Details

LOT 0014

Monumental Egyptian Stone Head of a Pharaoh

PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, 332-30 B.C.

17 in. (45.15 kg, 43 cm).

An over-life-size head of a pharaoh, likely from a monumental sphinx, wearing the royal nemes headdress with a prominent headband and the remains of a rearing uraeus on the brow with a single coil of the body on either side of the cobra’s hood, its tail extending towards the back of the headdress; the large, almond-shaped eyes prominently outlined, and unlike on some portraits, the cosmetic lines do not extend beyond the outer corner; the fragmentary nose almost spanning the width of the small mouth modelled with straight and somewhat pursed lips; mounted on a custom-made display stand.

Provenance

Private collection, Germany, 1975.
European collection, 1980s-late 1990s.
By descent from the above to the present owner.

Accompanied by an academic report by Egyptologist Paul Whelan.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12201-218142.

Literature

Cf. Stanwick, P., Portraits of the Ptolemies: Greek Kings as Egyptian Pharaohs, Austin, 2002, pp. 67, 103 Cat. A27, for similar.

Footnotes

The presence of tool marks around the neck and sides of the head, contrasting the smooth surface of the face and front part of the headdress, suggests that the sculpture is an unfinished piece. The noticeably heavy brow line is a feature of the 30th Dynasty style, which influenced Ptolemaic royal portraiture (cf. Tomoum, N., The Sculptors' Models of the Late and Ptolemaic Periods, Cairo, 2006, pl.17, for a finished portrait assigned to the 30th Dynasty).

The distinctive features of the head are reminiscent of a granite sphinx head discovered at the Egyptian Delta site of Canopus, now housed in the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria. Two additional heads, one also from the Canopus region, exhibit similar traits, hinting that this style may be indicative of the artistic output of this Delta region.