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Egypt. Superbly carved, with a prominent cranial structure and delicately rendered features, marked by deeply carved almond-shaped eyes set beneath softly modeled brows, an elegantly articulated nasal bridge flanked by subtly rounded cheeks, and delicate pursed lips. The silicified stone of an attractive reddish-brown tone with subtle ochre accents.
Provenance: Bruno Cooper Works of Art, Norwich, United Kingdom, 2004. Collection of Paolo Bertuzzi, acquired from the above and thence by descent. A copy of the signed invoice from Bruno Cooper, dated 27 October 2002, addressed to Paolo Bertuzzi, confirming the attribution and dating above, and stating a purchase price of GBP 14,000 or approx. EUR 31,000 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing), accompanies this lot. Morley ‘Bruno’ Cooper (d. 2012) arrived in England from the United States in 1958 on a scholarship to Cambridge. After a successful academic career, mostly at the University of East Anglia, he transformed what had been an absorbing hobby, dabbling in antiques, into a full career. Trading in the Suffolk town of Long Melford, he quickly established a reputation for the fine European furniture he stocked. Always restless, he eventually became bored of the furniture market. He closed the shop and from then on exhibited exclusively at international antique fairs where his reputation spread wider. His stock, characterized by his personal eclecticism, was a cabinet of curiosities. Towards the end of his life, his focus shifted more towards Asian art and particularly the sculpture of India and Southeast Asia. Paolo Bertuzzi (1943-2022) was a fashion stylist from Bologna. He was the son of Enrichetta Bertuzzi, founder of Hettabretz, a noted Italian fashion company with customers such as the Rothschild family, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor. Paolo Bertuzzi later took over his mother’s business and designed exclusive pieces, some of which were exhibited in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA. He was also an avid collector of antiques for more than sixty years. His collection includes both archaic and contemporary art, and he edited two important books about Asian art, Goa Made - An Archaeological Discovery, about a large-scale archaeological project carried out with the Italian and Indonesian governments, and Majapahit, Masterpieces from a Forgotten Kingdom.
Condition: Good condition with expected wear, signs of weathering, obvious losses, old smoothed chips. The stone with a rich, naturally grown patina.
Weight: 1.3 kg (excl. stand), 2.1 kg (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 16 cm (excl. stand), 41.7 cm (incl. stand)
With an associated acrylic stand. (2)
Hard stones such as quartzite, diorite, granodiorite, and granite were closely associated with royal and divine sculpture during the Old Kingdom. Their extraction, transport, and carving required considerable resources and labor, and their use therefore conveyed status, access to materials controlled by the state and permanence. During the Middle Kingdom, however, such stones ceased to be reserved principally for royal and divine images and were increasingly employed for statues of high officials, see for example a head from a large statue of a priest or dignitary dated ca. 1700-1600 BC in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 02.4.191 (fig. 1). This development accompanied a broader institutional transformation in which senior officials acquired a more prominent presence within the principal state sanctuaries. Private stelae, chapels, and statues became increasingly numerous in these sacred spaces, allowing members of the elite to establish a permanent presence within the cult and to participate symbolically in the rituals performed for the gods. Forms of monumentality previously associated much more closely with royalty thus became an important means of self-representation among the highest levels of Egyptian society.
Quartzite was particularly favored among the exceptionally hard stones employed during this period. Its compact structure permitted the creation of highly polished surfaces, although its hardness made carving extraordinarily demanding. The distinctive reddish-brown color of much Egyptian quartzite also carried symbolic significance. Gebel el-Ahmar, a major ancient quarry site situated near Heliopolis, northeast of present-day Cairo, was an important source of Egyptian quartzite, producing stone ranging in color from cream to deep red and purplish tones. The material later became closely associated with solar symbolism, an association probably reinforced by the proximity of the quarries to the great cult center of the sun god at Heliopolis.
The growing demand for sculpture among officials and dignitaries encouraged the development of a distinctive image of the high official during the Dynasty 13, combining maturity and physiognomic individuality with authority and a clear continuity with royal models established during the late Dynasty 12. Characteristic features included shaved or partially bald heads emphasizing the broad expanse of the cranial vault and the underlying structure of the face, together with heavy-lidded eyes and carefully modeled mouths, like a 13th Dynasty quartzite-sandstone head of a male figure in the British Museum, registration number 1939,0614.1 (fig. 2). Maturity and features associated with the image of a wise ruler, such as the shaven head, would identify a male dignitary as an experienced and conscientious holder of high office, while the elegant bone structure of the face and the sensitively pursed lips convey an impression of nobility and refinement.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related quartzite face of Senwosret III, dated c. 1878-1840 BC, 16.5 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 26.7.1394. Compare a related quartzite face from a composite statue, probably Queen Tiye, dated c. 1386-1330 BC, 13.3 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 11.150.26.
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