Skip to main content

Colossal alabaster statue of Menkaure

Object(s) photograph: Site: Giza; view: Menkaure pyramid temple

Colossal alabaster statue of Menkaure; head excellently preserved, nose, wig and uraeus broken, traces of painted details on face. Included in restoration: head, left shoulder and part of wig, upper torso with part of upper arm, pieces of back down to top of kilt and belt, lower torso from below waist to below knees including part of throne. [published statue no. 1 = shoulder and body fragments 07-1-70, 07-1-71, 07-1-72, knees 07-1-77, head 07-4-9, left shoulder 07-4-10, body fragment 07-4-13]

Details

  • ID
    MFAB_09.204
  • Department
    Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  • Classification
    Sculpture
  • Findspot
    Menkaure Pyramid Temple ([MPT] GMT)
  • Material
    Travertine (Egyptian alabaster)
  • Dimensions
    Height x width: 235 x 86.5 cm (92 1/2 x 34 1/16 in.)
  • Credit Line
    Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition
  • Object Ownership Information
    MFA
  • Period
    Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, reign of Menkaure
  • Owner
    Menkaure
  • Notes
    This object was excavated by the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, but was not recorded in any object register book. 1907: Excavated by the Harvard University–Museum of Fine Arts Expedition; 1909: assigned to the MFA in the division of finds by the government of Egypt. (Accession Date: May 17, 1909)
  • Remarks
    Registration numbers obtained from publication; no registration records available for 1907.

Tombs and Monuments 1

Published Documents 22

Full Bibliography

  • Arnold, Dieter. "Old Kingdom Statues in their Architectural Setting." In Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999, p. 44.

    Assmann, Jan. "Preservation and Presentation of Self in Ancient Egyptian Portraiture." In Peter Der Manuelian, ed., Studies in Honor of William Kelly Simpson 1. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1996, p. 63, fig. 12.

    Bothmer, Bernard V. "Notes on the Mycerinus Triad." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 48, No. 271 (February 1950), p.12, fig. 3.

    Corteggiani, Jean-Pierre. Les Grandes Pyramides: Chronique d'un mythe. Paris: Gallimard, 2006, p. 56.

    Cwiek, Andrzej. Relief Decoration in the Royal Funerary Complexes of the Old Kingdom: Studies in the Development, Scene Content and Iconography. Warsaw: Institute of Archaeology, Faculty of History, Warsaw University, 2003, pp. 106, 318.

    Dunham, Dows. "Successive Installations of a Statue of King Mycerinus." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 33, No. 196 (1935), pp. 21-25.

    Dunham, Dows. "Portraiture in Ancient Egypt." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 41, No. 246 (December 1943), pp. 70, 72, fig. 6.

    Dunham, Dows. The Egyptian Department and its Excavations. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1958, pp. 34-35, fig. 19.

    Flentye, Laurel. "The Development of Art in the Eastern and GIS Cemeteries at Giza during the Fourth Dynasty: Iconography and Style." In Jean-Claude Goyon and Christine Cardin, eds. Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Egyptologists, Grenoble, 6-12 septembre 2004, vol. I. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 150. Leuven: Uitgeveru Peeters en Departement Oosterse Studies, 2007, p. 733.

    Freed, Rita E., Lawrence M. Berman, and Denise M. Doxey. Arts of Ancient Egypt. MFA Highlights. Boston: MFA Publications, 2003, pp. 80-81.

    Friedman, Florence Dunn. "The Menkaure Dyad(s)." In Stephen E. Thompson and Peter Der Manuelian, eds. Egypt and Beyond: Essays Presented to Leonard H. Lesko upon his Retirement from the Wilbour Chair of Egyptology at Brown University June 2005. Providence: Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies, 2008, p. 123, note 55.

    Greer, Thomas H., and Gavin Lewis. A Brief History of the Western World. 6th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1992 [to be completed].

    Hawass, Zahi. "A Statue of Menkaure Found in Luxor." In Eva-Maria Engel, Vera Müller & Ulrich Hartung, eds. Zeichen aus dem Sand. Streiflichter aus Ägyptens Geschichte zu Ehren von Günter Dreyer. MENES 5. Wiesbaden: Harassowitz Verlag, 2008, pp. 216-217.

    Lacovara, Peter and C. Nicholas Reeves. "The Colossal Statue of Mycerinus Reconsidered." Revue d'Égyptologie 38 (1987), pp. 111-15.

    Manuelian, Peter Der. "Excavating the Old Kingdom. The Giza Necropolis and Other Mastaba Fields." In Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999, p. 145.

    Manuelian, Peter Der. "A Race against Time in the Shadow of the Pyramids. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Giza Necropolis, 1902-1990." KMT 1, No. 4 (1990-91), pp. 15, 17.

    Markowitz, Yvonne J., Joyce L. Haynes, and Rita E. Freed. Egypt in the Age of the Pyramids: Highlights from the Harvard University–Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Expedition. Boston: MFA Publications, 2002, p. 37, fig. 24.

    Pijoán, José, and Manuel B. Cossío. El Arte Egipcio: Hasta La Conquista Romana. Summa Artis, Historia General Del Arte 3. 3. ed. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1950, p. 110, fig. 140.

    Reisner, George A. "The Harvard-University-Museum of Fine Arts Egyptian Expedition." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 9, No. 50 (1911): 14-15, 17, unnumbered figs.

    Reisner, George A. Mycerinus: The Temples of the Third Pyramid at Giza. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931, pp. 18, 22, 23, 108, pls. 12-16a.

    Saleh, Abdel-Aziz. "Excavations Around Mycerinus Pyramid Complex." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 30 (1974), p. 138, note 5.

    Sanborn, Ashton. "New Installation of Egyptian Sculpture." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 23, No. 140 (December 1925), p. 72.

    Smith, William Stevenson. "Old Kingdom Sculpture." American Journal of Archaeology 45 (1941), pp. 514-28.

    Smith, William Stevenson. Ancient Egypt as Represented in the Museum of Fine Arts. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1942 [to be completed].

    Smith, William Stevenson. Ancient Egypt as Represented in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1960 (6th ed.), pp. 46, 49, fig. 24.

    Smith, William Stevenson. A History of Egyptian Sculpture and Painting in the Old Kingdom. London: Oxford University Press, 1946 [to be completed].

    Smith, William Stevenson. "Old Kingdom Sculpture." American Journal of Archaeology 45 (1941), p. 522-523, fig. 3.

    Unsigned. "The Dawn of Civilization in Egypt: Tracing the Culture of the Egyptians nearly to the Stone Age--Mummies Not of Ancient Origin--The Secret of the Sphinx Revealed." Science Conspectus 2, No. 3 (February 1912), p. 77, unnumbered figure on p. 74.

    Vandersleyen, Claude. Das Alte Ägypten. Propyläen Kunstgeschichte 15. Berlin: Propyläen Verlag, 1975, pl. 131b.

    Wood, Wendy. "A Reconstruction of the Triads of King Mycerinus." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 60 (1974), p. 93.

People 1

Ancient People

  • Menkaure

    • Type Owner
    • Remarks Fifth king of Dynasty 4. Son of Khafre. Husband of Khamerernebti II. Builder of the Third Pyramid at Giza. Known two thousand years later by the Greeks as King Mycerinus.