Colossal Statue of Ramesses II (Object in Focus) - Softcover

Garnett, Anna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0714151092 ISBN 13: 9780714151090

Publisher: British Museum, 2015

Synopsis

Ramesses II, King of Egypt (1279–1213 BC) ascended the throne as the third king of the Nineteenth Dynasty at the age of twenty-five. In his sixty-seven year reign he probably built more temples and sired more children than any other Egyptian king. Today, he is popularly known as Ramesses 'the great'.
One of the largest pieces of Egyptian sculpture in the British Museum, the upper part of the colossal statue of Ramesses II, also known as the ‘Younger Memnon’, was perhaps the first piece of Egyptian sculpture to be recognized as a work of art by connoisseurs, who traditionally judged things by the standards of ancient Greek art. Weighing 7.25 tons, this fragment of his statue was cut from a single block of two-coloured granite, and shows Ramesses wearing the nemes headdress surmounted by a cobra diadem.
The statue was retrieved from the mortuary temple of Ramesses at Thebes (the 'Ramesseum') by Giovanni Belzoni in 1816. Belzoni wrote a fascinating account of his struggle to remove it, both literally, given its colossal size, and politically. After its arrival in England and its acquisition, the Colossal Statue of Ramesses was to become among the most famous objects in the British Museum’s Egyptian collection and is of significant historical interest.
Beautifully illustrated with photographs of the statue and contextual images, and including archival material relating to the British Museum’s acquisition, this book tells the story of this magnificent artifact, discussing alongside the draw of colossal Egyptian sculpture, the history of the reign of Ramesses II and the nature of the statue’s acquisition.

Table of Contents

1. The ‘Younger Memnon’: introduction to the statue and the reign of Ramesses and his ambitious building programme
2. ‘Living images: the power and purpose of colossal sculpture
3. ‘Ruler of rulers’: Constructing the colossus, including stone quarrying and transportation, and stone-working tools
4. A monumental challenge: the imperial context of the statue’s removal from Egypt and its acquisition by the British Museum Legacy: exhibiting the statue, P.B. Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’, its influence on Egyptomania and attitudes to Egypt and Egyptian
art, links with the Bible and Exodus
Further reading

About this title

About the Author

Anna Garnett is Assistant Project Curator in Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum. Her research interests include ceramics from New Kingdom Egyptian sites in Nubia, Egyptian royal sculpture and colossal statuary and New Kingdom religious architecture. She is currently working on the Amara West Project where her responsibilities include the study and publication of the ceramics excavated from the New Kingdom town at Amara West as part of an on-going British Museum fieldwork project.

Edition details

• Publisher: British Museum
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0714151092
• ISBN 13: 9780714151090
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 64