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| Copper Statues Pepy I and his son Merenre |
Plausibly the most famous copper artifacts from the
Old Kingdom are the huge copper statue of King Pepy I (
sixth Dynasty) and the much earlier statue of his son Merenre, both turned up by James Quibell at Hierakonpolis, along with the signal gold image of the god Horus. The statues were made by hammer plates of copper over a woody core. They were found in a poor state of saving and have never taken proper care or scholarly care. Large-scale metal statues from the
Middle and
New Kingdoms are quite great, as hard stone had become the desired medium.
Grave in metal has been little kept from early periods in Egyptian history and as a lead we know little about its manufacture. Copper statues of King Pepy I and his son Merenre from the sixth Dynasty present that metal sculpture existed. These examples, at least, were formed over a awkward core rather than being projected. From the
Third Intermediate Period on there is considerable manifest for the process of lost wax casting in the thousands of close images of deities and sacred animals which abound.
