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
Likewise, the repair itself makes it obvious that work on the defective statuette was intended to have been continued. Since this ready-made small statuette was manufactured in order to be sold to a client of lower standing and not for a special commissioner, the sculptor did not bother about the damage. He probably repaired the statuette and carved the details very carelessly, but he also may have given the unfinished statuette to an apprentice. Another possibility is that it was just left unfinished in the workshop and work on it was started by a later sculptor who came across it. It seems that poor quality sculptures were not produced at every place where workshops of sculptors operated. The Elephantine workshops that supplied the Heqaib sanctuary with statues appear to have recruited well-trained artists. Though a larger number of individuals dedicated statues at Elephantine from the Thirteenth Dynasty than before, 48 and accordingly there is a difference in number as well as in quality between sculptures of the Twelfth Dynasty and those of the following period, in favour of the former, the Elephantine statues are of fair workmanship, with no real inferior quality pieces having been unearthed at the site. On the contrary, sculptures from Abydos show a larger variety in size, quality, and features. The case of the two sites may imply that low-quality sculptures were probably not produced at every centre of sculptural production. The Elephantine artists seem to have served a rather elite group of clients during the Twelfth Dynasty and, in the following period, individuals who were perhaps lesser ranking, but still w r ealthy enotigh to commission good quality sculptures, while the craftsmen of Abydos, the major cult centre of Osiris that attracted pilgrims from all over Egypt, probably satisfied a wider and more differentiated demand. Hence Abydos could be a real centre of the production of small-scale statues. 4,1 In fact, the bulk of the provenanced poor quality statuettes come form Abydos, and many others for which no provenance is documented could also have originated from this place.0 It is also plausible that statuettes manufactured at Abydos, since these were sometimes small figures of less than twenty centimetres, w r ere bought there and transported to another place.' 1 It is thus highly probable that the Budapest statuette, in accordance with the account rendered by Bonifác Platz's dealer, was manufactured at Abydos. Given its uncertain origin, the context of the statuette is not clear. During the Middle Kingdom, statues could be placed in tombs, in or near temples of gods as votive items, or dedicated to deceased ancestors worshipped as local gods2 and deposited in their shrines or tombs. At Abydos statues made of hard stone were placed at the following places: (1) courts within enclosures of temples, 53 (2) the votive zone in the North Cemetery (the so-called "Terrace of the Great God"),'' 4 (3) small shrines built adjacent to tombs of Old Kingdom ancestors in the Middle Cemetery, 55 and (4) burial chambers." 6
