AN EGYPTIAN FAIENCE PATAIKOS PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, 332-30 B.C.

拍品描述

AN EGYPTIAN FAIENCE AMULET OF PATAIKOS, PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, 332-30 B.C. Modelled in the round as a nude dwarf god standing frontally upon a rectangular integral base, the figure squat and thickset, with a disproportionately large head set directly upon broad shoulders. The bald, domed cranium is rendered as a smooth cap, the facial features summarily indicated with prominent projecting ears, a broad nose, and a wide mouth. The stocky torso is bare, with the arms held close to the sides and the hands resting against the thighs, the bowed legs terminating on the flat plinth. A pierced opening between the legs above the base preserves the amuletic function of the piece, allowing suspension. The turquoise-green glaze is of even tone across the body, with light earthen encrustation gathered in the recesses and a paler discolouration across the abdomen and lower legs. The figure represents Pataikos, a dwarf deity of protective and apotropaic character whose iconography derives ultimately from images of the child Ptah. Pataikos amulets were worn in life and placed with the dead as safeguards against venomous creatures, malign forces, and the dangers of childbirth, and were closely associated with the household protective sphere shared by Bes and Taweret. Herodotus, describing the small dwarf-figures set at the prows of Phoenician ships, gave the type its modern name, comparing them to the Pataikoi of Egyptian tradition. The frontal stance, compressed proportions, and hands-to-thighs pose seen here belong to the standard amuletic formula that stabilised during the Late Period and continued with little variation into Ptolemaic production. Faience in the Egyptian tradition was not merely a decorative glazed material but a substance charged with symbolic meaning. Its brilliant blue-green tone, produced by copper colourants in a siliceous body, was understood to evoke the regenerative waters of the Nile, the fertility of vegetation, and the shimmering surfaces associated with rebirth and solar renewal. The choice of faience for amulets of Pataikos was therefore not incidental. The material itself reinforced the protective and regenerative charge of the image, so that the object operated simultaneously through iconography and through medium. Small amulets of this kind were produced in considerable numbers in temple and workshop settings during the Ptolemaic period, mould-made in series and finished by hand, and they circulated widely among the population as personal protective devices. This amulet exemplifies the persistence of Late Period apotropaic types into the Ptolemaic centuries, when Egyptian religious imagery continued to be produced in faience for a population that retained older devotional habits under Greek rule. The compact modelling, the pierced suspension, and the characteristic turquoise glaze together place the piece within the mainstream of household amuletic production of the period. Dimensions: Height: 2.5 cm

图片