Portrait of a Ptolemaic queen, probably Arsinoe III Artist: UnknownEgyptian or Greek

late 3rd–early 2nd century B.C.

Ancient Art

On view, 1st floor, Ancient Art

This under-life-size marble head represents a female member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, rulers of Egypt from the death of Alexander in 323 B.C. through the suicide of Cleopatra in 30 B.C. This portrait is highly idealized, with softly modeled and rather generic facial features. The loss of much of the coiffure, which in antiquity would have been completed in stucco and attached to the marble head, creates further difficulties in identifying the portrait's historical subject. The favorite candidate among scholars is Arsinoe III, who served as queen alongside her husband (who was also her brother), Ptolemy IV, from 217 to 205 B.C. This was a tumultuous period in the history of Hellenistic Egypt; both king and queen were murdered during a palace coup.

Medium

Marble

Dimensions

9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm)
9 1/4 × 4 5/16 × 4 3/4 in. (23.5 × 10.9 × 12 cm)

Credit Line

The Harold A. Strickland, Jr., Collection

Accession Number

1998.23.10

Culture

Egyptian, Greek

Period

Ptolemaic

Classification

Sculpture

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Fahim Kouchakji;Sotheby's NYC, Dcember 13, 1979, lot 353; Richard Keresey, New York,; Royal Athena Galleries, New York City Dec. 1991, lot 71; Collection Harold A. Strickland, Vero Beach, Fl, 1992; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Roberta Casagrande-Kim, ed., When Greeks Ruled Egypt: From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra, exh. cat. (Princeton, N.J.: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, 2014), 46–7, 97, no. 69, fig. 3-2
  • Art for Yale: Collecting for a New Century, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2007), 207, pl. 193
  • Susan Walker and Peter Higgs, Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth, exh. cat. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001), 50–1, no. 13
  • Olga Palagia and University of Australia, "Arsinoe III Philopator in Sydney," Mediterranean Archaeology 12 (1999), 107–9, pls. 2, 3, 20–3
  • "Acquisitions, 1998," in "Recent Projects and Issues in Conservation," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (1999), 165, 198, ill
  • R. R. R. Smith, Hellenistic Royal Portraits (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988), 91–92, 165, no. 49–50, pls. 35.4–.9, 75.8
  • "Nuovi ritratti di Arsinoe III," Arti Figurative (1975), 351–52
  • Helmut Kyrieleis, Bildnisse der Ptolemäer, 2 (Berlin: Mann, 1975), 102–12, 181–83, pls. 88, 1.2, 88–89, fig. L1–L9
  • Dorothy Thompson, Ptolemaic Oinochoai and Portraits in Faience (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973), 87–91, pls. 38–39, 71
  • Gisela Marie Augusta Richter, Portraits of the Greeks, 3 volumes (London: Phaidon Press, 1965), 264–65, fig. 1828, 1831, 1833
  • Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, Important Ancient and Islamic Glass, Classical Egyptian, and Western Asiatic Antiquities, sale cat. (Thursday, December 13, 1979), no. 353, lot 353
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

busts (sculpture), human figures (visual works), portraits

Technical metadata and APIs

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