Statue of a Ptolemaic Woman in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, June 2018

Statuette of a Woman (Primary Title)

Unknown (Artist)

Date: 664 - 525 BC

Culture: Egyptian

Category: Sculpture
Medium: fine-grained diabase (dolerite)

Dimensions: Overall: 22 1/2 × 9 × 10 1/4 in. (57.15 × 22.86 × 26.035 cm)

Object Number: 55.8.13

Images of private women are rare in Egyptian art, and this statue may have been made to stand in a temple. Details of the carving, especially the plain, almost flat quality of the sculpture, suggest that it was made early in the Ptolemaic period that followed Alexander the Great’s conquest of Egypt. Although it was a convention of traditional Egyptian art to show women with their feet together, this woman stands with her left leg advanced, evidence of the melding of Greek and Egyptian influences.

Text from: www.vmfa.museum/piction/6027262-135564591