A LARGE EGYPTIAN FAIENCE FIGURE OF HORUS LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 664-332 B.C.

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A LARGE EGYPTIAN FAIENCE FIGURE OF HORUS, LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 664-332 B.C. Modelled in the round and standing frontally upon a rectangular integral base, the falcon-headed god strides forward with the left leg advanced in the canonical Egyptian posture. The hawk head is finely rendered, with a hooked beak, incised markings surrounding the almond-shaped eyes, and a striated tripartite wig falling in ribbed lappets over the shoulders and down the back. The torso is bare and lightly modelled, with a subtle indication of the pectorals and navel above a pleated shendyt kilt, the vertical striations of the pleats carefully incised and bordered by a plain belt. A patterned triangular apron falls at the centre front, decorated with fine hatched and chevron lines. The arms hang close to the body, the right forearm raised across the chest and the left held rigid at the side, both pierced through to the flank. The surface retains extensive areas of turquoise-blue glaze interspersed with earthen and olive-brown accretions, the glaze thinning at the raised planes to reveal the paler siliceous core beneath. The figure represents Horus in his standard anthropomorphic guise as a striding male deity with the head of a falcon, the form in which he received cult as sky-god, protector of kingship, and son of Osiris and Isis. Horus was among the most persistent and adaptable deities of the Egyptian pantheon, absorbing multiple local falcon-gods and appearing in a wide range of syncretic identities. His raised right hand is likely to have originally held a was-sceptre or similar attribute, now lost, while the left would have held an ankh or supported a further emblem against the thigh. The frontal, striding pose belongs to a well-established votive and funerary type produced in large numbers during the first millennium B.C. for temple dedication and inclusion in burials. Faience, the glazed siliceous material developed in Egypt from the Predynastic period onwards, was more than simply a decorative medium. Its brilliant turquoise-blue colour, achieved through copper compounds in the alkaline glaze, was symbolically identified with the waters of the Nile, with regeneration, and with the life-giving properties of the inundation. Objects in faience were therefore invested with a colour understood as inherently apotropaic and regenerative, particularly appropriate for images of the gods intended to secure divine favour or protection for the dead. During the Late Period, workshops attached to the great temple centres produced faience votive figures in considerable quantity, exploring a wide iconographic range that included the principal state gods alongside more localised deities. The scale of the present figure sets it apart from the smaller amuletic pendants of Horus that survive in great numbers from the same period. At this size the figure would have functioned as a temple votive or as a substantial funerary deposit rather than as an item of personal adornment, and the careful attention to the pleating of the kilt, the modelling of the head, and the crisp cutting of the apron indicate a workshop of some accomplishment. This figure exemplifies the sustained Late Period production of large-format faience deities, in which the ancient iconographic canon of the striding god is combined with the technical confidence of a mature glazing tradition. Its survival with substantial areas of original blue glaze, and the sculptural handling of the falcon head and kilt, place it among the more considered examples of anthropomorphic Horus figures of the period. Dimensions: Height: 6.3cm

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