Raherka and Meresankh
Unknown · Fifth Dynasty, c. 2545-2413 BC
A husband and wife stand side by side on a small limestone base, and it is the wife, Meresankh, who reaches across to hold her husband by the shoulder. Raherka, an inspector of scribes, stands with arms hanging at his sides in a short curled wig and a kilt with a rounded edge, a broad usekh collar painted across his chest. His skin is the red ochre reserved for men, hers the pale yellow used for women. Look at the tight sheath dress and the shoulder length wig framing her face, and at the traces of turquoise blue in the jewellery. The couple are barely fifty three centimetres high, yet the carving of the faces is exact and individual.
Statues of this kind stood in the tomb chapel so that the couple could receive offerings for eternity. The group was found at Giza in nineteen hundred and two by Montague and bought by the American collector Curtis in nineteen twelve from the dealers Sambon and Hirsch. Mister and Missus Curtis first planned to leave it to the Louvre after their deaths, then gave it during their lifetime in nineteen thirty eight, which is why the statue carries two inventory numbers.
Did You Know? Meresankh's arm around her husband's shoulder is one of the tenderest gestures in Old Kingdom sculpture, and she is the one doing the holding.
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