Private Cupreous Statuary from the Old to the Middle Kingdoms

Barbara Mendoza

The development of ancient Egyptian private cupreous statuary from the Old to Middle Kingdoms has rarely been investigated; relevant sources are limited in scope and fail to provide an overall view of the extent of Egyptian statue production in metal. In this study, I have gathered information on and analyzed about thirty-eight surviving examples of copper or bronze statuettes representing primarily the non-royal male figure. These statuettes were manufactured between Dynasty 6 of the Old Kingdom and Dynasty 13 of the Middle Kingdom. Placed within a chronological framework, a clear development of the cupreous male figure is evident. The male figure undergoes a series of transformations, beginning with two distinct figure-types in the Old Kingdom and developing into at least five distinct figure-types by the end of the Middle Kingdom. These changes are specific only to ancient Egyptian metal sculpture and, therefore, are significant in the study of ancient Egyptian sculpture in general.

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