Large Sandstone Relief of a Goddess or Queen

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Late Ptolemaic period, 1st century B.C.

Material: Sandstone

Dimensions: 46.7 cm x 44.8 cm

Price: 48 000 Euro

Ref: 1535

Provenance: From the collection of a Swiss attorney since the 1950s. Thence collection Horst Wagner, Berlin, Germany, acquired prior to 1993. Thence Galerie Puhze, Freiburg, Germany, prior to 2015. There acquired on 25 February 2015 by Erika Krautkrämer (1932-2022). With the original certificate of Galerie Puhze.

Condition: Broken in the middle and reattached. Otherwise very beautifully preserved.

Description: Important sandstone relief dating to the Late Ptolemaic period depicting a goddess or a queen to the left. She wears a figure-hugging gown, which accentuates the body’s curves. The navel forms an elegant indentation on her sculpturally bulging belly. The backside protrudes semi-circularly. The right breast lies bare beneath the broad ushek, the left one is covered by the far down cascading wig lobe. The woman holds in her right hand the Was sceptre as the symbol of her power, in the left hanging hand the ankh as the symbol of life. Behind the female figure the hand of another deity, possibly the falcon-headed Horus, is recognizable, which also holds a long sceptre. The hieroglyphs below the arms of both figures are identical and mean: “I gave you”. The depiction very much reminds of the large temple reliefs in Dendera. On one of them Cleopatra is depicted in the same posture with a sceptre and ankh in front of god Horus. Another one depicts the goddess Hathor with Was sceptre in front of Horus. A similar procession with Hathor and Horus is on a wall of the Ptolemaic temple of Kom Ombo, on the eastern Nile bank in Upper Egypt. See for the type also Bonhams auction of 26 October 2007, lot 75. Mounted.