AN EGYPTIAN STEATITE BES SCEPTER THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXI-XXV, 1070-712 B.C.

拍品描述

AN EGYPTIAN STEATITE BES SCEPTRE, THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXI-XXV, 1070-712 B.C. Of elongated form, the implement surmounted by a figure of the god Bes standing frontally upon a ribbed and petalled capital, the lower portion tapering to a smooth tubular shaft terminating in a rounded point incised with a stylised lotus motif. The dwarf-deity is rendered in his canonical posture, nude, with bowed legs, protruding belly, and pendulous chest, the arms raised asymmetrically, the right brandishing a short curved blade above the head, the left held close to the thigh. The bearded leonine face is frontal and broad, with prominent eyes, flattened nose, and the tongue protruding between the teeth in apotropaic grimace. Above the head rises the characteristic tall plumed crown, here rendered as a flaring polos incised with chevron registers in imitation of the feathered headdress. A small piercing through the lower legs accommodates a thong or suspension cord. The figure carries the standard iconographic load of Bes in his protective aspect. The raised blade identifies him as the warding deity of childbirth, sleep, and the domestic threshold, his weapon directed against the unseen demons and reptiles believed to assail the household, the mother in labour, and the sleeping child. The grotesque frontal face is itself the principal apotropaic device, intended to confront and repel hostile forces by its very ugliness. The leonine mane, the dwarfed proportions, and the plumed crown together distinguish Bes from the broader class of protective genii and mark him as one of the few Egyptian deities habitually shown facing the viewer rather than in profile. Steatite, soft enough to be carved with precision yet capable of taking a glazed or polished surface once fired, was the favoured medium for small ritual and amuletic production from the Middle Kingdom onward. Its use here for a wand or sceptre of this scale, rather than for a simple amulet, suggests a personal ritual object intended for active use, perhaps in domestic protective rites or in the hand of a priest or magician. Bes wands and rods of this type belong to the wider apotropaic equipment of the late New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, when household magic and personal piety came to the fore and the dwarf-god achieved his greatest popularity, his image multiplying across furniture mounts, cosmetic implements, headrests, and birthing-chamber paraphernalia. The sceptre exemplifies the migration of the Bes figure from purely amuletic miniature into functional ritual hardware during the Third Intermediate Period, when the deity's protective force was harnessed for objects held and wielded rather than simply worn. Its compact format, fully realised iconography, and worked terminal place it within the small surviving corpus of Bes-handled implements that bridge the categories of amulet, wand, and cult instrument. Height: 10.5cm

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