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_King Khafre _
By: meghan
King Khafre Seated Egyptian art is infamous across the world - classified by
the monumental pyramids, and the Sphinx. Although these are both valid forms
of Egyptian art, they do not make up the entire artistic history of the
country. On the contrary, perhaps the most replicated example of classic
Egyptian art, from the Old Kingdom, can be found in their rendering of the
human form. An interest in portraiture developed early in Egypt. (Gardner, 75)
Whether painted on pottery, or cut into rock, the figures all had notably
Egyptian characteristics. "The seated statue is one of only a very small
number of basic formulaic types employed by the sculptors of the Old Kingdom."
(Gardner, 75) The statue of King Khafre Seated , from the fourth dynasty of
the Old Kingdom, 2520 - 2492 BCE, was created by an unknown artist in the
smooth permanence of graywacke stone. Although the statue is currently at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art as number 56 in the Special Egyptian Exhibition,
its true home is at the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo. The man being portrayed,
King Khafre, ruled Egypt for approximately thirty years, during which he
commissioned the single most recognizable monuments of Egypt, the a fore
mentioned Pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx. These monuments of symmetry and
solidity characterize the focus of popular architecture and sculpture from the
Old Kingdom in Egypt. Two main devices used in Egyptian art from the fourth
dynasty, that also help classify it, are a strive for naturalism and the use
of sculpture in the round. In addition to the large burial monuments being
built, portraiture became quite popular at this time in history. Paintings
featuring humans used their own form of "sculpture in the round" by painting
in a composite view. No matter how contorted a position may be in reality,
Egyptian artists worked so that every aspect of the human form was
represented. Another popular form of portraiture was in the form of ka statues
of important people like the pharaoh, built to adorn that person’s burial
tomb. In making these funerary statues, "…sculpture in the round served the
important function of creating an image of the deceased that could serve as an
abode for the ka, should the mummy be destroyed… Thus, too, permanence of
style and material was essential…stone was the primary material." (Gardner,
75) Thus, the same "permanence" and "sculpture in the round" used for the
outside of the pyramids and the guardian Sphinx was also put to work for
statues like this one of King Khafre. This particular ka statue of King Khafre
Seated is only one out of the original twenty-three from the pharaoh’s burial
tomb of the valley temple, at Giza. (Met.) King Khafre’s reign was one of
great royalty and splendor; not only did the pharaoh commission grandiose
monuments that extended into the sky, but he also had multiple funerary
statues in his likeness built for the use of his ka once he was dead and
placed inside valley temple. Although the individual artists of these ka
statues are unknown, they all portrayed Khafre in the same basic way. This
specific artist carved out of dark graywacke in order to capture the
naturalistic, yet idealized, form of King Khafre, and, in doing so showcased
his own expertise as a craftsman. The artist captured the royalty of the king
by dressing this nearly life-size replica in the traditional kilt, fake beard,
and linen headdress. "As befitting a divinity, Khafre is shown with a well -
developed, flawless body and a perfect face." This being accomplished through
a combination of the accomplished craftsman and the smooth, richness of the
dark stone that Khafre is sculpted from. The statue was built a"…canon of
ideal proportions, designated as appropriate for the representation of
imposing majesty…" (Gardner, 75) Another identifying feature of the pharaoh
can be found on the unusually back-less throne that the Khafre figure sits on.
It is decorated "…with the sema - tawi, an emblem of unification that combines
the hieroglyph sema ("union) with the symbols for the two lands of Egypt -
papyrus for the north and a flower for the south."(Met) Other hieroglyphs are
displayed on the front of the throne, by the figure’s legs, perhaps
representing Khafre’s name or his dynasty. One hieroglyph, that of a bird,
may, in fact, represent "the falcon of Horus, indicating the pharaoh’s divine
status," as some other ka statues of Khafre provide an indication of
Horus.(Gardner, 75 - 76) The compact figure of Khafre sits in a sort of
permanence with no projecting limbs or easily breakable parts. "The sculptor
produced the statue by first drawing the front, back, and two profile views of
the pharaoh on the four vertical faces of the stone block; by chiseling away
the excess stone on each side, working inward until the planes met at right
angles; then rounding the corners. This subtractive method of creating the
pharaoh’s portrait accounts in large parts for the blocklike look of the
standard Egyptian statue," (Gardner, 75) This form of carving and creating
statues is one that not only encompassed Khafre’s reign, but extended beyond
and is apparent in later dynasties as well. The statues adorning the front of
the Temple of Ramses, for example, have the same basic positioning, and
rendering as the ka statue of King Khafre Seated. Therefore, two things become
apparent, one is that a similar technique of carving was used for the Ramses
figures, and the other is that sculptors of later years would look back at the
ka statues built in the fourth dynasty as a template for their ownSimilar
examples of sculpture go on for years after Khafre’s reign, the fourth dynasty
was just the beginning. Monumental Egypt, although it existed in burial tombs
before Khafre’s reign, truly became a traditional pattern in the fourth
dynasty. Khafre’s seated ka statues were numerous and perhaps the beginning of
the formulaic sculpting of Egyptian ka statues. The King Khafre Seated that is
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art now is not only the best ka statue of Khafre
in existence, but perhaps one of the best examples of classic Egyptian
sculpture from the Old Kingdom. Bibliography 1. Tansey, Richard G., and
Kleiner, Fred S., Gardener’s Art Through the Ages, Harcourt Brace and Company,
Fort Worth, TX, 1996, tenth edition, volume II, pp 73 - 85. 2. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Special Egyptian Exhibitian, no. 56. King Khafre
Seated statue label. 5th Ave. and 82nd St. New York, NY.
Word Count: 1088
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