The Achaemenid Persians conquered and ruled Egypt as the Twenty-seventh Dynasty (525-404 BC). One of the Persian kings, Darius I, had at least two statues of himself made in Egypt and apparently placed one or more in a temple there. A statue of Darius found at Susa may originally have been erected in Egypt and later removed, or it may have been meant from the beginning to be sent to Persia. The statue was published soon after its discovery, in a series of articles and photographs by various specialists (Journal Asiatique 1972). The figure, which is almost complete except for its head, shows Darius in Persian royal garb. The inscriptions, however include traditional Egyptian texts and images of a type found on royal figures. The statue was almost certainly made in Egypt, in stone from the Wadi Hammamat, which is east of the Nile River (Trichet and Vallat 1990: 205-8).
Persian influence on Egyptian private sculpture seems to have been limited to a male costume that is customarily called Persian, although it seems to have no exact
Figure 41.9 Psamtik protected by Hathor in the form of a cow; from the tomb of Psamtik at Saqqara; late Dynasty 26; greywacke, h. 96 cm.; Cairo, Egyptian Museum, CG 784. Photograph courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum, Corpus of Late Egyptian Sculpture (Saleh and Sourouzian 1987: no. 251).
Counterparts in Persia itself. The garments first appeared on statues made at the end of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, but they had their greatest popularity during the Twenty-seventh Dynasty. The costume continued to be represented sporadically into the Ptolemaic Period. Its main component was a long rectangle of cloth that was wrapped around the torso under the armpits and reached almost to the ground. Although it was not very different in principle from earlier wrapped male garments in Egypt, it was apparently made of a heavier fabric, and it covered somewhat more of the body. It was fastened in front in such a way that the innermost corner of the cloth poked up next to the body, and the outer edge hung down in a short flap (Bothmer 1960: 75-6). Beneath this wrap one or two shirts might be worn: an undershirt that was visible only at the neckline, under a shirt with a V-neck and sleeves just below the elbow, or a long-sleeved garment.
Egyptians who worked for the Persian overlords were particularly likely to be shown wearing the ‘‘Persian’’ costume. The most important example is the headless statue of a standing man named Udjahorresnet, which bears inscriptions all over his wrapped kilt, the naos he holds, containing a figure of Osiris, and the tall, slender base
Figure 41.10 Kneeling Psamtiksineith in “Persian” garb, holding a naos; from Memphis; Dynasty 27; graywacke, h. 44.5 cm.; Cairo, Egyptian Museum, CG 726. Photograph courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum, Corpus of Late Egyptian Sculpture (Russmann 1989: no. 87, pp. 188-90, 221).
On which the naos rests. (Botti and Romanelli 1961: no, 40, pp. 32-40, pls. 27-32; pl. 27 shows the figure with a head that does not belong, which was subsequently removed.) Udjahorresnet wears a non-Egyptian type of bracelet, consisting of a cylindrical semi-circle with ends in the form of lion heads. The inscriptions, which have been much studied, give interesting details of Udjahorresnet’s service to both the first Persian king of Egypt, Cambyses, and his successor, Darius I. A headless statue in the Brooklyn Museum, which is probably from Memphis, represents a man named Ptahhotep, holding a naos. Ptahhotep wears the wrapped skirt over a long-sleeved garment and two necklaces, one a torque in Persian style and the other a traditional Egyptian pectoral (Fazzini, Romano, and Cody 1999: no. 77, p. 128).
Another statue of this period from Memphis shows a man named Psamtiksineith kneeling and holding a small shrine containing a figure of Osiris (figure 41.10) (Russmann 1989: no. 87, pp. 188-90, 221). He, too, wears the wrapped skirt of the ‘‘Persian’’ costume, over a V-necked shirt, with an undershirt below. His hairless head,
With its expressive face, attests to the continuation of the individualistic tradition of sculptural representation into the Persian Period. His eyes are set in fleshy pouches and pronounced creases flare from the sides of his rather long, straight nose. Above the distinctive little knob of his chin, his upturned lips seem about to speak. Like all of the late ‘‘portrait’’ representations of ancient Egypt, this face appears to be unique.
The heads or busts of late portrait statues are still very difficult to date: their very uniqueness militates against organizing them in chronological groups. A few examples, however, are similar enough in a number of their details to suggest that they might have come from the same workshop. Two examples may be the busts of two statuettes carved in the greenish stone known as greywacke, which are now in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore and the Louvre in Paris. Both have finely modeled torsos with a minimum of detail; attention is focused on their heads, and especially on their faces. The more openly expressive of the two pieces is the one in the Walters (Seidel in Schulz and Seidel et al. 2009: no. 57, pp. 138-139). He has a striated, shoulder-length hairdo of a kind usually assumed to be a wig; however, it recedes at the temples as if it were natural hair. The face appears to be that of an aging man; the creases at the base of his nose, his swollen-looking upper eyelids, and the heavy folds down from the sides of his nostrils are all standard Egyptian conventions for indicating age. There is nothing conventional, however, about his ferociously scowling expression, which seems to find nothing right with the world. The bust in the Louvre is more subtle and nuanced, most probably the work of a different sculptor (Aldred et al. 1980: no. 136, p. 155). The smooth surfaces of this man’s shoulder-length wig set off the details of his deepset, rather puffy eyes, the sagging flesh below his cheekbones, his narrow, perfectly preserved nose, and his mouth, with its thin but well curved lips, set above a chin that can be seen, in profile, to be sagging slightly. In contrast to the Walters bust, this man seems to be focused inward; his expression suggests ambivalence.
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