Conclusion

Ptolemaic and Romano-Egyptian sculpture have some features in common, and for certain categories of statues it is possible to trace the origins and developments across the five-hundred year period of production. The key difference in the Roman Period is that the king was no longer resident in Egypt, and so the focus shifts to Italy, in particular, to the villas and sanctuaries of the capital city of Rome. The two periods are very different in that key iconographic features were further developed in the Roman Period but often adopted a new meaning. Whilst it would be wrong to approach the two periods as one, it is essential to consider them together to obtain a holistic approach to the study of Egyptian sculpture at this time. Some features in both periods are new to the Egyptian repertoire, but what a survey of sculpture demonstrates above all else is the flexibility and talents of the Egyptian sculptors, who are able to incorporate alien attributes into their repertoire, whilst producing statues that were still relevant to their traditions.

FURTHER READING

A good place to start is with the many exhibition catalogues. By looking at both the essays and catalogue entries in Bothmer (1960) and Bianchi (1988) it is possible to obtain a better understanding of one of the key issues in the study of Ptolemaic and Romano Egyptian sculpture, namely the degree of synthesis between traditions. The PhD publications of Ashton (2001), Stanwick (2002), and Albersmeier (2002) offer different perspectives on the study of Ptolemaic royal, and, in the case of Albersmeier, private female, statuary. For Greek-style royal sculpture Kyrieleis (1975) remains the most comprehensive source. Romano-Egyptian sculpture is dominated by publications of the material found in Rome. Roullet (1972) provides a catalogue of the majority of sculptures found in Rome, and there are more detailed works on the material from the Emperor Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli (Raeder 1983; Grenier 1990). Miiller’s 1971 publication on the statues from the Egyptian sanctuary at Benevento is not readily available but provides a comprehensive catalogue of the material. For the Iseum Campense in Rome Lemke’s 1994 publication of her PhD remains the most accessible and comprehensive discussion.