Pair Statue of Nebsen and Nebet-ta, Egypt ca. 1400-1352 B.C.E. Limestone, pigment, Brooklyn Museum ,New York, USA. To express the physical and spiritual bond between two individuals, sculptors devised a form called the pair statue. The most common variety showed the subjectsâa husband and wife, a mother and child, or a king and a divinity, for exampleâseated together on a chair or bench. The earliest documented examples date to the reign of King Djoser in the Third Dynasty (circa 2675â2625 B.C.E.).This New Kingdom pair statue represents a married couple. The inscription tells us that the man is Nebsen, a scribe in the royal treasury, and the woman is Nebet-ta, a singer in the temple of the goddess Isis. They each pass one arm behind the other, a symbol of closeness. In order to convey this sentiment and to create a harmonious design, the sculptor extended the arms to unnatural lengths.
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