Figure of a pharaoh making an offering. Ancient Egypt, Late Period, 664–323 B.C.

Figure of a pharaoh making an offering. Ancient Egypt, Late Period, 664–323 B.C.
Bronze.
Provenance: private collection of Mr. R. B., acquired on the French art market in the 1960s; private collection, southern France.
In good condition.
Measurements: 6 cm high.

The figure depicts a pharaoh kneeling in an offering pose, an iconographic motif that expresses his role as a mediator between the gods and the Egyptian community. The sovereign is depicted wearing the nemes, with a bare torso and arms extended forward—a pose characteristic of images intended to ritually perpetuate the offering of food, liquids, or sacred objects to a deity.

Despite its small size, the statuette retains a precise articulation of the posture: the drawn-up legs provide stability to the whole, while the outstretched arms focus the ceremonial action. The modeling of the face, the striated headdress, and the anatomy are achieved through a synthetic carving technique, adapted for bronze casting and the strict frontal orientation characteristic of Egyptian sculpture.

During the Late Period, figures of this type were placed in temples as a permanent testament to royal devotion. The image does not commemorate a specific episode, but rather an essential duty of the pharaoh: to maintain, through ritual, the order established by the gods. Its historical provenance from the French market, documented since the 1960s, further places the piece within a collection formed during an early phase of European archaeological collecting.