sculpture of the Late Period, 700 B.C. to A.D. 100. Edited by Elizabeth Riefstahl. New York: John B. Watkins Company, 1960.
- ^ Ian Shaw. The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. "Block Statue." New York: Harris N. Abrams, 1995.
- ^ Bothmer, 94.
- ^ Shaw, "Block Statue."
- ^ Late Period, 4-5.
- ^ Schulz, Regine, 2011, Block Statue (PDF file). In Willeke Wendrich (ed.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles.