Egyptian Stone Block Statue Fragment (Possibly New Kingdom to Late Period circa 1550-300 B.C.)
carved dark green-black stone fragment from a classic Egyptian block statue, the elite sculptural form in which the subject’s cloaked body is rendered as a compact cubic mass with the head emerging above, the serene, idealized face is carved with almond-shaped eyes and a smooth headdress, and the back pillar bears a vertical band of hieroglyphs preserving portions of a traditional ḥtp-dỉ-nsw (“an offering which the king gives”) formula, block statues such as this were placed in temples to serve as eternal devotional presences for high officials, and often carried prayers and invocations for offerings on behalf of the deceased, carved from a dense, dark stone—likely granodiorite or greywacke—characteristic of New Kingdom and Late Period temple sculpture, inscribed with a vertical column of hieroglyphs on the back pillar
height 11 inches
Provenance: Property from a Prominent New York City Collector
Estimate: $1000 - $2000