{"id":1635,"date":"2017-07-17T21:55:21","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T21:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ncc-zeliart\/?post_type=chapter&p=1635"},"modified":"2018-07-03T02:09:04","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T02:09:04","slug":"old-kingdom-king-menkaure-mycerinus-and-queen","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ncc-zeliart\/chapter\/old-kingdom-king-menkaure-mycerinus-and-queen\/","title":{"raw":"Old Kingdom: King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and Queen","rendered":"Old Kingdom: King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and Queen"},"content":{"raw":"
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King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and queen<\/em>, 2490\u20132472 B.C.E., greywacke, 142.2 x 57.1 x 55.2 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), photo:\u00a0tutincommon<\/a>\u00a0(CC BY-NC 2.0)<\/h4>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nSerene ethereal beauty, raw royal power, and evidence of artistic virtuosity have rarely been simultaneously captured as well as in this breathtaking, nearly life-size statue of the pharaoh Menkaure and a queen. Smooth as silk, the meticulously finished surface of the dark stone captures the physical ideals of the time and creates a sense of eternity and immortality\u00a0even today.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Undoubtedly, the most iconic structures from Ancient Egypt are the massive and enigmatic Great Pyramids that stand on a natural stone shelf, now known as the Giza plateau, on the south-western edge of modern Cairo. The three primary pyramids at Giza were constructed during the height of a period known as the Old Kingdom and served as burial places, memorials, and places of worship for a series of deceased rulers--the largest belonging to King Khufu, the middle to his son Khafre, and the smallest of the three to Khufu's grandson, Menkaure.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Giza plateau, photo:\u00a0kairoinfo4u<\/a>\u00a0(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)<\/h4>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Head and torso (detail),\u00a0Khafre enthroned<\/em>, from Giza, Egypt, c. 2520-2494 B.C.E., diorite. 5\u2019 6 inches high (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)<\/h4>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nPyramids are not stand-alone structures. Those at Giza\u00a0formed only a part of a much larger complex that included a temple at the base of the pyramid itself, long causeways and corridors, small subsidiary pyramids, and a second temple (known as a valley temple) some distance from the pyramid. These Valley Temples were used to perpetuate the cult of the deceased king and were active places of worship for hundreds of years (sometimes much longer) after the king\u2019s death. Images of the king were placed in these temples to serve as a focus for worship\u2014several such images have been found in these contexts, including the magnificent seated statue of Khafre, now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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On January 10, 1910, excavators under the direction of George Reisner, head of the joint Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Expedition to Egypt, uncovered an astonishing collection of statuary in the Valley Temple connected to the Pyramid of Menkaure. Menkaure\u2019s pyramid had been explored in the 1830s (using dynamite, no less).\u00a0His carved granite sarcophagus was removed (and subsequently lost at sea), and while the Pyramid Temple at the\u00a0base was in only mediocre condition; the Valley Temple, was\u2014happily\u2014basically ignored.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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George Reisner and Georg Steindorff at Harvard Camp, looking east toward Khufu and Khafre pyramids, 1935, photo by Albert Morton Lythgoe (Giza archives<\/a><\/h4>\r\n
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Reisner had been excavating on the Giza plateau for several years at this point; his team had already explored the elite cemetery to the west of the Great Pyramid of Khufu before turning their attention to the Menkaure complex, most particularly the barely-touched Valley Temple.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Four greywacke triads, Menkaure valley temple, S magazines, corridor III 4, photo: 1908 (The Giza Archives<\/a>). View\u00a0one of the triads<\/a>\u00a0in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.<\/h4>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Menkaure flanked by Hathor (left) and nome goddess (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)<\/h4>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn the southwest corner of the structure, the team discovered a magnificent cache of statuary carved in a smooth-grained dark stone called greywacke or schist. There were a number of triad statues\u2014each showing 3 figures\u2014the king, the fundamentally important goddess Hathor, and the personification of a nome (a geographic designation, similar to the modern idea of a region, district, or county). Hathor was worshipped in the pyramid temple complexes along with the supreme sun god Re and the god Horus, who was represented by the living king. The goddess\u2019s name is actually \u2018Hwt-hor\u2019, which means \u201cThe House of Horus,\u201d\u00a0and she was connected to the wife of the living king and the mother of the future king. Hathor was also a fierce protector who guarded her father Re; as an \"Eye of Re\"\u00a0(the title assigned to a group of dangerous goddesses), she could embody the intense heat of the sun and use that blazing fire to destroy his enemies.