An Egyptian Granite Torso of an Official

Ptolemaic Period, Reign of Ptolemy II-Ptolemy VII, 285-116 B.C.

Height 17 inches (43.18 cm).

Provenance:

Art Market, Paris. [based on a wood mount stamped Kichizo Inagaki (1876-1951)]

Charles Dikran Kelekian (1900-1982), New York. [possibly Inv. no. 4908]

Otto L. (1897-1966) and Eloise O. Spaeth (1902-1998), New York, acquired from the above.

Sotheby's, New York, Antiquities, 30 May 1986, Lot 70.

Charles Pankow (1923-2004), San Francisco, acquired from the above.

Sotheby's, New York, The Charles Pankow Collection of Egyptian Art, 8 December 2004, Lot 99.

Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Published:

H. De Meulenaere and P. MacKay, Mendes II, Warminster, 1976, pp. 185, 199, no. 60, pl. 24a-b.

D. Klotz, "The Statue of the diokêtês Harchebi/Archibios Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 47-12," Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale, vol. 109, 2009, p. 300, n. 143.

Preserving the tradition of elite temple sculpture well into the Ptolemaic era, this finely carved granite torso depicts the official Hor-maa-kheru standing in a conventional pose of formal devotion. The surface retains crisp modeling of the pectorals and abdomen, consistent with statuary associated with Mendes in the early third century B.C. The belt, unusually free of pleats, bears an inscription naming the owner and his parents, while the back-pillar carries vertical lines of hieroglyphs enumerating Hor-maa-kheru's religious titles, including “Prophet of Isis the Great, the Mother of the God, who resides in Mendes” and priest of the ram-god Ba-neb-djedet. As noted by De Meulenaere and MacKay, the figure belongs to "une série de statues mendésiennes d'un même style" (Mendes II, p. 185), closely comparable to other known Mendes priestly monuments in the period.

Hor-maa-kheru's titulary reflects the sustained importance of Mendes as a religious and administrative hub under Ptolemaic rule. In addition to his high priestly offices, he held the secular title of Overseer of the Seal, indicating his role within the local bureaucracy. Although unattested elsewhere, his name echoes a broader phenomenon in which Egyptian officials appear under the Greek transliteration Harmochoros. As Bianchi observes, the adaptation of traditional forms such as the plain kilt “reveals the tension between age-old artistic norms and a new Hellenistic environment” (Cleopatra’s Egypt, p. 120), a negotiation of identity that shaped statuary like this through careful conservatism.

The torso first circulated on the Paris art market in the early twentieth century, mounted on a custom wood base crafted and stamped by Kichizô Inagaki (1876–1951), the Japanese artisan whose workshop supplied bespoke mounts to leading dealers such as Joseph Brummer and Dikran Kelekian. Today, Inagaki’s bases are recognized as important markers of early provenance for works of ancient and non-Western art entering major Parisian collections. Likely handled by Kelekian, the torso was later acquired by Otto and Eloise Spaeth of New York, prominent collectors and patrons of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, known for their discerning acquisitions across both ancient and modern fields. It subsequently passed through the New York art market into the distinguished collection of Charles Pankow, a pioneering American engineer whose Egyptian antiquities were assembled with the advice of Heide Betz, a noted specialist in the field.