King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and queen

0:05Dr. Steven Zucker: We're in the Egyptian Galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, looking at one of their most celebrated sculptures. This is a dyad, that is, it's a sculpture of two standing figures. We know the identity of one of them, a prominent king from the Old Kingdom, King Menkaure, and a female figure that is thought now to be the king's mother. Dr. Beth Harris: More than a hundred years ago, the MFA and Harvard University were involved in a joint archaeological expedition on the Giza Plateau.

0:37The Giza Plateau is most famous as the site for the three Great Pyramids. Dr. Steven Zucker: And in fact, the smallest of the three primary pyramids was the burial place for King Menkaure. Dr. Beth Harris: The pyramids were not standalone structures, they were surrounded by subsidiary pyramids.

0:52There was also a temple at the base of the pyramid and a temple further away, connected by a causeway called the Valley Temple. Dr. Steven Zucker: On January 10th in 1910, an amazing cache of sculptures were uncovered, including this dyad. And it's important to understand that because the temples were so prominent, they had for thousands of years been the target of looting. And in fact, we know that this sculpture was not in its original location, but it is our good fortune that the sculpture was left. Dr. Beth Harris: We think that the sculptures were placed in niches in the Valley Temple, and because the left feet are forward, they might have appeared as though they were moving out of the niche.

1:31Dr. Steven Zucker: We know that the sculpture was placed in the Valley Temple, but curiously, even though the sculpture was painted, its carving was never completed. Dr. Beth Harris: Menkaure died before his funerary complex was completed. Dr. Steven Zucker: If you look very carefully, you'll notice that Menkaure is not actually looking straight ahead, that the king is instead looking very slightly to his right, whereas the woman beside him, who holds both his arm and his waist, is looking straight ahead. And this is one piece of evidence that has suggested that the king may not be the central focus of this dyad, that in fact, it may be the female figure. Dr. Beth Harris: While it's really common

2:09for pharaohs to have their left feet forward, it's not at all common for the female figure. And so this unusual feature makes us wonder who this figure could be. Dr. Steven Zucker: But there have been compelling arguments suggesting that this could be either the goddess Hathor or the king's mother, or even more compellingly, this is the king's mother with attributes of Hathor that is embodying the goddess Hathor.

2:33Dr. Beth Harris: Hathor was an important goddess who was worshipped on the Giza Plateau. Dr. Steven Zucker: And one of her roles was the protection of the king. Dr. Beth Harris: So I find this sculpture so interesting because in so many ways, it seems so real. This very naturalistic treatment of areas of the body, for example, the musculature in the chest and the rib cage, or the beautiful carving around the female figure's abdomen.

2:58But we also have a real sense that these figures are idealized. They're made perfect. The pharaoh unlikely had a body as perfectly athletic and in such beautiful proportions as to what we see here. And so we know that although these figures have some sense of portraiture, some sense of being individualized, they've also been perfected. They also adhere to a standard of idealized figures that remove them from this world.

3:29Dr. Steven Zucker: I would also add that their facial features have a kind of individualized quality to them. The high cheekbones, a little bit of a pout on the lip of the king, the fleshiness of the cheeks of the female figure. And actually, we can just make out under her wig, a representation of her natural hair. Dr. Beth Harris: And then there's this way that they're part of the stone that's behind them. And so they move their left leg forward, but they also are quite immobile at the same time. Dr. Steven Zucker: One of the ways that we know that the figures are unfinished is because of the series of absences. In every representation that we know of, of the king's headdress, there is a cobra that emerges from the

4:12far head. There isn't even here a hole to attach a cobra. The headdress itself is always decorated with horizontal striping, and that's absent here. The kilt is also incised, and that's absent here. There is the potential that some of this was represented in paint, and in fact, there are traces of red that can be seen clearly on the king's ears, and apparently some yellow, which I'm having a hard time seeing, on the face of the female figure.

4:37And it was common for even stone of very high quality like this, greywacke, otherwise known as schist, to be painted, which would have helped make it more visible in the shadows of the temple. Dr. Beth Harris: We can see the unfinished nature of the sculpture when we look at the female figure's feet, where we see the act of carving. But then as our eye gazes up the sculpture, we find these very subtly modeled forms in this shining, smooth, grey stone, and it's really impressive to come across this in the galleries. Dr. Steven Zucker: 4,500 years collapsed, bringing the ritual and beauty of this ancient Egyptian culture into our world.