Head of a female sphinx (Brooklyn 56.85)

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Head of a female sphinx
WLA brooklynmuseum Head from a Female Sphinx.jpg
material Green slate
Dimensions H. 38.9 cm; W. 34.9 cm; T. 36.7 cm;
origin Unknown
time Middle Kingdom , Dynasty 12 , 1914 to 1879/76 BC Chr.
place New York , Brooklyn Museum , Brooklyn 56.85

The head of a female sphinx , which is now in the Brooklyn Museum (inventory number 56.85), is one of the most important works of art of ancient Egypt . Its original location is unknown, but it is believed that it came to Rome in ancient times and was possibly placed in Emperor Hadrian's Villa Adriana .

It is 38.9 cm high, 34.9 cm wide and 36.7 cm deep, made of green, smoothly polished slate and was once part of a reclining sphinx , whereupon the slightly forwardly inclined neck, the horizontal attachment of a shoulder remnant and the Suggest mass of hair under the back of the head. The actual face measures 21 cm high and depicts a young woman. She wears a wig parted in the middle, hanging down behind the relatively large ears on both sides of the head. Under the head there is a uraeus , with which she can be identified as royal. The real hair is shown on the forehead. The eyebrows are worked out as relief strips. The nose is destroyed today. Repairs can be seen on the eyes, which were once inlaid, on the mouth and chin. Stylistically, the head is dated under Amenemhet II (around 1914 to 1879/76 BC). An attribution to a certain person prevents "the fragmentary condition, missing inscriptions and references to their original place of installation". It is possible that the sitter is Ita, a daughter of Amenemhet II. This could be indicated by a lying sphinx found in Syria, bearing the name of Princess Ita and “whose identical facial features and stylistic details leave little doubt as to the identity with this head ".

The head was first described by Johann Joachim Winckelmann , who saw it at the Villa Albani in Rome :

“On one of the oldest female heads over life size, of greenish basalt, in the Villa Albani, which has hollow eyes, the eyebrows are drawn through a raised flat stripe, the width of the nail on the little finger, and this extends into the temple, where it is cut off at an angle; from the lower bones of the eye a streak goes up to that point and ends in the same way cut off. The Egyptians had no knowledge of the gentle profile on Greek heads, but it is the inflection of the nose, as in common nature; the cheek-bone is strongly indicated and raised; the chin is always petty, and the oval of the face is therefore imperfect. "

- Winckelmann : History of the art of antiquity

Shortly after this description, the head was bought by the Scottish painter Gavin Hamilton , who was then living in Rome , who soon sold it on to William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne , for £ 30 . Christie's acquired it in 1930 from an otherwise unknown Mrs. Simith Cundy (reading of the name in Christie's records is not certain). It wasn't until 1955 that the head reappeared. During this time it was owned by Peter Cecil Wilson and was examined in his house by Bernard V. Bothmer , who purchased the head in 1956 for the Brooklyn Museum.

literature

  • Eva Martin-Pardey: head of a sphinx . In: Nofret - The Beautiful. The woman in ancient Egypt . "Truth" and Reality. von Zabern, Mainz 1985, ISBN 3-8053-0854-X , p. 46–47 (catalog manual for the exhibition in the Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim, July 15 - November 4, 1985, volume 2).
  • Wilfried Seipel : Sphinx head of a queen or princess . In: God, Man, Pharaoh. Four thousand years of human image in the sculpture of ancient Egypt . Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-900325-22-7 , p. 155–157 (catalog for the exhibition in the Künstlerhaus from May 25 to October 4, 1992).
  • Biri Fay: The Louvre Sphinx and Royal Sculpture from the Reign of Amenemhat II. Von Zabern, Mainz 1996, ISBN 3-8053-1760-3 , pp. 28-30, plates 55-57.

Web links

Commons : Female sphinx head, 12th dynasty of Egypt (in Brooklyn Museum)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wilfried Seipel: Sphinx head of a queen or princess. In: God, Man, Pharaoh. Four thousand years of human image in the sculpture of ancient Egypt. Vienna 1992, p. 156.
  2. ↑ a b Eva Martin-Pardey: Head of a Sphinx. In: Nofret - The Beautiful. The woman in ancient Egypt. Mainz 1985, p. 46.
  3. ^ Johann Joachim Winckelmann: History of the art of antiquity. First part. Walther, Dresden 1764, p. 42 ( PDF file; 74.6 MB ) or p. 50 in the e-book ( PDF file; 1.4 MB ).