THE MALE STATUE FROM THE FAYUM OASIS IN THE COLLECTION OF THE PUSHKIN STATE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, MOSCOW: THE PROBLEM OF INTERPRETATION

Abstract

This paper deals with the analysis of a basalt statue I, 1 а 5746 (IG 4225), coming from the Fayum city of Soknopaiou Nesos (Dimeh es-Seba) and depicting the standing male. The statue was acquired by Vladimir S. Golenischev and belongs to the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. The paper provides the first separate publication of this object. The statue belongs to the well-defined group of “striding draped male figures” dated to the period of 1 st century B.C. to the 1 st century A.D. Currently more than 130 monuments of such a type are known. During the research several specifications were developed for a more detailed comprehending of this monument. Special attention was paid to the contextualizing the statue and the analysis of its rare headdress, which attracted previously little attention. The standing male statues with lotus-bud diadems present a very unusual and interesting phenomenon. These monuments depicted the high dignitaries of Ptolemaic administration ( strategos , nomarchs , and high priests), all belonging to Egyptian origin (judging from prosopography). The lotus-bud diadem may have serve as the token of temple’s gratitude to the dignitaries for their benefits or may have been a special mark of distinction given by the Ptolemies. In broad sense this diadem could be compared with the so-called “crown of justification” elevating its owner to the divine status after death. This kind of statues could have been placed in the open spaces in temples or at the city’s agora.