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Published & Exhibited:
1. Eugène Warmenbol (ed.), Ombres d’égypte: Le peuple de Pharaon, Musée du Malgré-Tout, Treignes, 20 June-12 December 1999, p. 102-103, catalog number 102.
2. La condition humaine: Le rêve d’une ombre, Museu d’Història de la Ciutat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 10 May-26 September 2004, p. 41.
3. Arnaud Quertinmont (ed.), Dieux, génies et démons en égypte ancienne: à la rencontre d’Osiris, Anubis, Isis, Hathor, Rê et les autres, Musée royal de Mariemont, Morlanwelz, 21 May-20 November 2016, p. 208, catalog number 67.
Egypt, 332-30 BC. Finely cast as a complex syncretic deity standing upon two crocodiles on an integral rectangular base encircled by a serpent, combining the bowed legs of Ptah-Pataikos and the naked, pot-bellied body of Bes. A feline head emerges at the groin, while an incised scarab centers the abdomen. The arms project forward with clenched hands beneath the jackal head of Anubis, flanked by two outward-facing uraei. Above rises an elaborate composite crown with the double-plumed crown of Osiris, horizontal ram’s horns, two further forward-facing uraei, surmounted by a solar disk. At the reverse, Horus spreads his finely incised wings over the back, while the ram-headed Khnum rises above, crowned by a solar disk with frontal uraeus and framed by the tall ostrich plumes of the headdress.
Provenance: The private collection of Jean-Jacques Rotthier, Belgium, by 1999, and thence by descent. Jean-Jacques Rotthier (1932-2009) was a Belgian collector of Egyptian antiquities as well as African and Oceanic art, who began assembling his collection in the 1970s. His interests were shaped by extended stays in Africa and by exchanges with specialists including Bernard de Grunne and Pierre Dartevelle. His Egyptian collection ranged from the Predynastic Period to Roman Egypt, and Rotthier regularly made works available for important exhibitions throughout Europe, including in Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, and Venice. He collected with particular emphasis on artistic quality and individuality, and his collection remained with his family after his death before being eventually dispersed at auction.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Expected wear and casting irregularities, minor losses, mainly to the base and parts of the serpent. Signs of weathering and erosion, particularly to the base, scattered small nicks, oxidation, encrustations. The bronze displaying a rich dark brown patina with areas of green malachite and reddish cuprite encrustations.
Weight: 929 g
Dimensions: Height 20.6 cm (excl. base), 23 cm (incl. base)
Mounted on an associated base.
Pantheistic deities became particularly popular during the Late and Greco-Roman periods, combining the attributes and powers of several gods into a single image intended to offer comprehensive divine protection. Their deliberately complex iconography was closely connected with magic and apotropaic practice, and related representations could be accompanied by protective spells.
Rather than portraying a single divinity, such figures embodied a deliberately composite supernatural being, concentrating solar, funerary, regenerative, and protective forces within one image. Their hybrid appearance was therefore not merely ornamental, but central to their function: each additional divine aspect strengthened the figure’s magical efficacy. This accumulation of powers makes pantheistic bronzes among the most complex and intriguing expressions of later Egyptian religious thought.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related bronze Composite Figure of Amen-Re, dated to the Ptolemaic Period, mid-3rd-2nd century BC, 14 cm high, in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, accession number 54.2083. Compare a closely related bronze Pantheistic Bes, dated to circa 250-100 BC, 25.2 x 13 x 9.9 cm, in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, accession number 54.540. Compare a closely related bronze statuette of a polymorphic deity, dated to the Late Period, 712-332 BC, in the Museo Egizio, Turin, catalogue number Cat. 703.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s London, 6 December 2016, lot 150
Estimate: GBP 179,000 or approx. EUR 295,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian bronze pantheistic deity, Ptolemaic period
Expert remark: Compare the closely related syncretic iconography, combining jackal and ram heads with a falcon element, bowed legs, two crocodiles, and an integral rectangular base, as well as the closely related dating and similar size (18.4 cm).
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 4 June 1998, lot 79
Price: USD 118,000 or approx. EUR 211,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing.
Description: An Egyptian bronze figure of Pantheistic Bes, Dynasty 26.
Expert remark: Compare the related bronze medium and complex pantheistic iconography, similarly combining numerous divine and aspects, including Bes, jackal, ram, falcon, cat, and crocodile elements. Note the earlier dating and four-armed form.
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