Limestone Relief with the Head of a Pharaoh

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Ptolemaic period, 332-30 B.C.

Material: Limestone

Dimensions: 22.7 cm x 29.6 cm

Price: Sold

Ref: 1370

Provenance: Private collection of of professor Dr. Roland Bay, Basel, acquired 1950. Thence in the Parisian private collection F. A., 1960s to 1970s. Last with Jerome Eisenberg in the gallery Royal Athena in New York. Accompanied by a French antiquities passport.

Condition: Fragment professionally reassembled from three pieces.

Description: Large fragment of a sunk limestone relief depicting the head of a pharaoh. He wears a short wig with tightly set curls, the so-called Ibes wig, which is surrounded by a Seshed hairband with a ribbon at the back. The hairband is considered a sign of rebirth and was of great importance in the belief in the dead. On the forehead a uraeus. The pharaoh wears the moon crown of Khonsu as a headdress, at the bottom with the sickle of the new moon, on top with the full moon. It is therefore a deified representation of the king in reference to the moon god Khonsu. With red color remains. Mounted.