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Details
LOT 0016
Monumental Levantine-Egyptian Stone Head of a Pharaoh
PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, 332-30 B.C. OR LATER
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.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
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 then 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).
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LOT 0016
Monumental Levantine-Egyptian Stone Head of a Pharaoh
Sold for (Inc. bp): £46,800
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