LATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXX, REIGN OF NECTANEBO I, 380-362 B.C.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN GREEN GRAYWACKE PORTRAIT HEAD OF THE PHARAOH NECTANEBO I
LATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXX, REIGN OF NECTANEBO I, 380-362 B.C.
Lifesized, with mannered idealizing features including narrow almond-shaped eyes, their outer canthi with extended folds caused by the overlap of the upper and lower lids, the nearly-straight brows plastically modelled and curving at the root of the nose forming a triangle, the thick full lips with drill holes at the corners, the upper lip larger, the filtrum indicated, the chin slightly projecting, wearing an unstriated nemes-headcloth, the tabs in front of the ears preserved, fronted by a symmetrical single-looped uraeus, its body reaching down almost to the edge of the nemes's band
10½ in. (26.6 cm.) high

Provenance

A Gentleman; Christie's, London, 13 December 1988, lot 286a.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York.

Literature

K. Sullivan, Glorious Treasures, Ancient Egypt, London, 1997, p. 82-83.

Lot Essay

Nectanebo I was the founder of Dynasty XXX, the last native family to rule before the Persian and Macedonian conquests. Three heads and a nearly complete colossal statue are preserved, each inscribed, thus securely identified as Nectanebo I. The Harer head is closest in style to the granite bust found at Tell el-Bakleyyah in the Delta, now in the Mansoura storehouse, no. 2a in Josephson, Egyptian Royal Sculpture of the Late Period, 400-246 B.C. Approximately eight other uninscribed heads have been assigned to Nectanebo I, based on similar treatment of the eyes, mouth, and the shallow modelling of the facial features. For a full discussion see Josephson, op. cit.

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