No sculptural monuments can be definitely attributed to the kings of the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Dynasties. Unidentified royal heads of the Late Period are sometimes assigned to them, most notably a head in a Blue Crown from Mendes in the Delta (De Meulenaere and MacKay 1976: no. 53, p. 198, pl. 22a-b). This head has also been assigned to the Thirtieth Dynasty, however, and even to the early Ptolemaic Period (Salis 2008: pl. 20b). Statues of private persons that can be assigned to this period are extremely rare (Bothmer and De Meulenaere 1986).
A sizeable number of royal statues, statue heads, and sphinxes have survived from the Thirtieth Dynasty. The heads from statues of the two major kings of the dynasty, Nectanebo I and II, are so similar, however, that they cannot reliably be distinguished unless they are inscribed (compare Mysliwiec 1988: 83). Since they are far more idealized than their Twenty-sixth Dynasty prototypes, it is almost always possible to distinguish between representations from the two dynasties. Only in one case did a
Figure 41.11 Bust of Nectanebo I; from Tell el-Bakleya; Dynasty 30, reign of Nectanebo I; granite, h. 107 cm.; Mansoura, Antiquities Inspectorate, Inv. No. 25. Photograph courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum, Corpus of Late Egyptian Sculpture (Bakry 1971: pls. 13-15).
Head of the Thirtieth Dynasty in Philadelphia, wearing a Blue Crown, resemble those produced during the earlier period closely enough for it to fool the foremost authority of that day on late Egyptian sculpture, Bernard V. Bothmer (Bothmer 1960: no. 53, pp. 61-2, pl. 50, identifying it as Amasis). Bothmer soon recognized his error and discussed it with this writer and many others, but unfortunately he never corrected it in writing. In virtually every other case, however, the difference between the Saite royal heads and the more stylized heads of their Thirtieth Dynasty followers can easily be seen (compare, for example the heads of a Thirtieth and a Twenty-sixth Dynasty king shown in Josephson 1997: pl. 2a and b). And just as the royal imagery of the Thirtieth Dynasty had drawn on its Twenty-sixth Dynasty predecessors, so was it to serve in providing models for the faces of statues of the first Ptolemaic kings (Salis 2008: 74; cf. his pls. 8 and 9). The royal bust illustrated here is inscribed with the name of Nectanebo I. It was excavated in the Delta late in the twentieth century and is not yet well known in the literature (figure 41.11) (Bakry 1971: 13-15, pls. 13-15). Other Thirtieth Dynasty heads are very well known, such as a large example in greywacke in the British Museum (Russmann 2001: no. 135, pp. 245-6).
The torsos of royal statues made during the Thirtieth Dynasty consistently show a tripartite division, with the breast, ribcage, and the stomach clearly differentiated. The best of these statue bodies are as fine as any produced in ancient Egypt; others,
Figure 41.12 Standing statue of a man; provenance unknown, possibly from the Delta; Dynasty 30, reign of Nectanebo I; diorite, h. 51.2 cm.; Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum 52.89 (Fazzini, Romano, and Cody 1999: no. 79).
However, are barely mediocre in quality (compare the two examples shown in Aldred et al. 1980: 157). Most sphinxes of the Thirtieth Dynasty are large; for the most part, they were made in series, usually to line avenues in temple precincts. They are well made but, as one would expect, far more stylized than statues in human form. A number of the sphinxes of Nectanebo I at Luxor have been illustrated by Mysliwiec (1988: pls. 81-4).
Just as their kings looked to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty for models, so too did many private people of the Thirtieth Dynasty when they commissioned statues for themselves. The standing figure of a man in Brooklyn is an example of such a statue (figure 41.12) (Fazzini, Romano, and Cody 1999: no. 79). The lower legs of the figure are gone, together with the man’s name, which would have been written at the bottom of the back pillar against which he stands with his left leg forward and his arms at his sides, as male statues had been shown standing since the Old Kingdom, some two millennia earlier. His short, wrapped kilt and his round, curly hairdo also originated in the Old Kingdom. They were modified to suit the taste of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, and then further refined in the Thirtieth Dynasty to produce the
Figure 41.13 Standing statue of Wesirwer in ‘‘Persian’’ dress, holding three divine figures; from the Karnak Cachette; Dynasty 30; greywacke, total h. ca. 74.8 cm.; Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum 55.175 (head) + Cairo, Egyptian Museum, JE 38064 Photograph courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum, Corpus of Late Egyptian Sculpture (Fazzini, Romano, and Cody 1999: no. 81; Bothmer 1962-3).
Highly stylized, smiling face of this statue and the elegant curves of its torso. One of the few innovations in Thirtieth Dynasty sculpture may be seen in the way the rows of small curls on the head of this statue have been left unpolished, so that they appear lighter in color than the dark, smooth surfaces of his body. This coloristic treatment of the hair was rather popular during this dynasty and throughout the Ptolemaic Period.
Statues with individualistic heads also continued to be made throughout the Thirtieth Dynasty. The great majority, like those from earlier in the Late Period, show the signs of age, such as facial wrinkles, drooping eyelids, and the like. A very few, however, show more originality. That is certainly the case with the head of a man named Wesirwer from the Karnak Cachette, in the Brooklyn Museum (figure 41.13) (Fazzini, Romano, and Cody 1999: no. 81). Wesirwer’s low, hairless skull and broad face show no overt signs of age. And yet, if not old, he does not really seem young: the suspicion of a frown above his narrow nose, his slightly downcast eyes, and the suggestion of tension at the corners of his wide, narrow-lipped mouth all suggest an inwardness or tension that one seldom encounters in Egyptian sculpture of any period.
Some years after the Brooklyn Museum acquired the head from Wesirwer’s statue, the body was identified in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (Bothmer 1962-3). The Egyptian Museum graciously loaned the body to Brooklyn, so that the two parts could briefly be exhibited and photographed together. The complete figure is shown standing, wearing a ‘‘Persian’’ wrapped kilt and shirt, and holding a representation of the Theban god Amun seated between his consort, the goddess Mut, and their son, the falcon-headed god Khonsu. Taken as a whole, the statue is well made; but one would not guess, looking only at the body, just how exceptional the head is.
The one major innovation in private statuary during the Thirtieth Dynasty appears to have been the creation of the healing statue, or guerisseur, a late development in a long line of Egyptian magical protective measures against dangerous creatures, both real and imaginary (Aldred et al. 1980: fig. 141, p. 159). The healing statue represents a man standing or seated on the ground. He holds a stela on which the child god Horus is shown victorious over dangerous animals and, except for his face, his figure is entirely covered with protective spells. Statues of this type were commissioned by high officials and set up in public places, where people could gain the benefit of their magical powers by pouring water over the figure and its inscriptions, and collecting the runoff. Like other aspects of royal and private figures discussed above, the genre of healing statues outlived the Thirtieth Dynasty and continued to be produced in the early Ptolemaic Period (Kakosy 1999).
World History
