Saturday, October 15
3:30 pm EST
Penn Museum, Anthro Classroom 345
In-person; no registration required

Speaker: Dr. Valentina Anselmi, PhD, UPenn

Title: The Second Style at Saqqara during the Late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period: Results of an Investigation and New Observations

Abstract:
In the late Old Kingdom, an unusual corpus of artistic production, royal and non-royal, appeared on the scene. Funerary statuary and reliefs from that time display atypical proportions when depicting aspects of the human form: limbs appear longer, eyes and heads seem larger. Overall, these changes, which appear to distort traditional canons, exude pervasive dynamism and expressiveness. In the past, art historians and Egyptologists dismissed the phenomenon as “bad art” resulting from political decentralization and cultural decline. Then two scholars in particular, Edna Russmann and Edward Brovarski, reevaluated these artistic productions, assessing them as voluntary innovations. Such manner of representation has been called the “Second Style.” The research for my dissertation set out to review the phenomenon in theoretical terms and determined its existence, assessing and verifying known occurrences of the style in statuary and relief at Saqqara, as well as surveying the archaeological context for unreported occurrences. The finds revealed an early onset of the style with diffused use of its idiosyncratic elements during the Fifth Dynasty, which seemingly emerged in the royal workshops as early as the reign of Raneferef, per Prakash’s previous assessment of the phenomenon in the royal realm. During the Sixth Dynasty, the style found favor with the courtiers, with its employment in private statuary reaching its peak during the reign of Pepy II. The Second Style then continued to exert its influence on the production of statuary and relief of the Middle and Upper Egyptian sites, in particular during the First Intermediate Period and well into the early Middle Kingdom, when the artistic representations of the upcoming Theban dynasty show some of the style characteristics. This lecture will cover the finds of my research, which has further extended to investigating female representation during the same time period, as well as the appearance of nude statues that is also associated with the Late Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period.

Speaker Bio:
Dr. Valentina Anselmi is a recent PhD in the Graduate Program in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Her dissertation, An Investigation of the So-Called Second Style at Saqqara in the Later Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period, examines shifts in artistic conventions during a critical time in ancient Egyptian history. With an M.Phil. in Egyptology from Penn and a B.A. from the American University in Cairo, she has also received the Felix J. Korsyn Prize in Egyptology. Her teaching experience includes courses on Art and Architecture in Ancient Egypt and Coptic. Her research and public engagement work include fieldwork at Abydos, a recently published article on a Ka-statue at the Glencairn Museum, and ongoing museum experience at the Penn Museum. Her work has also explored the use of 3D imagining to better understand the nature of Egyptian art.

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Lectures are FREE to ARCE Members, $7 for University of Pennsylvania Museum Members and UPenn Staff and Faculty, $5 for Students with ID, and $10 for the general public.
Light refreshments served starting at 3pm.

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The American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1948 by a consortium of educational and cultural institutions to support research on all aspects of Egyptian history and culture, foster broader knowledge among the general public, and strengthen American-Egyptian cultural ties. The ARCE Pennsylvania Chapter (ARCE-PA) is the local branch of the national institution. We host monthly events including scholarly lectures, Egyptian-themed workshops, social events, and guided tours of the Penn Museum’s Egyptian galleries. For more information or to learn about the perks of membership, please send an e-mail to info@arce-pa.org, or visit our website at www.arce-pa.org.