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JOHN D. COONEY

companion piece, a seated statuę, found in the Tempie of Ptah at Memphis has even less merit and yet it musi have been produced at the very center of all that was vital in the tradition of royal sculpture ¹. The same remarks can be applied to the alabaster statuę of Menkauhor, the next sovereign, also found at the Memphite Tempie of Ptah ^I2. Still another alabaster statuctte sonie 64 cm high also from the Ptah Tempie may belong in this dynasty¹³. It is uninscribed, but Reisner suggested, on what grounds is not apparcnt, that it may represent Dedefre. It would not be an adornment to any dynasty. In short, with the exception of the sculptures of Weserkaf, not one of thcse statues merits scrious attention as a work of art.

With the advcnt of Dynasty VI we are on very firm ground. All four of the kings who reigned morę than one year are well represented in surviving sculptures. Admittedly the first king Teti is known by a standing red granite statuę found near his pyramid at Sakkara which may or may not have belonged to him ’⁴. The base which presumably borę the inscription is lost. The work is competcnt, but hardly inspired. Pepi I is represented by his famous standing coppcr statuę from Hieraconpolis. This is probably the Ilnest royal sculpture surviving from the later Old Kingdom, but its surface condition makes it difficult to give a firm opinion on its aesthetic merits. In any case, its technicjue, the body probably hammered into shape, the head probably moulded, has little or no relation to stonc sculpture. But this king is well represented by his seated alabaster, heb-sed statuette and kneeling siatę statuette ¹⁵ both in Brooklyn. While these sculptures are of great importance and extremely interesting for their compositions, they hardly qualify, despite their careful worksmanship, as great works of art. The face of the alabaster statuette is bland and without the force and individuality of Dynasty IV work. Yet these sculptures and their companion pieces were doubtless the products of the best studios of the time. Indeed, Reisner was firmly of the opinion that these two works together with the larger statuette of Queen Ankh-nes-meryre holding the young Pepi II, were found togther with the alabaster statuette of Pepi II as Harpocrates, now in Cairo¹⁶, in Jequier’s excavations at Sakkara. I have long been of the same opinion. In short, all four sculptures presumably represent the best royal work of the period, but, quite obviously, they can not compare with the products of the royal shops of the earlier Old Kingdom. Just for the record, another piece must be mentioned. This is the alabaster fragment of the low'er half of a heb-secJ statuette in Brooklyn (unpublished) inscribed for Pepi II with extensive remains of malachite in the inscription.

1

   Borchardt. Statuen utul Staluetten ... (CCC), no. 38.

¹²    Ibid., no. 40.

¹³    Ibid., no. 39.

¹⁴    Steindorff. o. c., pl. 18. The datę of this statuę has been much disputed.

¹⁵    Aldred. Old Kingdom Art in Ancient Egypt, nos. 60-3.

¹⁶    Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, pl. 25.