LATE PERIOD, 28TH DYNASTY TO EARLY PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 404-246 B.C.

Confidently sculpted in gray granite flecked with white inclusions, this idealized head of a man wearing a large bag wig generally follows conventions established for official portraiture during the archaizing Saite period. An uninscribed back pillar extends most of the way up the back of the voluminous, rounded wig. Although the almond-shaped buttonhole eyes, naturalistic brows, and slight smile are attested in sculpture dating to the second Persian period of domination (see the figure in the Brooklyn Museum, pl. 1b in J. A. Josephson, Egyptian Royal Sculpture of the Late Period), these features also occur in Egyptian royal portraits of Nectanebo II of Dynasty 30 and during the reigns of the first two Ptolemies, perhaps indicating a later date for the portrait of this unknown official (for aspects of early Ptolemaic royal portraits see P. E. Stanwyck, Portraits of the Ptolemies: Greek Kings as Egyptian Pharaohs, pp. 55-65).

A careful stylistic reconsideration of non-royal sculpture of the Late Period has generally led to later dating of many well-known examples (see J.A. Josephson, “Egyptian Sculpture of the Late Period Revisited,” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, vol. 34, pp. 1-20). Meanwhile, close study of the inscriptions of statues of officials displaying facial features and wigs similar to this granite head has confirmed dating into Dynasty 30 and the early Ptolemaic period for many works previously held to be of earlier date (see the examples in The British Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, pp. 95-134 in D. Klotz, "“The Theban Cult of Khonsu the Child in the Ptolemaic Period,” in C. Thiers, ed., Documents de Théologies Thébaines Tardives).