Naophorous Statue of the Finance Officer and Overseer of Fields, Horwedja
521–486 BCE
- Medium
- graywacke
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 43 x 14 x 23.2 cm (16 15/16 x 5 1/2 x 9 1/8 in.)
- Culture
- Egypt, Late period (715–332 BCE), Dynasty 27, reign of Darius I (522–486 BCE)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Credit line
- Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Naophorous (naos.bearing) statues show the subject holding a naos, or shrine, containing an image of a deity, in this case the god Ptah of Memphis. These statues were very popular during the Late Period. Almost invariably they are of hard stone, made to last for eternity. As finance officer under Darius I, Horwedja was in a good position to afford such a monument. Darius I was the second Persian king to rule over Egypt and the only one who seems to have had a genuine appreciation of the country. Egypt prospered under his rule, and the arts flourished.