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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There were 4 complete triads, one incomplete, and at least one other in a fragmentary condition. \u00a0The precise meaning of these triads is uncertain. Reisner believed that there was one for each ancient Egyptian nome, meaning there would have originally been more than thirty of them. More recent scholarship, however, suggests that there were originally 8 triads, each connected with a major site associated with the cult of Hathor. Hathor\u2019s prominence in the triads (she actually takes the central position in one of the sculptures) and her singular importance to kingship lends weight to this theory.<\/div>\r\n
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In addition to the triads, Reisner\u2019s team also revealed the extraordinary dyad statue of Menkaure and a queen that is breathtakingly singular.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Heads and torsos (detail),\u00a0King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and queen<\/em>, 2490\u20132472 B.C.E., greywacke, 142.2 x 57.1 x 55.2 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), photo: 1910 (The Giza Archives<\/a><\/h4>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nThe two figures stand side-by-side on a simple, squared base and are supported by a shared back pillar. They both face to the front, although Menkaure\u2019s head is noticeably turned to his right\u2014this image was likely originally positioned within an architectural niche, making it appear as though they were emerging from the structure. The broad-shouldered, youthful body of the king is covered only with a traditional short pleated kilt, known as a shendjet, and his head sports the primary pharaonic insignia of the iconic striped nemes headdress (so well known from the mask of Tutankhamun) and an artificial royal beard. In his clenched fists, held straight down at his sides, Menkaure grasps ritual cloth rolls. His body is straight, strong, and eternally youthful with no signs of age. His facial features are remarkably individualized with prominent eyes, a fleshy nose, rounded cheeks, and full mouth with protruding lower lip.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Heads (detail), King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and queen, 2490\u20132472 B.C.E., greywacke, 142.2 x 57.1 x 55.2 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), photo: 1910 (The Giza Archives<\/a><\/h4>\r\n
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Menkaure\u2019s queen provides the perfect female counterpart to his youthful masculine virility. Sensuously modelled with a beautifully proportioned body emphasized by a clinging garment, she articulates ideal mature feminine beauty. There is a sense of the individual in both faces. Neither Menkaure nor his queen are depicted in the purely idealized manner that was the norm for royal images. Instead, through the overlay of royal formality we see the depiction of a living person filling the role of pharaoh and the personal features of a particular individual in the representation of his queen.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Menkaure and his queen stride forward with their left feet\u2014this is entirely expected for the king, as males in Egyptian sculpture almost always do so, but it is unusual for the female since they are generally depicted with feet together. They both look beyond the present and into timeless eternity, their otherworldly visage displaying no human emotion whatsoever.<\/div>\r\n
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The dyad was never finished\u2014the area around the lower legs has not received a final polish, and there is no inscription. However, despite this incomplete state, the image was erected in the temple and was brightly painted\u2014there are traces of red around the king\u2019s ears and mouth and yellow on the queen\u2019s face. The presence of paint atop the smooth, dark greywacke on a statue of the deceased king that was originally erected in his memorial temple courtyard brings an interesting suggestion\u2014that the paint may have been intended to wear away through exposure and, over time, reveal the immortal, black-fleshed \"Osiris\"\u00a0Menkaure (for more information on the symbolic associations of Egyptian materials, see\u00a0Introduction to Egyptian Art\u2014Materials<\/a>).<\/div>\r\n
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Unusual for a pharaoh\u2019s image, the king has no protective cobra (known as a\u00a0uraeus<\/em>) perched on his brow. This notable absence has led to the suggestion that both the king\u2019s nemes and the queen\u2019s wig were originally covered in precious metal and that the\u00a0cobra would have been part of that addition.<\/div>\r\n
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Based on comparison with other images, there is no doubt that this sculpture shows Menkaure, but the identity of the queen is a different matter. She is clearly a royal female. She stands at nearly equal height with the king and, of the two of them, she is the one who is entirely frontal. In fact, it may be that this dyad is focused on the queen as its central figure rather than Menkaure. The prominence of the royal female\u2014at equal height and frontal\u2014in addition to the protective gesture she extends has suggested that, rather than one of Mekaure\u2019s wives, this is actually his queen-mother. The function of the sculpture in any case was to ensure rebirth for the king in the Afterlife.<\/div>\r\n
