Egyptian faience amulet representing the head of Bes from the 3rd Intermediary Period. Complete and in good condition despite few chips on the crown, the mask and the ears.
Modeled in the shape of a stylized leonine protome (the head is complete, but the body is a simple half-circle representing the mane of the animal), it was carved from a cream-colored limestone veined with red; it is pierced vertically by a hole and was therefore intended to be worn as a pendant (necklace or bracelet).
The flat lower part of the object actually bears the seal of the owner and of his goods: it is adorned with drawings made with a bouterolle (a sort of drill).
Grotesque Terracotta Head (perhaps a Mime or an Actor)
Grotesque Terracotta Head (perhaps a Mime or an Actor)
The statuettes of “grotesques” often represented mimes, street actors, music players, dancers, or even street vendors or workers suffering from physical deformities or afflictions that the sculptors treated in an exaggerated manner, to create a caricature-like effect. At the end of the Hellenistic period, in the large urban centers such as Rome and Alexandria, the theatrical genre of pantomime (according to tradition, this genre was created by Sophron of Syracuse in the 5th century B.C. already) was very popular.
This face certainly represents a male figure; it shows some of the distinctive features of the Greek-Roman images known as “grotesque”, such as the big aquiline and pointed nose, the strongly marked, frowning eyebrows and the wrinkled forehead.
