Royal Bronze Statuary from Ancient Egypt, with Special Attention to the Kneeling Pose.

• Author: Berman, Lawrence M.
• Position: Book review

Royal Bronze Statuary from Ancient Egypt, with Special Attention to the Kneeling Pose. Egyptological Memoirs, vol. 3. By MARSHA HILL. Leiden: BRILL-STYX, 2004. Pp. xi + 367, plates. $92.

Until the 1990s the only available detailed studies on Egyptian bronzes were the two by Gunther Roeder, Agyptische Bronzewerke (Glucktadt: J. J. Augustin, 1937), and Agyptische Bronzefiguren (Berlin: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 1956). These concentrated on typology and construction and barely touched on chronology. Recently several more focused studies of Egyptian bronzes have appeared; more are promised. (In addition to the projects Hill mentions on pp. 4-5, the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, has announced a new study of its bronzes; see Regina Schulz, "Treasures of Bronze," Bulletin of the Egyptian Museum 1 [2004]: 61-66). Among these recent studies, none is more welcome than this one by Marsha Hill.

Dating ancient Egyptian bronzes has always posed difficulties. Relatively few statuettes have reliable provenances, and these tend to be temple hoards containing statuettes of different periods deposited over time. In addition, stylistic features that might be diagnostic for a certain period are often obscured by extensive corrosion or overcleaning. Consequently, scholars faced with the staggering mass of unexcavated bronzes from the Late Period and the Ptolemaic Dynasty were at a loss to date them more precisely than 664-630 B.C. Hill has wisely chosen to focus on a select group. Royal bronzes constitute only a small percentage of the total number of statuettes, which are mainly deities in human and animal form. To give an idea, of the 17,000 bronzes said to have come from the Karnak cachette--the largest temple deposit known--only one depicts a king: a striding statuette of a Kushite ruler acquired in 1970 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (cat. 69). It is a tribute to the thoroughness of Hill's scholarship to have recognized its picture in the January 28, 1905, issue of the Illustrated London News.

Hill has applied to the art-historical analysis of bronze kings all the scientific rigor usually reserved for large sculpture in stone. The most important thing we learn here is how much the study of small images increases our knowledge of the development of royal sculpture, especially works that date to the Third Intermediate Period and later.

Not surprisingly, some important reattributions have resulted from such careful scrutiny. The sphinx of Menkheperra...