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An Egyptian limestone ram-headed sphinx image 1
An Egyptian limestone ram-headed sphinx image 2
Lot 190

An Egyptian limestone ram-headed sphinx

28 November 2019, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

£25,000 - £35,000

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An Egyptian limestone ram-headed sphinx
Late Period-Ptolemaic Period, circa 664-30 B.C.
Depicted with heavily-browed eyes, the large curled horns with incised ribbed details, the narrow muzzle with crescentic nostrils and short beard, wearing a tripartite wig with striped lappets, the recumbent body with pronounced rib-cage, the front legs tucked under, the short tail curled behind its rear left haunch, on an integral rectangular base, 53cm x 20cm

Footnotes

Provenance:
Wilfred Sloane collection.
with Mina Saroufim, Geneva and Paris.
Mr A. collection, acquired from the above in 1975.

Published:
F. Antonovich, Les Métamorphoses Divines d'Alexandre, Paris, 1996, p. 119.

Ram-headed sphinxes, named as criosphinxes by Herodotus (2.175), were often representations of the god Amun; the processional routes to Amun's chief temple at Karnak were flanked by large criosphinxes. Wilkinson explains that Amun's depiction as a criosphinx emphasised his power and 'procreative vigour', as well as demonstrating his association with the lion, when in his solar-related form of Amun-Re (R. H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, London, 2003, p. 94-5).

See also a granite sphinx of the ram of Amun, which is depicted with similar folded front legs, in the British Museum, dated to the Kushite Period, circa 690-664 B.C., acc. no. EA1779.

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