Lot 17
17
AN EGYPTIAN BLACK GRANITE BUST OF AN OFFICIAL
AN EGYPTIAN BLACK GRANITE BUST OF AN OFFICIAL
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PROPERTY FROM THE CATTAUI FAMILY COLLECTION
AN EGYPTIAN BLACK GRANITE BUST OF AN OFFICIAL

30TH DYNASTY TO EARLY PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 4TH-EARLY 3RD CENTURY B.C.

Details
AN EGYPTIAN BLACK GRANITE BUST OF AN OFFICIAL
30TH DYNASTY TO EARLY PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 4TH-EARLY 3RD CENTURY B.C.
Wearing a smooth wig with tabs in front of the exposed ears, his oval face with sharp ridged brows angled down at their outer corners, the nose sloping, the narrow eyes with modeled upper lids, the inner canthi defined, the mouth with straight lips, the outer corners dimpled, the philtrum flat, framed by pronounced naso-labial folds, the chin rounded, the underside of the jowls and neck fleshy, the torso corpulent, the right arm lowered and projecting slightly forward at the elbow, the back pillar preserving a column of hieroglyphic text in sunk relief, reading: "his..., favorite of his father and mother, praised/favored by his siblings(?), beloved of his god (or possibly lord), Treasurer of Lower Egypt..."
13½ in. (34.2 cm.) high
Provenance
Acquired by Cattaui family, Cairo, prior to the 1950s; and brought to Switzerland, 1956.

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Lot Essay

For similar treatment of the ridged brows, eyes and wig, compare the gray schist figure of Harbes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the black granite head from Athribis in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, nos. 48 and 60 in B.V. Bothmer, Egyptian Sculpture of the Late Period, 700 B.C. to A.D. 100. See also nos. 160 and 161 in W. Seipel, Gott, Mensch, Pharao.

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