AN EGYPTIAN AGATE AMULET OF A FISH, NEW KINGDOM, DYNASTY XIX, CIRCA 1279–1212 B.C.

拍品描述

AN EGYPTIAN AGATE AMULET OF A FISH, NEW KINGDOM, DYNASTY XIX, CIRCA 1279-1212 B.C. Carved in the round from a banded agate of deep red and honey-yellow tones, the amulet takes the form of a fish shown in profile, its body arched slightly and its tail flaring into two pointed lobes. The head is broad and rounded, with a large circular eye incised and drilled at its centre. The flanks are worked with lightly incised scales and a curving lateral line, and the dorsal and ventral fins are indicated by short chevron-cut ridges. A vertical suspension terminal rises from above the head, pierced for a cord, showing the amulet was intended to be worn hanging tail-downward. The species represented conforms to the type most often identified as the Nile bulti (Tilapia nilotica) or, less commonly, the oxyrhynchus. In Egyptian religious thought the tilapia carried powerful solar and regenerative associations: the female of the species incubates her young in her mouth and releases them alive, a behaviour that Egyptian observers read as spontaneous self-generation and rebirth. The fish therefore became an emblem of daily solar renewal, linked to the sun's passage through the waters of the netherworld and its re-emergence at dawn. Fish amulets of this form were worn by the living, particularly by women and children as protective devices, and were also placed among funerary equipment where they aided the deceased in the process of rebirth. The choice of agate here is significant. Hardstones of the chalcedony family, including carnelian, sard, and banded agates, were sourced from the Eastern Desert and Nubia and were reserved for amulets and jewellery of higher status than the more common faience equivalents. The warm red of carnelian and its related agates was itself charged with meaning, associated in Egyptian colour symbolism with blood, vitality, and the protective heat of the sun, all qualities appropriate to an amulet whose function was the preservation and renewal of life. The natural banding of the stone, running diagonally through body and tail, has been used by the carver as an integral part of the design, the darker red concentrated in the head and dorsal ridge and the translucent yellow illuminating the fins and belly. This amulet exemplifies the Ramesside preference for small-scale hardstone carving in which the material's own qualities are made to do much of the expressive work. Fish amulets of the New Kingdom survive in faience in considerable numbers, but agate examples of this quality, in which the stone's banding is deliberately aligned with the anatomy of the subject, belong to a more restricted category of personal ornament produced for those with access to imported and worked hardstones. Dimensions: Length: 3cm

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