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Essay by Dr. Amy Calvert<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and queen<\/em>, 2490\u20132472 B.C.E., greywacke, 142.2 x 57.1 x 55.2 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), photo:\u00a0tutincommon<\/a>\u00a0(CC BY-NC 2.0)<\/h4>\n
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Serene ethereal beauty, raw royal power, and evidence of artistic virtuosity have rarely been simultaneously captured as well as in this breathtaking, nearly life-size statue of the pharaoh Menkaure and a queen. Smooth as silk, the meticulously finished surface of the dark stone captures the physical ideals of the time and creates a sense of eternity and immortality\u00a0even today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Undoubtedly, the most iconic structures from Ancient Egypt are the massive and enigmatic Great Pyramids that stand on a natural stone shelf, now known as the Giza plateau, on the south-western edge of modern Cairo. The three primary pyramids at Giza were constructed during the height of a period known as the Old Kingdom and served as burial places, memorials, and places of worship for a series of deceased rulers–the largest belonging to King Khufu, the middle to his son Khafre, and the smallest of the three to Khufu’s grandson, Menkaure.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Giza plateau, photo:\u00a0kairoinfo4u<\/a>\u00a0(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Head and torso (detail),\u00a0Khafre enthroned<\/em>, from Giza, Egypt, c. 2520-2494 B.C.E., diorite. 5\u2019 6 inches high (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)<\/h4>\n
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Pyramids are not stand-alone structures. Those at Giza\u00a0formed only a part of a much larger complex that included a temple at the base of the pyramid itself, long causeways and corridors, small subsidiary pyramids, and a second temple (known as a valley temple) some distance from the pyramid. These Valley Temples were used to perpetuate the cult of the deceased king and were active places of worship for hundreds of years (sometimes much longer) after the king\u2019s death. Images of the king were placed in these temples to serve as a focus for worship\u2014several such images have been found in these contexts, including the magnificent seated statue of Khafre, now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On January 10, 1910, excavators under the direction of George Reisner, head of the joint Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Expedition to Egypt, uncovered an astonishing collection of statuary in the Valley Temple connected to the Pyramid of Menkaure. Menkaure\u2019s pyramid had been explored in the 1830s (using dynamite, no less).\u00a0His carved granite sarcophagus was removed (and subsequently lost at sea), and while the Pyramid Temple at the\u00a0base was in only mediocre condition; the Valley Temple, was\u2014happily\u2014basically ignored.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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George Reisner and Georg Steindorff at Harvard Camp, looking east toward Khufu and Khafre pyramids, 1935, photo by Albert Morton Lythgoe (Giza archives<\/a><\/h4>\n
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Reisner had been excavating on the Giza plateau for several years at this point; his team had already explored the elite cemetery to the west of the Great Pyramid of Khufu before turning their attention to the Menkaure complex, most particularly the barely-touched Valley Temple.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Four greywacke triads, Menkaure valley temple, S magazines, corridor III 4, photo: 1908 (The Giza Archives<\/a>). View\u00a0one of the triads<\/a>\u00a0in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Menkaure flanked by Hathor (left) and nome goddess (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)<\/h4>\n
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In the southwest corner of the structure, the team discovered a magnificent cache of statuary carved in a smooth-grained dark stone called greywacke or schist. There were a number of triad statues\u2014each showing 3 figures\u2014the king, the fundamentally important goddess Hathor, and the personification of a nome (a geographic designation, similar to the modern idea of a region, district, or county). Hathor was worshipped in the pyramid temple complexes along with the supreme sun god Re and the god Horus, who was represented by the living king. The goddess\u2019s name is actually \u2018Hwt-hor\u2019, which means \u201cThe House of Horus,\u201d\u00a0and she was connected to the wife of the living king and the mother of the future king. Hathor was also a fierce protector who guarded her father Re; as an “Eye of Re”\u00a0(the title assigned to a group of dangerous goddesses), she could embody the intense heat of the sun and use that blazing fire to destroy his enemies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There were 4 complete triads, one incomplete, and at least one other in a fragmentary condition. \u00a0The precise meaning of these triads is uncertain. Reisner believed that there was one for each ancient Egyptian nome, meaning there would have originally been more than thirty of them. More recent scholarship, however, suggests that there were originally 8 triads, each connected with a major site associated with the cult of Hathor. Hathor\u2019s prominence in the triads (she actually takes the central position in one of the sculptures) and her singular importance to kingship lends weight to this theory.<\/div>\n
