157
156
42
diSK idol
Kültepe type
Anatolia, Cappadocia
Early Bronze Age III (ca. 2300–2000 BC)
Gypsum alabaster, H. 26.3 cm,
W. 15.5 cm
Ligabue Collection, Venice
Bibliography:
Ligabue, Rossi-Osmida
2006, pp. 120–121.
This is a good example of disk-shaped
figures from Cappadocia at the end
of the third millennium. At the site of
Kültepe, these figures were deposited
in cultic buildings. Some of them
are double, with two necks on one
body; others, like this one, present a
smaller,
similar disk-figure, enclosed
on their own body. In most cases, the
elongated neck ends in an arrow-
shaped head, enlivened by large
circular eyes, as in the smaller figure
here. Exceptionally, a globular head
is modelled with realistic facial traits,
mouth, ears and nose, the protruding
eyes
retaining the fixed gaze of
the former type. The Ligabue idol
combines both styles. The disk bodies
are finely decorated with rows of
drilled circles and bands in relief. The
lower part of the main figure is now
broken but would probably show a
sexual triangle, which is preserved on
the smaller disk, giving it a feminine,
“mother and child” or pregnancy
character.
This reading is deceptive,
however: the overall contour of the
disk-idols is distinctly phallic; this is
especially evident here in the small
secondary figure, which is placed
where male genitals would be. This
results in a complex combination, a
pregnant, androgynous and ithyphallic
symbol, to be compared, for example,
with the phallic female idols from
Chalcolithic Cyprus.
The emphasis
on the eyes is also a recurrent factor,
encountered in Anatolia and Syria
Mesopotamia.
C.A.
References:
Özgüc 1993; Shoki Goodarzi in
Aruz, Wallenfels 2003, no. 180; Öztürk, 2013.
161
160
Standing feMale figure
WitH croSSed arMS
Egypt, Hierakonpolis, “Main Deposit”,
Temple enclosure
Naqada II – Early Dynastic period
(3300–3000 BC)
Ashmolean Museum of Art and
Archaeology – University of Oxford,
gift Harold Jones (head) AN 1896-1908
E1057-1057 A
(cat. 45, detail)
eGypt, A World ApArt
E
gypt had its own original approach to the development of complex society in
the construction of the state-controlled pharaonic civilization. Visual
media
played a major role in this construction, notably via the depiction of human
figures over the
longue durée.
Anthropomorphic figures of the predynastic period
appeared on large variety of forms and media, clay, stone and ivory figures, painted
vessels, “tag” figurines, combs, stone palettes and mural paintings in tombs.
in the course of the Badari period (ca. 4400–3700 Bc), an enduring tradition began
with three-dimensional nude female figures in realistic fashion. decorated clay ves-
sels of the period, using a white pigment over a dark brown-red background, depicted
groups of human figures interacting with animals, dominated by one individual of
indeterminate sex, his raised arms in a harmonious circle. By the naqada ii period
(3450–3300 Bc), the raised arms motif appears on the
numerous decorated vessels
of the new style, painted dark red on a buff background, centred around Abydos.
the motif is also present on a few, rare clay figures, generally female: two of these
are presented in the show.
these clay figures with raised arms are executed in abbreviated style, one of
the two major visual approaches followed by the naqada ii artists when creating
anthropomorphic figurines, in clay or ivory. the realistic style prolongs the tradition
emerged in the previous period, with numerous male figures in clay, standing on
two differentiated legs, their conspicuous genitals either ithyphallic or maintained
in a sheath. in the abbreviated style statuettes, the legs
are joined into one pointed
element, the lower body is shaped as a long peg, which may have served to plant
the figure in sand or dirt, an indication of how they may have been used. When the
pigments are well preserved, the choice of colours seems to answer to specific rules,
such as the flesh being painted dark red: the red colour would be distinctive of the
male figures in wall paintings in tombs, from the old Kingdom onwards. Body dec-
oration and tattoos are also detailed.
interaction between humans and animals is characteristic of the tomb paintings of
the nagada ii period, the forerunners of the painted tombs of historical egypt. tomb
100 at Hierakonpolis was covered with images of humans attempting to control the
creatures of nature on land and water, an interpretation comforted by the abundant
animal burials at the necropolis of Hierakonpolis.
graywack stone and ivory were used for a number of artefacts displaying all the
characteristics of the naqada ii artists, in both realistic and abbreviated style. the
163
162
delightful “tag” figurines in stone and ivory are conspicuous for their round eyes
carved in a triangular face over a simplified body. ivory was a major medium for
predynastic artists, a material generally taken from the
tusks of local hippopotamus,
an awesome creature of the nile who played a major role in egyptian iconography
at all times. in exceptional cases, the ivory was from elephant tusks, imported from
Africa via the upper nile. control of the routes to and from Africa was to be a con-
stant concern of egyptian rulers in the future. ivory was used to carve a variety of
artefacts and anthropomorphic figures, nude females, ithyphallic statuettes, combs
topped by a human “ghost” silhouette with large eyes, “tusks” figures. these, carved
from either elephant ivory or the straight hippopotamus incisor, were crafted and
transformed
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