Style Egyptian / Ref.15280

Venetian School, Bust of an Egyptian Dignitary from the New Kingdom in polychrome marbles, circa 1780

This bust in polychrome marble veneer on a stone core was created in a Venetian workshop in the second half of the 19^th century.

This rare bust represents a member of the Egyptian elite. The man wears a headdress in Rouge Montjoi marble. His face, crafted from black-gray Carrara marble, is finely sculpted, giving it great expressiveness. A furrow on his forehead and the movement of his eyebrows lend him an expression of seriousness and dignity; his hollow cheeks are highlighted by a thin beard, while his lips are topped by a mustache. The expressiveness of the face is further enhanced by the naturalism of the eyes, made from white, blue, and black marble. Above a tunic in Vert Patricia marble, the Egyptian wears a wide collar, possibly part of a cuirass, in Yellow Sienna marble, adorned with friezes of highly refined geometric motifs. The ensemble rests on a base in Rouge Alicante marble.

Each marble was selected with exceptional care: the face displays a deep black-gray tone of extraordinary purity, capturing the complexion of the man. The exceptionally pale Yellow Sienna makes the pectoral stand out vigorously against the richly nuanced Vert Patricia, which in turn contrasts with the deep red of the Montjoi marble headdress. The harmony of colors, combined with the ornamental richness of each of these materials, gives the piece powerful expressiveness and rare nobility.

The man’s attire can be compared to several ancient depictions of Egyptian dignitaries from the New Kingdom. A similar headdress, exposing the ears in the same way but slightly shorter in the back, appears in the 1881 edition of Cesare Cantù’s Historia Universal; the adaptation of this motif by Pierre-Eugène Lacoste, whose archaeological precision is evident in his works, for the costume of a warrior in the opera Aida in 1879, attests to its popularity. The pectoral, for its part, recalls that of the “Ka” statue depicting King Tutankhamun standing guard (1336-1326 B.C.E.), preserved at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.

While 19^th-century France witnessed the rediscovery of polychrome in sculpture, driven by the exploitation of new quarries – particularly by the Société des Marbres Onyx d’Algérie – and by artists like Charles Cordier (1827-1905), Italy had preserved this tradition since antiquity. In the 17^th century, remarkable schools of polychrome sculpture flourished in Venice and Rome. Thus, in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, busts employing natural polychrome to depict Africans were already common, particularly in these two artistic centers. These sculptures, valued for their picturesque qualities and the richness of their polychrome, which conferred nobility and vitality to their subjects, were most often personifications of Africa.

RELATED WORK:

The collections of the Petit Palais in Paris house a bust of a man (1780) from the Venetian school, originating from the former collection of Mrs. Marie-Octavie Spiridon, and from the same workshop as our bust. This is evidenced by the treatment of their eyes, the color of their faces in the same dark black-gray tone, the presence of Vert Patricia marble in both works, a certain refinement in the handling of the tunic, and the desire to capture the individual characteristics of their features.

Due to this long-standing use and the rediscovery of antiquity in all its colorful splendor, Édouard Papet, curator of sculptures at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, notes that “natural polychrome [was] the first to be accepted by critics [in the 19^th century] because it [referred] incontestably to an ancient practice.”

Thus, this bust reflects a persistent Western cultural interest in Egypt and its art, predating even the 19^th century.