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Description

This exquisite ebony statuette is one of the finest Egyptian pieces in the Hermitage.  The man is represented striding, with his left foot advanced and his arms lowered; in his left hand he held an attribute, now missing; the right arm is lost. He wears a knee long pleated garment with a starched, triangular, pleated front panel; the waistline is lowered at the abdomen and the hemline slants upwards from back to front making an impression of moving. There is no wig on the shaven head of the man. The well-modelled slightly elongated body is treated delicately; all the forms are soft and smooth. The occipital part of the scull is elongated; the face with almond-shaped eyes and the eyebrows definitely bent in the central part is characteristic of the reign of Amenhotep III. The flesh has never been painted, but the kilt is covered by a thin layer of stucco that could have originally been gilded. The statuette belongs to a small group of high quality ebony sculpture probably made in the royal workshops and belonging to high-ranked officials; the shaven heads and the shape of the skirts of some of them make it possible to suppose that their owners had priestly titles.

This exquisite ebony statuette is one of the finest Egyptian pieces in the Hermitage.  The man is represented striding, with his left foot advanced and his arms lowered; in his left hand he held an attribute, now missing; the right arm is lost. He wears a knee long pleated garment with a starched, triangular, pleated front panel; the waistline is lowered at the abdomen and the hemline slants upwards from back to front making an impression of moving. There is no wig on the shaven head of the man. The well-modelled slightly elongated body is treated delicately; all the forms are soft and smooth. The occipital part of the scull is elongated; the face with almond-shaped eyes and the eyebrows definitely bent in the central part is characteristic of the reign of Amenhotep III. The flesh has never been painted, but the kilt is covered by a thin layer of stucco that could have originally been gilded. The statuette belongs to a small group of high quality ebony sculpture probably made in the royal workshops and belonging to high-ranked officials; the shaven heads and the shape of the skirts of some of them make it possible to suppose that their owners had priestly titles.

Archaeological Site

Provenance

Materials

Technique

Preservation

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Height

(cm)

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Weight

(grs)

Dating

Dating (free text)

Dating Criterion

Gods

Kings

Persons

Writing
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Category of text
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Hieroglyphs
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Acquisition

Year of Acquisition

Object''s History

From the collection of Castiglione.
1825 - acquired by the Russian Academy of Sciences;
1862 - transferred to the Hermitage from the Egyptian Museum of the Academy of Sciences.

Associated Objects

Photographic references

Editor of record

First Registration Date

Last Update

Bibliography

Golenischeff W., Ermitage Imperial. Inventaire de la collection #gyptienne. S.I., 1891, p.86, no.737.
Flittner N., An unpublished wooden Statuette, AE, 1925, pp.71-73.
Kozloff A. Most Beautiful Youth Who Ever Happened. BCMA, January 1984, 16-22.
Matthieu M.E., Iskusstvo Novogo tsaratva. Leningrad, 1947, frontispis.
Matthieu M.E., Iskusstvo drevnego Egipta. Moscow, 1958, fig.60-61.
Matthieu M.E., Pavlov V.V., Pamyatniki iskusstva drevnego Egipta v museyah Sovetskogo  Soyuza. Moscow, 1958, fig.34-35.
Matthieu M.E., Iskusstvo drevnego Egipta. Moscow, 1961, pp.270-271, fig.131.
Lapis I.A., Matthieu M.E., Drevneegipetskaya skul'ptura v sobranii Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha. Moscow, 1969, p.76, cat.no.72, fig.47.
Landa N.B., Lapis I.A., Egyptian Antiquities in the Hermitage. Leningrad, 1974, pl.38,39.

General Comment


Preservation: 
The right arm, an attribute in the left hand and toes are lost; the surface is cracked; gilding or painting of the kilt is lost.

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