Monumental Limestone Head of a Pharaoh

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Probably 3rd Intermediate period, 21st-24th dynasty, 1075-715 B.C. Possibly New Kingdom.

Material: Limestone

Dimensions: 39 cm high

Price: Sold

Ref: 1454

Provenance: French private collection, acquired between the 1950s to the 1960. Prior to 2012 with Courcelles Antiquités Galerie Cazals de Fabel, Paris. There acquired by the gallery Chenel in Paris. With a copy of the invoice and the French antiquities passport.

Condition: Unrestored

Description: Monumental limestone head of a pharaoh in form of Osiris. The king in personification of the god of the afterlife, the resurrection and of the Nile with deeply engraved eyes and brows, which once held precious inlays. The mouth is closed, with broad lips hinting a smile. The pharaoh wears the White Crown of Upper Egypt (Hedjet) and the false beard. A perforation on the forehead refers to a separately worked out uraeus, which once adorned the head. At the back remains of a possibly inscribed pillar. The inscription seems to be consciously knocked off, the head purposefully devastated, suggesting a damnation memoriae, which should destroy the memory of this pharaoh. A dating of the head to the 3rd Intermediate Period is probable, whereby more recent investigations date the head with its rounded face to the New Kingdom. Then even an attribution to Hatshepsut could not be excluded.Mounted.