PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN GRANITE HEAD OF A MAN
Ptolemaic Period, Circa 2nd-1st Century B.C.
The idealized face highly polished, with sharply-defined curving brows, the pronounced convex eyes with heavy upper lids and distinct sunken pouches below the lower lids, with a slender nose and a small mouth with full lips, the filtrum indicated, the roughly textured hair a series of chiseled tight curls, the uninscribed trapezoidal back pillar terminating at the back of the head
6 in. (15.3 cm.) high

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 4 June 1998, lot 70.

Lot Essay

This head is characteristic of a small group of sculptures from the later Ptolemaic period that seem to combine native Egyptian and Greek elements. The presence of the back pillar is purely Egyptian, so too the preference for hard stone; the coiffure is more in keeping with Greek taste. Typical of these heads is the highly polished surface of the face, which reveals the natural (in this case black) color of the stone, in contrast with the textured surface of the hair, which appears gray. For the type compare the black diorite head in the Walters Art Gallery, no. 120 in Bothmer, Egyptian Sculpture of the Late Period. The finest example of this type is the Brooklyn 'Black Head,' no. 132 in the same publication.

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