Group of statues of Pepi and Rascheps

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Group of statues of Pepi and Rascheps
RPM Egypt 030.jpg
material limestone
Dimensions H. 44 cm; W. 27 cm; T. 16 cm;
origin Giza , Necropolis , Mastaba D 23
time Old Kingdom , 5th Dynasty , around 2300 BC Chr.
place Hildesheim , Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum , PM 17

The group of statues of Pepi and Raschepses from the 5th dynasty around 2300 BC. BC belongs to the inventory of the Egyptian collection of the Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim (inventory number 17). It is made of limestone and shows little painting remains. In ancient Egypt, the family was regarded as the most important part of the social fabric and is therefore also reflected in the images and texts of numerous grave decorations. In this family group, the figure of Pepi stands as the largest and dominant in the middle and is therefore the main character.

Site and state of preservation

The group of statues was found during the excavations by Georg Möller and Georg Steindorff in 1905 at the Westfriedhof in Gizeh in the brick mastaba D 23 in grave shaft 5 and found its place in the Pelizaeus Hildesheim collection as part of a finding division. The excavators assumed that the group of statues had their original location in the serdab of the mastaba. However, it has not been proven whether the group of statues even belongs to Mastaba 23. The limestone group of statues of Pepi and the two male figures with the same name Raschepses (also: Ra-schepses) are made from a block of stone. The common base and back plate is only visible between the legs. The group of statues represents the representation in the Old Kingdom that was adopted from the royal to the private sector . The back is severely damaged, mainly affecting the back of the head and the back plate. Furthermore, the woman's right elbow has broken off, as has the man's left forearm. Remnants of his hand can still be seen. The man's left foot has also hit.

The stone surface is partially eaten away by the high salt content (stone corrosion), especially on the body of the man and child. The limestone contains inclusions of iron oxide, which show up, albeit slightly, in yellowish-brown spots and bands. There are traces of yellow color on the legs of the Pepi and remains of reddish-brown color on the legs of the male figures.

presentation

The group of statues is 44 cm high, 27 cm wide and 16 cm deep.

The representation of such family groups served to perpetuate and renew family life. Such groups of figures from the Old Kingdom usually show a fixed distribution of roles due to their different proportions. The man is usually portrayed larger than woman and children. The figures are more rarely shown the same size. This group of statues completely deviates from this, because here the woman Pepi is shown larger than the adult male person. The special importance of women is also underlined by their step position. If, as an exception, women in groups of statues in Egyptian art are shown with a slight step position, this marks them as a high-ranking person.

The names and titles of the persons depicted are shown on the front of the base. The boy Ra-sheepses is referred to as the king's purification priest, the mother Pepi as the person in charge of the king’s affairs, the male person on the left side of Pepi is also referred to as Ra-sheepses, husband or son. It is unusual that the boy is named as a cleaning priest. It could be a mix-up between the two males. However, there are also cases where a person portrayed as a child bears the title of purification priest.

Pepi covers the male person's left shoulder with her left arm. With her right she grabs his right upper arm. She wears a shoulder-length wig parted in the middle, which still shows her own hair on her forehead. Otherwise she only wears a dress that reaches down to the calf. The Pepi's physique is strong, their legs and feet are compact. Her face is rounded, eyes, eyelids, nose and brows are very even. To the left of her is her husband or her grown-up son Ra-schepses, who is shown slightly smaller than her, also in a step position. He wears the short curly wig and holds his arms straight down on his body. The usual stone core is in his fists. He wears an apron with a belt which, due to the poor state of preservation of the stone, does not reveal any further details. The muscles on the upper body, arms and legs are clearly visible. His face is also plump and very well preserved. His two eyes stand on a straight eyelid axis and the eyebrows are framed by a relief line, as with Pepi. This face reflects the enormous artistic quality of the statue from the Old Kingdom. To the right of Pepi stands a naked boy with a young man's lock , reaching up to her chest . He, too, stands in a step position with his left leg forward. He leads his right arm down his body. With his left arm he grips his mother's waist. His face is also round, but the facial features are hardly recognizable due to the destruction of the stone. The boy's muscles are reproduced in a child-friendly manner.

literature

  • Arne Eggebrecht , Bettina Schmitz , Matthias Seidel: The Old Empire. Egypt in the age of the pyramids . von Zabern, Mainz 1986, ISBN 3-8053-0936-8 .
  • Katja Lembke , Martin von Falck, Bettina Schmitz: Ancient Egypt in Hildesheim . Vol. 1: The Old Reich. Egypt from the beginnings to high culture . von Zabern, Mainz 2009, ISBN 978-3-8053-4073-1 .
  • Bettina Schmitz: "Loved by the father, praised by the mother" - On the bourgeois family in ancient Egypt . In: Katja Lembke, Bettina Schmitz (Ed.): Giza. At the foot of the great pyramids . Hirmer, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-7774-3481-0 , pp. 120–127 (book accompanying the exhibition in the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum Hildesheim April 16 - August 21, 2011).

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