Description Bronze statue of Amun-Rê
Bronze full cast, green malachite and cuprite patina,
the broken off right lower leg is supplemented by a copy of the left one
Height appx. 295 mm, width appx. 55 mm, depth appx. 67 mm
Late period, probably XXV-XXVI dynasty 700-600 BC
Provenance: Charles Ede 1980s, private collection Austria
The Egyptian imperial god Amun-Rê can be recognized by his human figure and his very characteristic headgear which consists of a helmet in the shape of the Lower Egyptian national crown and two high feathers built up above it with a sun disk in front of it to form a feather crown. The two feathers symbolise his original nature as the god of the wind, while the inserted sun disk indicates his fusion with the sun god Rê. In this personal union Amun-Rê becomes the most powerful of all gods of Egypt.
A further attribute of his divine being is the long, plaited and at the end slightly upward bent beard of the god, which is connected with the neck by a bridge (here, however, perhaps only a cast-technical characteristic). Both the neck collar and the apron pleat are carefully and detailed. Under the patronage of Amun-Rê, the Theban manifestation of the sun god, the empire extended to Black Africa and the Near East. The Theban priesthood purposefully used Amun-Rê to legitimize their rivalry against the king.
The statuette was allegedly found around 1900 in Memphis, the missing right lower leg was only added in England. The impressive and in this size also rare statue is from the Kings College Collection in Cambridge.
Expert: Dr. Helmut Satzinger, Professor of Egyptology, University of Vienna
Former Keeper of ‘The Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection’,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Literature: Kurt Sethe, “Amun und die acht Urg?tter”, Leipzig 1929
E. Otto, “Egyptian art and the cults of Osiris and Amun”, London 1968
J. Assmann, “Rê und Amun, Die Krise des polytheistischen Weltbildes im
?gypten der XVIII.-XX. Dynastie”, Freiburg / G?ttingen 1983
G. Roeder, “?gyptische Bronzefiguren”, Berlin 1956, S. 34, vgl. 57a.
?gyptische Kunst aus dem Brooklyn Museum, Ausstellungskatalog Berlin 1976, Nr. 61
Richard Fazzini, “Images for Eternity”, Brooklyn 1975, Nr. 87
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