Statuette of the god Nefertum. Ancient Egypt,... Lot 46

Statuette of the god Nefertum. Ancient Egypt, Late Antiquity, 664-323 BC. Fayenza. In good condition, only line of breakage on the feet. Provenance: Private collection of Vladimir Gregorievitch Simkhovitch (1874-1959), professor of economics at Columbia University, USA. Vladimir was a great collector of ancient art and works from his collection are kept in the Smithsonian Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum and others. Measurements: 8.5 cm (height). Round statuette made of faience representing a full-length figure, with his arms stretched out vertically, close to his sides. It is a representation of the god Nefertum, the primordial Egyptian god who symbolised the birth of the sun, identified by the Greeks with Prometheus. The iconography depicts him as a man crowned with a large lotus flower, although he may also appear with a lion's head, as the son of the goddess Sekhmet, wearing a headdress composed of a lotus flower, two feathers and two menat necklaces as a symbol of pleasure and fertility. Occasionally he may also appear mounted on a lion, or in his infant representation, seated on a lotus flower. As attributes he may carry a curved sabre, alluding to his role as guardian of Egypt's eastern frontiers. His name simply means "the lotus", although for others it means "absolute perfection". He was also considered the Lord of Perfumes, and as such appears in the Pyramid Texts. He is also mentioned in the Book of the Dead, in this case as "the lotus flower in Ra's nose".