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

Details

AN EGYPTIAN GRANODIORITE TORSO OF A STRIDING OFFICIAL
LATE PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.
11 ¾ in. (29.8 cm.) high

Provenance

Aegyptische Kunst, Auktion 59, Münzen & Medaillen, Basel, 16 June 1981, lot 119.
Ernst (1899-1989) and Marthe (1918-1999) Kofler-Truniger, Lucerne.
with L'Ibis Gallery, New York.
Antiquities, Sotheby’s, New York, 17 December 1992, lot 42.
Antiquities, Sotheby’s, New York, 14 December 1993, lot 173.
Antiquities, Christie’s, New York, 30 May 1997, lot 50.

Literature

J. Malek, et al., Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings, vol. VIII, pt. 2, Oxford, 1999, p. 950, no. 801-791-295.

Conditions of sale

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Hannah Fox Solomon Head of Department, Specialist

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Lot Essay

Sculpted in finely-polished granodiorite, the official is depicted wearing a short-sleeved, round-necked garment decorated with a stripe on each sleeve, a wrap-around skirt with dentate borders, and a serrated shawl draped asymmetrically around the body and held in place by his left hand positioned across his body. The name of the official for whom this statue was commissioned is not preserved, since the inscription on the back-pillar was intentionally erased in antiquity. For a statue of Pakhom, Governor of Dendera, displaying a similar arrangement of garments, see the figure in The Detroit Institute of Arts, no. 32 in R.S. Bianchi, et al., Cleopatra’s Egypt, Age of the Ptolemies. A nearly identical torso was excavated in the Iseum Campense in Rome in 1987 (see no. 347 in S. Walker and P. Higgs, Cleopatra of Egypt, from History to Myth).

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