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Egyptian / Hyksos Female Figure Fragment, 17th Dyn. browse these categories for related items... All Items: Egyptian: Second Intermediate: Pre AD 1000: item #588315
$125 |
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Small figures of women rendered in clay, wood, faience, or stone were common additions to the burials of Egyptian men, a practice that first became widespread during the 11th Dynasty. These figures have been variously described as toys, goddesses, and "dancing girls," but they most likely served as a means to symbolically perpetuate the reproductive abilities of the deceased.
Throughout the Middle Kingdom, the trend of these figures edged towards increasingly realistic portrayals, albeit at the expense of the "unimportant" details, like legs, hands, etc. in favor of breasts, hips, and elaborate hairstyles. Following the collapse of the Middle Kingdom and the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, these figures took on a decidedly different appearance. Although the emphasis is still on the same parts of the body, the female figures produced during the Hyksos occupation in the 17th Dynasty are uniformly made of clay and show heavy influence from Syria and Palestinian sculpture. This is a rare head fragment from a Hyksos female figure of this period; for a parallel, see Hayes, "The Scepter of Egypt (Part II: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom)," Figure 6 upper right corner. AGE: 17th Dynasty, ca. 1660-1567 B.C. CONDITION: Fragmentary from a larger figure, but in good shape as shown. Mounted on an older stand for display. DIMENSIONS: 1.9" tall unmounted (4.8 cm) |
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