AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE BABOON LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 664-323 B.C.

拍品描述

AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE BABOON, LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 664-323 B.C. Modelled seated on a rectangular plinth, the figure rests with hindquarters lowered and forelimbs extended downward to the base, the hands set against the knees. The heavy mantle of fur falls forward over the shoulders and chest in incised diagonal striations forming a lozenge pattern across the breast, terminating in a long fringe above the lower body. The face is held frontally, with a pronounced muzzle, deep-set eyes, and a prominent brow ridge, framed by a thick ruff rendered in close parallel grooves to either side of the head. The surface bears a thick green and brown cuprite and malachite patina with areas of red-brown oxidation, the casting solid and the modelling crisp despite encrustation. The reverse is summarily worked, indicating that the figure was intended to be viewed frontally. The seated baboon in this attitude, hands resting upon the knees, is the iconographic form of Thoth in his cynocephalous aspect, and by extension of Hapy, one of the Four Sons of Horus. The cape-like mantle of fur, here emphasised by the lozenge net of incised hair, is the standard convention for the hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas), the species sacred to Thoth as god of wisdom, writing, the moon, and the reckoning of time. The same posture was understood as that of the baboon greeting the rising sun, an act of solar adoration that gave the species its place in funerary and temple iconography from the Old Kingdom onwards. Without an attribute crown or lunar disc surviving on the head, the figure is best read as a votive image of the sacred baboon rather than as a specific deity in identifiable form. Bronze votive figures of this kind were produced in considerable numbers during the Late Period, when temple workshops met the demand of pilgrims dedicating offerings at the great cult centres of Thoth, principally Hermopolis Magna (Khmun) in Middle Egypt and the necropolis of Tuna el-Gebel, where mummified baboons were interred in vast subterranean galleries alongside ibises. The choice of bronze was deliberate. Copper alloy carried associations with the flesh of the gods in Egyptian theology, and its use for cult and votive bronzes signalled an offering of durable, valuable substance, set apart from the faience and wood used for lesser dedications. The lost-wax process employed for such figures permitted the fine surface incision of the pelt seen here, which a cast in stone or moulded faience could not reproduce with the same precision. The Late Period saw the proliferation of small bronze votives across the full Egyptian pantheon, and the baboon of Thoth was among the most frequently dedicated forms, reflecting the importance of the god in scribal, lunar, and judicial contexts during the Saite and subsequent dynasties. Figures of this scale were intended for placement within temple precincts or in domestic shrines, and many were buried in dedicated caches when the accumulated offerings exceeded the available sacred space. This figure exemplifies the standard Late Period votive bronze of the seated baboon, with the strong frontal presentation and the carefully incised mantle that characterise the type at its more accomplished end. The clarity of the lozenge-patterned fur and the compact, architectonic seated form place it within the mainstream production associated with the cult of Thoth in Middle Egypt. Height: 5cm

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