Limestone statue of Tjaysetimu

Said to be from Giza, Egypt
26th Dynasty, about 650-600 BC

A high official, one of whose titles was priest of King Psammetichus I

The Nubian kings of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty (about 747-656 BC) re-established a central authority in Egypt, and a new flourishing of sculptural art emerged. Older models served as inspiration, especially the forms of the 'classical' eras of the Old and Middle Kingdoms (about 2613-1750 BC). This statue clearly takes its model from the Old Kingdom, and can be compared with the Fifth Dynasty statue of Nenkheftka. The pose is similar, and the wig is broadly the same, although the kilt has more in common with those worn by kings. The difference in proportions is largely due to the different canon of proportions used during the Twenty-fifth Dynasty and later. Before that date, figures were composed using a grid of eighteen squares, which became twenty-one in the later system. As a result, later figures tend to be longer and thinner than earlier models.

M. Jones (ed.), Fake?: the art of deception, exh. cat. (London, The British Museum Press, 1990)

G. Robins, Proportion and style in Ancien (London, Thames and Hudson, 1994)

E.R. Russmann, Eternal Egypt: masterworks of (University of California Press, 2001)