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A GRAECO-EGYPTIAN TERRACOTTA GROTESQUE FIGURE OF A 'PYGMY HARPOCRATES' RIDING A FROG

CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C./A.D.

Details

A GRAECO-EGYPTIAN TERRACOTTA GROTESQUE FIGURE OF A 'PYGMY HARPOCRATES' RIDING A FROG
CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C./A.D.
The nude pygmy phallic god sitting astride a giant frog which is jumping out of the water, his head thrown back with mouth open, he wears an elaborate headdress with pschent feathers on top, carrying an amphora(?) in his left arm, right arm missing, the background modelled to represent rippling water with remains of green painted gesso, traces of pink painted gesso on the body, circular vent at back
5 in. (12.8 cm.) high

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No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Harpocrates on the frog-goddess Heqat appears on two terracottas in the Fouquet collection, cf. P. Perdrizet, Les Terres Cuites Grecques d'Égypte de la Collection Fouquet, Nancy-Paris-Strasbourg, 1921, pl. XXIX, p. 35, no. 107, and p. 135, no. 360. Heqat presided at the birth of the world and at the birth of each child. The large phallus and the reproductive feats of frogs suggest this was a fertility ex-voto. Cf. H. Philipp, Terrakotten aus Ägypten, Berlin, 1972, no. 24, pl. 22, where he is called Ptaichos and see bibliography for other images of frogs in Egyptian mythology.

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