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The 26th Dynasty, also known as the Saite
Period, is traditionally placed by scholars at the
end of the Third Intermediate Period or at the
beginning of the Late Dynastic Period. In either
case, the Saite Period rose from the ashes of a
decentralized Egyptian state that had been
ravaged by foreign occupation. Supported by
the assistance of a powerful family centered in
the Delta town of Sais, the Assyrians finally
drove the Nubians out of Egypt. At the close of
this campaign, Ashurbanipal’s kingdom was at
the height of its power; however, due to civil
strife back east, he was forced to withdraw his
forces from Egypt. Psammetik I, a member of
the family from Sais, seized this opportunity to
assert his authority over the entire Nile Valley
and found his own dynasty, the 26th of Egyptian
history. Known as the Saite Period due to the
importance of the capital city Sais, the 26th
Dynasty, like many before it, sought to emulate
the artistic styles of past pharaoh in order to
bolster their own claims to power and legitimize
their authority.
Yet despite that artist sought to replicate models
of the past, Egyptian art of this era was infused
with a heightened sense of naturalism. This fact
is likely due to the influx of Greek culture. The
Saite rulers recognized that Egypt had fallen
behind the rest of the Mediterranean world in
terms of military technology. Thus, they were
forced to rely upon foreign mercenaries, many of
whom were Greek. With ties between these two
cultures firmly established during the 7th
Century B.C., commercial trading quickly
blossomed. Special entrepots for foreign traders
were established, including the famed town of
Naucratis, a Delta town in which Greek
merchants were permitted access. During the
Saite Period, two great powers of the
Mediterranean world became intimately linked,
commercially and culturally. As the exchange of
ideas flowed across the sea, the Greeks began to
experiment on a monumental scale while the
Egyptians began to approach art with an
enhanced sense of realism.
This portrait is sculpted in remarkably finely-
detailed sunk relief and relies upon subtle linear
adjuncts for its masterful effect. The subject is an
Egyptian pharaoh, facing right, represented as a
bare-chest male wearing a striated nemes-
headcloth and broad collar. His arms, bent at the
elbows, are raised on order for his hands to
present floral offerings to one or more deities
who were presumably depicted in the now
missing right-hand side of the scene.
The face is modeled with restraint and
dominated by unadorned button-hole eyes and a
mouth, the lower lip of which suggests a
prognathous jaw. Such individuality is rarely
encountered in ancient Egyptian two-
dimensional representations, but is suggested in
the facial features of portraits of such pharaohs
as Sheshonq III from Bubastis, now in the Cairo,
and in rare representations of certain Saite
pharaohs of Dynasty XXVI, such as that found in
a portrait of Apries from a chapel at Abydos,
now in London. The predominance of button-
hole eyes and of relief finely detailed with linear
adjuncts, suggests that our relief depicts a
pharaoh of Dynasty XXVI. The absence of a
uraeus on the front of the nemes-headdress is
exceptional, particularly on such an otherwise
carefully sculpted work of art, but it may have
been added in paint. There are excavated
parallels of royal relief from the Saite Period in
which the pharaoh depicted is likewise not shown
with a uraeus on his headdress. The absence of
this insignia is, admittedly, rare, but that
absence is, nevertheless, attested and
documented.
References:
K. Myœliwiec, Royal Portraiture of the Dynasties
XXI-XXX (Mainz 1988), plate XXII, c-d, for the
images of Sheshonq III in Cairo; plate LIX, c, for
the portrait o Apries with a similar prognathous
jaw; and plates LI, c, LVIII, and LIX, a-b, for
images of various Saite pharaohs without a
uraeus on their headdresses.
- (X.0383)
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