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In addition to the triads, Reisner\u2019s team also revealed the extraordinary dyad statue of Menkaure and a queen that is breathtakingly singular.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Heads and torsos (detail),\u00a0King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and queen<\/em>, 2490\u20132472 B.C.E., greywacke, 142.2 x 57.1 x 55.2 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), photo: 1910 (The Giza Archives<\/a><\/h4>\n
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The two figures stand side-by-side on a simple, squared base and are supported by a shared back pillar. They both face to the front, although Menkaure\u2019s head is noticeably turned to his right\u2014this image was likely originally positioned within an architectural niche, making it appear as though they were emerging from the structure. The broad-shouldered, youthful body of the king is covered only with a traditional short pleated kilt, known as a shendjet, and his head sports the primary pharaonic insignia of the iconic striped nemes headdress (so well known from the mask of Tutankhamun) and an artificial royal beard. In his clenched fists, held straight down at his sides, Menkaure grasps ritual cloth rolls. His body is straight, strong, and eternally youthful with no signs of age. His facial features are remarkably individualized with prominent eyes, a fleshy nose, rounded cheeks, and full mouth with protruding lower lip.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Heads (detail), King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and queen, 2490\u20132472 B.C.E., greywacke, 142.2 x 57.1 x 55.2 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), photo: 1910 (The Giza Archives<\/a><\/h4>\n
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Menkaure\u2019s queen provides the perfect female counterpart to his youthful masculine virility. Sensuously modelled with a beautifully proportioned body emphasized by a clinging garment, she articulates ideal mature feminine beauty. There is a sense of the individual in both faces. Neither Menkaure nor his queen are depicted in the purely idealized manner that was the norm for royal images. Instead, through the overlay of royal formality we see the depiction of a living person filling the role of pharaoh and the personal features of a particular individual in the representation of his queen.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Menkaure and his queen stride forward with their left feet\u2014this is entirely expected for the king, as males in Egyptian sculpture almost always do so, but it is unusual for the female since they are generally depicted with feet together. They both look beyond the present and into timeless eternity, their otherworldly visage displaying no human emotion whatsoever.<\/div>\n
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The dyad was never finished\u2014the area around the lower legs has not received a final polish, and there is no inscription. However, despite this incomplete state, the image was erected in the temple and was brightly painted\u2014there are traces of red around the king\u2019s ears and mouth and yellow on the queen\u2019s face. The presence of paint atop the smooth, dark greywacke on a statue of the deceased king that was originally erected in his memorial temple courtyard brings an interesting suggestion\u2014that the paint may have been intended to wear away through exposure and, over time, reveal the immortal, black-fleshed “Osiris”\u00a0Menkaure (for more information on the symbolic associations of Egyptian materials, see\u00a0Introduction to Egyptian Art\u2014Materials<\/a>).<\/div>\n
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Unusual for a pharaoh\u2019s image, the king has no protective cobra (known as a\u00a0uraeus<\/em>) perched on his brow. This notable absence has led to the suggestion that both the king\u2019s nemes and the queen\u2019s wig were originally covered in precious metal and that the\u00a0cobra would have been part of that addition.<\/div>\n
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Based on comparison with other images, there is no doubt that this sculpture shows Menkaure, but the identity of the queen is a different matter. She is clearly a royal female. She stands at nearly equal height with the king and, of the two of them, she is the one who is entirely frontal. In fact, it may be that this dyad is focused on the queen as its central figure rather than Menkaure. The prominence of the royal female\u2014at equal height and frontal\u2014in addition to the protective gesture she extends has suggested that, rather than one of Mekaure\u2019s wives, this is actually his queen-mother. The function of the sculpture in any case was to ensure rebirth for the king in the Afterlife.<\/div>\n
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Essay by Dr. Amy Calvert<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div>