LATE PERIOD TO PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, 664-30 B.C.

Here you find a beautiful stone Apis bull in a striding forward position with the left leg forward to the other. This bull is wearing a solar disk fronted by a uraeus, the bull is also showing genitalia. His body marked with incised decoration of winged eagles over the hind quarters and shoulders. Measures 2 ¾ inches in length.

While it was alive the Apis bull was regarded as the Ba of Ptah and its sanctuary was near the temple of Ptah in Mennefer. The sanctuary was positioned near the bull's embalming house and this is how the bull became associated to Osiris after death. Greek historian, Herodotus wrote that the Apis bull was conceived from a bolt of lightning, with the image of a vulture on his back (similar to this example) double hairs on his tail and a scarab mark under his tongue. Also was created with a black with a white diamond on his forehead. Lightning was thought to be Ptah by the Egyptians thus in the form of a celestial fire, who mated with a heifer. Due to the fact that he had a creation god as his father this linked and gave the Apis bull the status of a fertility symbol. The heifer that produced the bull was venerated as a form of the goddess Isis. There was only one Apis bull at a time, and the cult of the Apis bull started at the beginning of Egyptian history. While alive, the bull was known as the 'Spokesman' of Ptah and his 'Glorious Soul'. Many animals played a part in the religious life of ancient Egypt as many of the examples offered by Galleria Delvecchio portray. However, the sacred bull of Apis is perhaps the best known and when the bull died it was embalmed. Near the centre of Memphis many of the large tables where the bulls were embalmed have survived. The mummified bull was buried at Saqqara. From the New Kingdom onwards the burials took place at the Serapeum, a maze of large underground caverns in the desert. Each Apis bull had its own sarcophagus and was thus placed in one of these large underground chambers. On stone stelae set into the walls of the burial place was recorded the particulars regarding its birth and death.

Provenance: Collected by Gustave Jéquier (1868-1946)

For reference see: G. Robins, The art of ancient Egypt (London, The British Museum Press, 1997)

Galleria Delvecchio .… “is pleased to present a collection of Egyptian antiquities assembled by the celebrated Swiss Egyptologist Gustave Jéquier. Jéquier was born in 1868 in Neuchatel. He first studied in Paris under Gaston Maspero (1846-1916) and later went to Berlin before joining the de Morgan expedition to Persia, during which time he contributed to the discovery and decipherment of the code of Hammurabi. Gustave Jéquier was a giant in the field of Egyptology whose contributions are far too numerous to list here. He is best know for his association with the French Institute in Cairo which enabled him to engage in seminal research at the pyramid site of the Old Kingdom. He also completed the work begun at Abydos by his Swiss compatriot, [Henri] Eduard Naville (1844-1926). The two are considered to be Switzerland’s most preeminent Egyptologists. One of Jéquier’s most important discoveries was the 13th Dynasty pyramid of Khendjer. He wrote extensively on his history of Egyptian architecture, and published on philology and religion as well. Gustave Jéquier died in 1946 in the city in which he was born, and most of his collection was acquired by the University of Basel. The works of art presented here were given to a sibling who emigrated to the US in the late 1940’s; the collection later passed to their daughter, Jéquier’s niece.”