DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27180#0146
PYRAMID AND TEMPLE
The innovations testify eloquently, as only recognized facts
may, to the change in the autocracy. In the Middle Kingdom
the kings ruled well or ill, conquered, repressed, delivered,
possessed great power, caused themselves to be worshipped;
but that spontaneous dignity and sanctity never returned.
They clothed themselves in this or that title; the hieroglyphs
grew longer and longer. Architecture and sculpture com-
bined with every sort of decorative activity to do them
honour; and thus the king himself learned the art of be-
coming decorative.
The two colossal statues of Sesostris show the king as
Osiris and are therefore clothed once more. This dress was
as ritual as the mantle of Chasechem and Zoser, the so-called
festal mantle. It is no accident that the most brilliant period
of the Old Kingdom has left us so many statues of kings
either naked or wearing only the apron, whereas in the
Middle Kingdom the Osiris statue takes the upper hand. It
was characteristic of this art to use raiment as a means
towards the creation of a style; they were far too intelligent
not to be aware of their weak points, and the cult afforded
them an adequate means of escape. A new scheme was
discovered: the crouching figure, whose whole body from
the neck to the tips of the toes was hidden in a cubic mass of
garments. This discovery, at once ingenious and radical, was
acceptable to the cult, for the great plain-clothed surfaces
made room for countless hieroglyphs. It amounted prac-
tically to a coffining of the body.
Being now concerned merely with the head as it emerged
from its wrappings, the artist was relieved of many difficulties,
but forfeited the ultimate object of his representation. In
this draped kneeling figure, which lasted down to the latest
period, the authorities see a reflection of the geometry of the
pyramid-builders; it seems to me much more like a con-
venient cubism diametrically opposed to the instincts of an
earlier age. The great epoch of geometric building displays
130
The innovations testify eloquently, as only recognized facts
may, to the change in the autocracy. In the Middle Kingdom
the kings ruled well or ill, conquered, repressed, delivered,
possessed great power, caused themselves to be worshipped;
but that spontaneous dignity and sanctity never returned.
They clothed themselves in this or that title; the hieroglyphs
grew longer and longer. Architecture and sculpture com-
bined with every sort of decorative activity to do them
honour; and thus the king himself learned the art of be-
coming decorative.
The two colossal statues of Sesostris show the king as
Osiris and are therefore clothed once more. This dress was
as ritual as the mantle of Chasechem and Zoser, the so-called
festal mantle. It is no accident that the most brilliant period
of the Old Kingdom has left us so many statues of kings
either naked or wearing only the apron, whereas in the
Middle Kingdom the Osiris statue takes the upper hand. It
was characteristic of this art to use raiment as a means
towards the creation of a style; they were far too intelligent
not to be aware of their weak points, and the cult afforded
them an adequate means of escape. A new scheme was
discovered: the crouching figure, whose whole body from
the neck to the tips of the toes was hidden in a cubic mass of
garments. This discovery, at once ingenious and radical, was
acceptable to the cult, for the great plain-clothed surfaces
made room for countless hieroglyphs. It amounted prac-
tically to a coffining of the body.
Being now concerned merely with the head as it emerged
from its wrappings, the artist was relieved of many difficulties,
but forfeited the ultimate object of his representation. In
this draped kneeling figure, which lasted down to the latest
period, the authorities see a reflection of the geometry of the
pyramid-builders; it seems to me much more like a con-
venient cubism diametrically opposed to the instincts of an
earlier age. The great epoch of geometric building displays
130