Practice makes perfect
Sculptor's Models: the Study of the Type and Function of a Group of Ancient Egyptian Artefacts, Nadya Samir Tomoum, trans. Brenda Siller, Cairo: SCA Press, 2005. pp265
This solid publication, both in terms of production and of content, is a valuable research tool on a fascinating subject. Originally begun as a dissertation for a doctoral degree in Egyptology, this work of in- depth research on an important and little-known subject, the group of tiny objects, known collectively as "sculptors' models," is so insightful and interesting that the Supreme Council of Antiquities has decided to sponsor its publication.
Ancient Egyptian ateliers ("house of craftsmen" British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie called them) were places where professional sculptors trained apprentices, in the Late and Ptolemaic periods, in the strongly-traditional art of earlier times. Most of the pieces are fairly small. They measure an average of 10 to 30cms in size and range from individual figures, or parts of full figures, to architectural elements like composite capitals and columns. The animals include bulls, lions, rams, falcons and owls. The edges of both sculptures in the round and relief plaques are usually carefully smoothed, indicating that that was how they were meant to be.
For a long time, for over a century and a half in fact, professional Egyptologists have been pressing for a critical analysis of the available knowledge on these "models" and Tomoum's study -- in which the objects are analysed with regard to archaeology, art history, iconography and style, as well as artistic techniques and epigraphy -- provides this. What is more, by including chapters on "The Sculptors' Work Process," "Tools, Materials and Methods of Working." and "The Question of the Existence of Pattern Books," she covers subjects of great interest to the lay reader, who may often wonder at the continuity of Ancient Egyptian art over thousands of years.
In my early years in Egypt when there was less control of archaeological sites then there is today, I would often pick up a small piece of stone, half carved, at Saqqara, and my professor Abdel-Moneim Abu Bakr, would dismiss it as "a trial piece," wishing to show me details of "the real thing" instead. Less frequently, I might spot a miniature carving of a bull or a hawk on a square piece of stone in a museum, part of a torso, a leg, or a foot, and wonder at its purpose. The answer was sometimes "a votive offering," on occasion "an unfinished piece." Only rarely were they described as what in fact they are: pieces of art carefully prepared for instructional purposes.
On one occasion, while in Luxor, I was taken to the back of a shop where forgers were hard at work. Among their works was a small and beautifully carved head of the lion goddess Sekhmet, another of the hawk-headed Horus. I thought they were copies of wall reliefs. But were they in fact copies of practice pieces made by ancient students?
Tomoum examines two conflicting theories on these so- called sculptors' models. The most widely-held view is that they served a functional purpose, as demonstration objects in workshops, prepared by master sculptors under whose guidance the apprentices made their practice pieces. On some of the genuine originals it is possible to recognise faint or clear traces of the tools used to guide lines, or sketched outlines of figures to indicate the correct proportions while sculpting.
However, the American art historian Bernard Bothmer has questioned their practical use, and, based on the locations (in temple precincts) of some of the small-sized stone slabs bearing reliefs, has concluded that they were tokens of faith that a worshipper offered to his god.
A few scholars have agreed with him that in the context of religious cults some small objects might have been given to kings or gods as votive offerings. Others have claimed that, although primarily for practical use, the objects could have had a religious significance. Most early researchers, however, have tended to favour, as they still do today, the now 150-year-old theory, arguing that the 2,000-odd specimens of this group of artefacts are indeed sculptors' models.
The objects fall into six main groups: Busts, heads and faces (or parts of faces) in the round, parts of the human body, animals, architectural elements, and sculptors' models and students' practice pieces with inscriptions. By making small-size trial pieces of this kind, students could learn the "tricks of the trade," so to speak. They could practice each technical step until they knew by heart how to fashion sculptures according to the prescribed style.
"The experienced sculptors did not -- as has been presumed until now -- use the models as to-scale- models or patterns to be copied by transferring their proportions and shapes on to a large scale for certain commissions," Tomoum writes. "The canonized system of proportions (square grid) always set the same points for the height and width of the figure to be worked. Thus, the system of guide lines and outlines of the figures would be drawn directly on the surface of the work block, or the wall of a temple or tomb."
As for the inscriptions on the pieces, the author is of the opinion that the artists themselves wrote on the objects they made, and for various reasons. "The texts on the practice pieces written after completion had nothing to do with the piece itself," she writes.
There are so many books on Egyptology on the market, mostly glossy coffee-table publications with hard bindings and shiny covers, on specific eras of ancient history, or on specialised subjects such as mummies, architecture, statuary, and mortuary temples, that this new publication might be overlooked.
Certainly its unwieldy title, followed by an equally lengthy sub-title, "A Study of the Type and Function of a Group of Ancient Egyptian Artefacts," is hardly likely to catch the eye in a bookshop, especially as the size of the royal image that adorns the cover is not indicated: it could be a monolith rather than the tiny trial piece that in fact it is. It would have been better to photograph the piece in a person's hand for scale.
Nevertheless, this publication, with its original and interesting text and illustrated throughout with quality photographs of a large number of pieces, from various angles, in museums and institutes in Cairo, Munich, Hanover, and Berlin, deserves exposure. Sculptor's Models is an easily accessible book and a visual delight, describing a little-known aspect of Ancient Egyptian art.
By Jill Kamil
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