Ptolemaic Period, 2nd century BC (170 -116 BC)
Height: 38 cm
Provenance: Private collection Switzerland, acquired mid 1960s and thence by descent.
An over life-sized head of the Ptolemaic ruler with youthful appearance. He wears a diadem above marble curls carved low on the forehead, the back and top of the head roughly finished as the hair would have been completed in stucco. The portrait reveals a typical and distinct mix of Egyptian features, the brow which moulds seamlessly into the nose and deep set, almost unnaturally large eyes, and the more typically Hellenistic hairstyle, naturalistic lips and jaw line; all Greek rather than Egyptian stylistic characteristics.
The hair is roughly carved in a manner typical of Ptolemaic period portraiture, and there is a channel behind the forward fringe for attachment of a separate thin diadem. The corpulent beardless face, large deep-set eyes, the nose with deeply-drilled nostrils and pronounced, pouting lower lip all conform to the numismatic evidence (see fig. 1853 in G.M.A. Richter, The Portraits of the Greeks, vol. 3).
The fine crystalline marble must have been imported to Egypt from Greece.
Whilst it can be hard to identify a specific Ptolemy, the strong similarities between this portrait and the head previously owned by the Egyptologist Professor Kelly Simpson and sold at Christie's in 2017, on which much has been written, make it very likely that both are portraits of Ptolemy VIII. The Simpson head was then exhibited in the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World for the exhibition 'When the Greeks Ruled Egypt'
The Ptolemies, the Greek dynasty which ruled Egypt, from 304 to 30 BC, often used symbolic portraits of themselves as self promotion and for propoganda purposes. For their Egyptian subjects they chose to be identified with local deities but here it is an heroic Greek appearance that is the inspiration. Comparison with known portraits and coins suggest that it probably represents Ptolemy VIII, the other possibility beong Ptolemy II
Literature: A head loaned to the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World for the exhibition 'When the Greeks Ruled Egypt' identified as Ptolemy VIII appears to be of the same sitter, sharing the same large, square head, full bottom lip and large, quite rounded eyes. Catalogue edited by Roberta Casagrande-Kim, 'When the Greeks Ruled Egypt: From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra', Princeton University Press, 2014, no.63.
The original 1960s base was made by Karl Faltermeier, the famous Swiss mounter responsible for similar mounts and plinths for the Zurich Museum. Subsequently remounted but the original base available.
Ptolemaic Period, 2nd century BC (170 -116 BC)
Height: 38 cm
Provenance: Private collection Switzerland, acquired mid 1960s and thence by descent.
An over life-sized head of the Ptolemaic ruler with youthful appearance. He wears a diadem above marble curls carved low on the forehead, the back and top of the head roughly finished as the hair would have been completed in stucco. The portrait reveals a typical and distinct mix of Egyptian features, the brow which moulds seamlessly into the nose and deep set, almost unnaturally large eyes, and the more typically Hellenistic hairstyle, naturalistic lips and jaw line; all Greek rather than Egyptian stylistic characteristics.
The hair is roughly carved in a manner typical of Ptolemaic period portraiture, and there is a channel behind the forward fringe for attachment of a separate thin diadem. The corpulent beardless face, large deep-set eyes, the nose with deeply-drilled nostrils and pronounced, pouting lower lip all conform to the numismatic evidence (see fig. 1853 in G.M.A. Richter, The Portraits of the Greeks, vol. 3).
The fine crystalline marble must have been imported to Egypt from Greece.
Whilst it can be hard to identify a specific Ptolemy, the strong similarities between this portrait and the head previously owned by the Egyptologist Professor Kelly Simpson and sold at Christie's in 2017, on which much has been written, make it very likely that both are portraits of Ptolemy VIII. The Simpson head was then exhibited in the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World for the exhibition 'When the Greeks Ruled Egypt'
The Ptolemies, the Greek dynasty which ruled Egypt, from 304 to 30 BC, often used symbolic portraits of themselves as self promotion and for propoganda purposes. For their Egyptian subjects they chose to be identified with local deities but here it is an heroic Greek appearance that is the inspiration. Comparison with known portraits and coins suggest that it probably represents Ptolemy VIII, the other possibility beong Ptolemy II
Literature: A head loaned to the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World for the exhibition 'When the Greeks Ruled Egypt' identified as Ptolemy VIII appears to be of the same sitter, sharing the same large, square head, full bottom lip and large, quite rounded eyes. Catalogue edited by Roberta Casagrande-Kim, 'When the Greeks Ruled Egypt: From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra', Princeton University Press, 2014, no.63.
The original 1960s base was made by Karl Faltermeier, the famous Swiss mounter responsible for similar mounts and plinths for the Zurich Museum. Subsequently remounted but the original base available.
