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

a ring, while the left one is a square, both having a circular recession inside. It is evident that both tabs had been intended as knots, though they remained unfinished. Though the representation of two similar tabs is not typical with the high-waisted kilt, the Budapest statuette is not the only exception. A headless sculpture in the Hermitage shows two identical knots. What is more, it combines two types of representations of the fastening of the kilt." The high-waisted long kilt had an earlier variant that is exhibited by sculptures datable to the late Twelfth or the early Thirteenth Dynasty. This earlier type is secured slightly above the navel by a knot represented above the edge of the kilt, while on the left, depicted under the edge, the right top corner of the cloth material is visible. This latter detail appears in a few different ways: around the reign of Amenemhat III it is shown as a folded back corner of the cloth material wrapped around the body (fig. 6/b-c),

,: while in some cases it is executed in a more stylised manner (figs 6/d-e).

33 That the fastening exhibited by later statues developed from these earlier variants is suggested by sculptures that seem to represent a transitional type. With these statues, the corner of the overlapping outer end of the kilt is not angled back in a triangle, but is simply modelled projecting from the surface of the stone (figs 6/f),

34 while the conical tab reaching above the upper edge, typical with high-waisted kilts showing the later type of fastening (fig. 6/h), does not occur. Both the triangular fold and the two tabs appear on the Hermitage statuette, the two tabs represented as knots above the edge (fig. 6/g), suggesting that the two variants of fastening were associated with each other in the sculptor's mind. Since in many cases the tabs alone are clearly not suitable for securing the garment safely in the way they are represented, the different types and variants of fastenings should not be regarded as an indication of changing variations in fashion, but rather as iconographie elements which, together with other characteristic traits, can be used as dating criteria. The sculptures with the transitional type of fastening, including the Hermitage statuette, are fairly close to each other stylistically, a fact confirming that they represent a definite phase in the development of sculptural representation. They show a muscular body with broad shoulders and large hands, a feature that makes them more closely comparable with those sculptures displaying the earlier type of fastening. They are thus datable to the end of the Twelfth or beginning of the Thirteenth Dynasty, while statues showing the two tabs reaching above the upper edge of the kilt are typically represented with faintly suggested or no musculature features and should rather be attributed to the following period. The Budapest statuette can also be assigned to this later group. Other stylistic features seem to further suggest that the piece should be assigned to a later phase during the Middle Kingdom. When compared with the material from the Heqaib sanc-