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Statue of a Ptolemaic queen

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The statue represents a queen as a striding young woman holding an ankh sign in her right hand and a double cornucopia (dikeras) with fruits and breads in her right hand. The coiffure consists of a long tripartite wig with carefully treated locks and three uraei; the headdress that had been originally shaped as a sun-disk between cow horns is lost. The face is elongated, with slightly protruding cheekbones and plump cheeks, the ear lobes are pierced. The queen wears an ankle-long tightly fitting dress with long sleeves; the forms of the body under the dress are shown as if it were naked. A soft treatment of the breasts and abdomen is characteristic of Ptolemaic sculpture. The back pillar is as high as the vertex.
The statue is uninsctibed and its attribution is based on purely iconographic features. The decisive argument is the shape of the cornucopia. This Hellenistic emblem is an attribute of several Ptolemaic queens (Arsinoe II, Berenike II, Arsinoe III, Cleopatra I, Cleopatra VII), but in the form of dikeras it is characteristic of Arsinoe II. The facial features of the Hermitage statue are rather similar to those of the sculptures of Arsinoe II in Vatican and Bonn as well as to her relief representation on the Gonzaga Cameo in the Hermitage. At the same time, it is stylistically different from most of the images of Arsinoe II and is closer to later Ptolemaic statuary.

Present location

STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM [10/002] PETERSBURG

Inventory number

3936

Dating

ARSINOE II ?

Archaeological Site

UNKNOWN

Category

STATUE

Material

BASALT

Technique

HEWN; POLISHED

Height

104.7 cm

Bibliography