Statue of Khafre

Some Comparison to Other Works of the Time

The figure of the Khafre statue is solid with the stone polished smooth. Some of the details are simple: the texture of his skirt and headdress are shown by a series of horizontal lines. Horus's feathers are shown as lines cut into the stone. Khafre's face has more details, his ears and face show various indentations and lines that are very naturalistic. The forms of both faces (man and bird) are accurate in proportion and their bodies are realistic when compared to other art of the time period. Looking at the votive statues of the Near East, Khafre is a full leap and bound ahead in accuracy of proportion. Even when compared to other Egyptian statues, like "Menkaure and a Queen", one can see that the Khafre piece shows more muscle definition and the feet seem more solidly placed.

Some Context for History and Meaning

The statue was commissioned by the pharaoh. Portraits were one way Egyptian rulers expressed power, hence the bigger and more numerous the better. Khafre is also the face on the great Sphinx sitting in front of his pyramid at Giza. Statues don't get much bigger than the Sphinx with a length of longer than one hundred feet. This statue, of Khafre with Horus, is five feet high, much smaller but still larger than life for a seated figure. The pharaoh is shown seated in a typical male pose for the Egyptian era of art. This means he is portrayed as fit, siting with perfect posture and with a fist clenched (female statues typically have the hand laid flat). According to the Brooklyn Museum of Art, sitting figures were also a symbol of prestige. The Egyptian words for "wealth" and for "nobility" are drawn showing a subject seated on a chair. He wears the typical Pharaoh headdress and beard accessory showing his status. The entire statue is made of anorthosite gneiss, a type of stone that would have been imported from Nubia. In the sunlight, the statue would have glowed and radiated a dark blue.

Some Psychology Behind the Work

Pharaohs were seen as gods walking among men. This opinion was stronger still in old kingdom and in Khafre's lifetime. A pharaoh was considered a living vessel of the god Horus. Horus is the son of Osiris (god of the afterlife) and Isis. The statue shows Horus in a small falcon form wrapped around the back of Khafre's neck, like a sort of spirit extension. The coffin texts, a set of funerary spells from the end of the Old Kingdom, holds the quote about Horus, " I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name... No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of 'Red Cloak'." Hence, Horus is quite a force to be reckoned with and an insight into the psychology of the ancient pharaohs. They were people expected to be unique, powerful, and ardently vengeful upon their enemies.

The legs of Khafre's throne are made of standing lions. Then, as now, the lion is symbolic of great authority and nobility. Carved into the base of the throne are flowers of papyrus and lotus. These plants together represent unity to the Egyptian mindset. It specifically relates to a king that rules both upper (lotus) and lower (papyrus) Egypt. Hence a pharaoh was to be a noble ruler who held the unity of the land under his supervision.

Sources:

Bayuk, Andrew. Gaurdian's Sphinx. In guardians.net . Retrieved Sept 2011, from

Encyclopedia of Art. Sculpture of Ancient Egypt. In Visual-Arts-Cork.com. Retrieved Sept 2011, from

Cass, Stephanie (2004). Horus. In Encyclopedia Mythica. Retrieved Sept. 30 ^th 2011, from

Brooklyn Mueseum of Art (n.d.). Striking Poses. In brooklynmuseum.org. Retrieved Sept 30 ^th 2011, from

Stokstad, Marilyn (2008). Art History: Volume One. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall

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