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Details
LOT 0028
Egyptian Bronze Figure of Harpocrates
LATE PERIOD, 664-332 B.C.
7 1/4 in. (584 grams, 18.5 cm).
Seated nude statuette of Harpocrates, with legs together and left arm by his side, right arm bent across the chest with forefinger raised to his lips, wearing a nemes headdress with uraeus on the front and a bold sidelock on the right side, surmounted by an elaborate hem-hem crown consisting of three conical atef crowns each topped with a sun disc, with an ostrich plume to the side of the outermost, and flanked by two uraei with sun discs, all supported on two horizontal ram's horns; semi-naturalistic anatomical detailing; feet resting on an integral square plinth, mounted on a wooden stand.
Provenance
Ex pre-war collection, Switzerland.
Private collection, Europe.
Accompanied by a copy of an Art Loss Register certificate no.S00075707.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12371-226682.
Literature
Cf. Roeder, G., Ägyptische Bronzefiguren II, Berlin, 1956, pl. 21c-d, for a similar example.
Footnotes
Harpocrates is the Greek rendering of the Egyptian Hor-pa-khered, which translates as 'Horus the Child'. This refers to Horus as the divine infant of Isis and Osiris. Statuettes of Harpocrates could provide the dedicator with the same protection that Isis gave her beloved son.
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