Egyptian Sandstone Sculptor's Model Male Youth

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Ancient | Asian | Ethnographic Art

By Artemis Gallery

May 18, 2023

Set Reminder 2023-05-18 10:00:00 2023-05-18 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Ancient | Asian | Ethnographic Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/ancient-asian-ethnographic-art-12797
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• Lot Description
  **Originally Listed At $1200**
  
  Egypt, Late Dynastic to Ptolemaic Period, ca. 664 to 30 BCE. A lovely and sensitively modeled head of a youthful male carved from limestone that was used as a sculptor’s model, perhaps to illustrate a priest or a scribe based on the shaved head. The head presents almond-shaped eyes with elongated exterior canthi, arched brows, a slender nose with slightly flared nostrils, puffy cheeks, full lips in a gentle smile, and ears shaped like half of a heart. The mottled gray-hued sandstone has faint cream inclusions that create a depth of color that would otherwise go unnoticed. Size: 1.9" W x 2.9" H (4.8 cm x 7.4 cm); 5.3" H (13.5 cm) on included custom stand.
  
  A carved head like this example may have served as a model for a larger sculpture, to teach apprentice sculptors how to replicate a master style, or to produce ushabti figures (small funerary statues for tombs). Though sculptors’ models are typically difficult to date – with some being from the Amarna period of the 18th Dynasty when new forms of statuary came in – most known examples are from the Late Dynastic and Ptolemaic periods. The Egyptians were keen observers of fauna, with many different animals gracing their mythology, artwork, and hieroglyphs; however, anthropomorphic models were typically among the most challenging to carve accurately.
  
  While sculptors’ models appear to be from larger composite figures, their incomplete presentation could be an entirely separate item typology. Ancient Greek sculptural incompleteness was a generic form of presentation as the viewer could extrapolate who or what a sculpture was meant to represent. In contrast, the ancient Egyptians would view an incomplete votive work of art only as it was: part of a bird, a disembodied head, or in one instance the hind quarters of a lion. According to Eric Young of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “When we consider the Egyptian pieces as sculptors’ models, however, their incompleteness is no longer disturbing, but entirely understandable. As is the case with unquestioned sculptors’ models…the apprentice sculptor concentrated his energies on those portions of the figure that he found intriguing, or most difficult, and the master sculptor demonstrated the correct way to delineate a head…” (“Sculptors’ Models or Votives? In Defense of a Scholarly Tradition.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, March 1964, p. 255).
  
  Provenance: East Coast collection, New York Gallery, New York City, New York, USA, acquired before 2010
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
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  #177292

  Condition

  This is perhaps a fragment of a larger sculptor’s model; however, it could also be its own standalone model. Minor nicks and pitting to some surfaces, with chips to neckline, otherwise intact and excellent. Light earthen deposits throughout, and great preservation to facial details. Drilled through base of neck with inserted peg for display purposes.
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