Osiris

This splendid face impresses at the same time great charm and of a soft serenity is completely in agreement with the revival of the art which appears in Egypt in XXVIème Dynastie, time called «saïte» because of what the capital settled in Saïs in the Delta, or néo-memphite because the sculptors endeavoured to find the inspiration in the art of the workshops memphites of the time of the pyramids.

One is however in VIIème century before our era and soon the influence of Hellade will be felt on the face of the statues. This aspect is treated in a mixed style since its expression, very typical for the time, illuminates a face, a figure nevertheless made with certain artifices archaïsants like these «fardés eyes» of the royal statues of the traditional period.
One hesitates to recognize in this portrait of the time of Psammétique the image of the sovereign himself: it could be that one is in the presence of the head of a statue of the Osiris god decorated with a hairstyle similar to that of king de Haute Egypt, the mitre, avoided cobra which draws up itself on the face, but whose features would naturally point out those of the Pharaon of the time.