Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2007)

KATALIN ANNA KÓTHAY: A Defective Statuette from the Thirteenth Dynasty and the Sculptural Production of the Late Middle Kingdom

4 STRIDING STATUETTE, RIGHT SIDE. BUDAPEST. MUSEUM OF FINE ARES sometimes an extreme elongation to the back of the skull'- or a prominent bulge of the occipital bone

13 arc noticeable. Other heads do not show extreme projection at the rear of the skull, and instead are rather angular with the forehead curving back to a flat skull.

14 The Budapest statuette shows a different and unique skull shape that is almost regularly round with a high, slightly receding forehead and high crown. However, the cranium is asymmetrical: when viewed from behind, the crown is higher near the right parietal region (fig. 5). The lateral view of the head displays a small face (excluding the forehead) in proportion to the cranium (fig. 3). However, in the frontal view the figure has a large face (fig. 2). The only hitherto published photograph of the statuette shows the visage as plump and jovial.

15 Yet the facial features and expression are a little different from those discernible on the old photo. The cheeks are less fleshy than the photograph suggests, and are broad but rather flat, while the expression of the face is serious. The jaws are wide and the overall outline of the face (including the forehead) is oblong. The figure exhibits a calm and solemn face with a resigned look that appears slightly scornful from the left profile (fig. 3). However, this is not the well-known sombre expression of sctdptures of the two great kings of the late Twelfth Dynasty, Senusret III and Amenemhat III, nor that of their reminiscences in late Middle Kingdom private sculpture.

16 The visage of the Budapest statuette is rather expressionless; it does not show furrows and lines, nor any signs of aging, though it looks older when viewed in profile.