This paper presents a formal and contextual analysis of the wooden "Statue of an Offering Bearer" (c. 1985 BC), a nearly four-foot-tall carved and painted figure recovered from the Middle Kingdom tomb of Meketre at Deir el-Bahri. The analysis examines the statue's visual composition, materials, painted surface treatment, and sculptural technique before situating the object within its funerary, social, and historical context. Topics discussed include the role of offering bearers in Ancient Egyptian tomb culture, gender conventions in Egyptian artistic representation, and the stylistic characteristics that place this work at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom period.
The work of art considered in this paper is a statue from Ancient Egypt. The statue is large — nearly four feet in height (112.1 cm) — and consists of a female figure standing on a substantial rectangular base. The material used is carved wood treated with gesso, a water-based preparation consisting of glue and gypsum or chalk (Aldred, 1980, p. 24), and elaborately painted. The statue depicts a woman carrying a basket on her head and holding a bird in her right hand.
The figure is upright and slender, with the left leg advanced slightly and the left foot placed a little ahead of the right, giving the impression that she is in the act of taking a step forward. The left arm is raised to steady the basket on the woman's head, while the right arm is held straight downward, in line with the body, where she holds the bird in her right hand. The bird appears to be a duck or some other waterfowl, and is being held by the wings. The woman looks straight ahead, and the basket is centered squarely on top of her head. The basket is trapezoidal in form and contains articles representing cuts of meat (Stevenson Smith, 1958, pp. 92–3).
The carving is delicate and uses careful balancing of mass and form to achieve visual harmony. The shape of the raised left arm is echoed by the form of the bird held in the right hand and visually balanced by the advanced left foot, creating an impression of symmetry and unity. The statue is divided compositionally from top to bottom into three equal portions: from the top of the basket to the level of the breast, from breast to the level of the right hand, and from the hand to the top of the base. The disposition of the figure and her burden across this equidistant structure reinforces the balanced and harmonious nature of the composition. The figure is given movement by the raised arm and extended leg, yet achieves stasis through its innate balance and symmetry.
The statue is made up of smoothly surfaced volumes, with no physical treatment of the surface to represent the texture of hair or fabric. The surface is uniform, showing the marks of the sculptor's chisel but no other treatment. Textures and the differing qualities of the substances represented — the fabric of the clothing, the feathers of the bird, the reeds and wooden frame of the basket, the skin and hair of the woman — are represented by painting alone.
The most immediately striking passage is the woman's colorful clothing. The statue represents a sheath dress of a kind widely worn by women in Ancient Egypt, stretching from just above the ankles to just below the breasts, with wide straps across the breast and shoulders, the whole being tightly fitted around the body (Brier and Hobbs, 1999, p. 123). The woman is also shown wearing a decorative collar and patterned anklets and bracelets. This dress is depicted as expensive and of high quality, with fabric of four colors — red, black, pale blue, and gold — woven in an intricate pattern of scales (perhaps intended to represent feathers) and decorative bands. A silvery gray or white paint is used to represent additional embellishment, giving the whole garment an iridescent quality.
The woman's skin is represented by a light brown pigment, the plainness of which accentuates the rich patterning of the dress. Her hair or wig, formally dressed in the Egyptian manner, is a dark gray-blue in color, echoing the hair color used in representations of deities such as the goddess Isis. The basket is painted to represent reeds in what is presumably a wooden frame, while the items in the basket are individually painted to represent the various articles being carried — mainly cuts of meat. Finally, the bird in the woman's hand is a dark red-brown with strikingly variegated patterns in its feathers, adding a note of vibrancy to the composition.
The arms, base, basket, and bird were made separately and attached to the main body of the sculpture, which appears to have been carved from a single tree trunk or limb (Metropolitan Museum of Art website). The use of wood rather than stone for this statue enables the sculptor to open the space between limbs and body completely and achieve a delicacy in the modeling of the form that would not otherwise be possible, giving a more naturalistic appearance than the heaviness of stone sculpture allows. Overall, the statue is undoubtedly a work of high quality, carved and painted with care and craftsmanship. Despite its great age, it is in good condition, with no significant damage or deterioration.
This statue was found in the tomb of Meketre (also known as Meket-Ra), a prominent royal official of the Middle Kingdom, at Deir el-Bahri (Thebes) on the western bank of the Nile. It was one of a large number of wooden statues representing various scenes of daily Ancient Egyptian life as well as the activities associated with a high-status burial (Aldred, 1980, pp. 114–5; Stevenson Smith, 1958, pp. 92–3). Meketre was chancellor and chief steward of the royal household during the reign of Pharaoh Mentuhotep II. When his tomb was excavated in 1920, the articles recovered were shared among various European and American museums and research institutes, with this statue being added to the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Another very similar and equally large and elaborately painted statue, with bread and beer in the woman's basket, is held in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (Metropolitan Museum of Art website).
"Role of offering bearers in Egyptian afterlife beliefs"
"Women's social position reflected in Egyptian art"
"Middle Kingdom style traits and period placement"
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