AN EGYPTIAN LIMESTONE DOUBLE-SIDED SCULPTOR'S MODEL

DYNASTY XXX-PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, 380-30 B.C.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN LIMESTONE DOUBLE-SIDED SCULPTOR'S MODEL
DYNASTY XXX-PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, 380-30 B.C.
Each side sculpted in raised relief, one depicting the upper half of a pharaoh in profile to the right, his arm at his side, wearing the Blue Crown fronted by a uraeus, its tail following the upper curved surface of the crown, the streamer falling onto the shoulder, preserving traces of red pigment along his eye and chin; the other side depicting a goose, standing on a groundline facing right
4 5/16 in. (11 cm.) high

Provenance

Israeli Private Collection, acquired prior to 1975.

Lot Essay

For similarly depicted profile images of late Dynasty XXX and early Ptolemaic pharaohs wearing the Blue Crown see pls. LXXXVIIb (Nectanebo II) and XCVa (Alexander the Great) in Mysliwiec, Royal Portraiture of the Dynasties XXI-XXX.
The manner in which the goose on one side is truncated suggests that this object began as a sculptor's model of a goose which was later cut down and reworked on the other side.

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