Exceptionally, this conference will be held on a Tuesday.
Abstract
Here, despite the almost total loss of architectural structures, the remains of this temple have revealed the presence of abundant royal and divine statuary of various types and materials, testifying to the richness of the temple's statuary and the high artistic quality and technical virtuosity of the official sculpture.
Inventory of temple statuary
Distinctive types in the repertoire:
- colossal statues of extraordinary size of the seated king, at the entrance to the pylons and, beyond that, smaller statues in front of the peristyle and hypostyle doors.
- colossal statues in red granite and quartzite surrounding the peristyle courtyard, depicting the king standing, feet together and hands crossed over his chest, in the manner of Osiris, but not mummiform.
- colossal statues of the king walking, at the north gate of the temple enclosure.
- divine statues of various types and materials: anthropomorphic, zoomorphic or animal-headed divinities. Hundreds of statues of the leontocephalic goddess Sekhmet, depicted seated or standing, statuary groups found replaced in surrounding temples, featuring Amenhotep III in the company of deities; effigies of hierocephalic gods such as Sokar in Egyptian alabaster, Nekhen souls in granodiorite; androcephalic sphinxes bearing the effigy of the king and queen in quartzite and two gigantic androsphinxes in soft limestone, a sphinx with a crocodile tail, a monumental statue of the hippopotamus goddess in alabaster.
Small statuary
Among the heaps of colossal fragments are the remains of smaller statues: royal heads in red granite, schist (grauwacke) or hard limestone; a falcon's head.
Pairs of colossi at the pylon gates
Special attention to the pairs of colossi representing the seated king at the pylon gates reveals the exceptional qualities of these gigantic sculptures, admiring the technical prowess of the stone quarrymen and transporters, and the ingenuity of the sculptors and official artists.
- The first pair of colossi on the 1st pylon is made of quartzite, quarried at Gebel el-Ahmar near Cairo, the only one left standing after the earthquakes and debris flows - known today under the generic name of the Colossi of Memnon.
- The second pair, in quartzite, was found fragmented in front of the IInd Pylon and reassembled by the Colossi of Memnon mission from hundreds of scattered pieces.
- The third pair, exceptionally, is in alabaster from the Hatnoub quarries; found lying, half-submerged, in front of the IIIrd pylon, where, having fully documented, grouped and treated the scattered pieces, our mission is preparing to reassemble them in their original place.
Examination of the statues of queens that accompany these colossi offers us a glimpse into the evolution of iconography, while also reserving a few pleasant surprises.
