PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, REIGN OF PTOLEMY II-PTOLEMY VIII, CIRCA 285-116 B.C.

Sensitively carved in gray granite flecked with white inclusions, this headless torso of a Ptolemaic official, whose name can plausibly be read as Hor-maa-kheru, wears a traditional tripartite kilt reflecting the traditional standing pose and representational style of high-status males in Egyptian statuary since Old Kingdom times, revived and reinterpreted here at the end of the dynastic tradition. Standing with his arms at his side, and holding rounded objects that represent abbreviated staffs of office, his athletic physique is conveyed through robust modeling of the prominent pectoral muscles, a narrow waist, and a soft belly with a notably large navel. Despite the loss of its head and lower legs, the torso may be identified as belonging to the Ptolemaic period both stylistically and by means of the two vertical columns of hieroglyphic inscription on the back pillar, and by a line of text inscribed on his belt. As noted by R.S. Bianchi in reference in part to this torso (op. cit), “The plain kilt without striations is encountered with greater frequency at the beginning of the Ptolemaic Period…when the tendency was to inscribe the belt with the name and titles of the owner.” Continuing a tradition established in Dynasty 25, the addition of inscriptions on the belt here provides the name of the owner, Hor-maa-kheru, son of Wen(en)-nefer, and the name of his mother, Aset-em-Akhbit. His close association with the Delta site of Mendes, seat of Egypt’s 29th Dynasty, is indicated through the enumeration of his priestly titles on the back pillar, including “Prophet of Isis the Great, the Mother of the God, who resides in Mendes,” and a specific association with Ba-neb-djedet, the ram god of Mendes, of whom he was also a priest. Hor-maa-kheru is also named as an Overseer of the Seal, his only surviving non-priestly role. Although this individual cannot be associated with other any known attestations, it is notable that men bearing the Greek version of his name, Harmochoros, are well-attested during the Ptolemaic dynasty, and a Hor-maa-kheru was prominent at Athribis in Upper Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy II (see G. Gorre, Les relations du clergé Égyptien et des Lagides d’après les sources privées, pp. 163-167).

For the dating and assessment of this torso, a comparison with other examples with close associations to Mendes is essential. A statue of a high official now in Kansas City at the Nelson-Atkins Museum (see D. Klotz, op. cit.) named Harchebi or Archibios gives both the Egyptian and Greek versions of the name of this prime minister or diokêtês, and its life-size scale reflects his elevated status. Despite the much smaller scale of the torso of Hor-maa-kheru, both works share an association with Mendes, and a similar versatility in rendering musculature. A torso of Amen-pa-yom in the Cleveland Museum of Art (pp. 460-463 in L. Berman, Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art) is said to have come from Tanis, but features the worship of the triad of Mendes, and was associated by H. De Meulenaere and P. MacKay with Mendes in their publication of objects connected to the site (op. cit.). Berman, who has hailed the torso of Amen-pa-yom as a masterpiece, believes that it is likely from the same artistic workshop as the torso of Harchebi. Both works were placed in the reign of Ptolemy II by B.V. Bothmer (see Egyptian Sculpture of the Late Period, pp. 124-125), and the recent exhaustive study by Klotz of the torso of Archibios has only reinforced this impression, with the potential for a slightly later dating into the reign of Ptolemy VIII. A third large-scale torso in Paris (see De Meulenaere and Mackay, op. cit., pl. 25 c-d) belongs to this group of granite statues connected to Mendes. The smaller scale of the statue of Hor-maa-kheru and the fewer lines dedicated to his name and titles most likely reflect his relatively lower status, which makes all the more impressive his ability to commission a portrait for eternity in a hard stone that was handled with such delicacy by the ancient sculptor.