Self-Presentation in the Graeco-Roman Period: looking at “Ptolemaic” Private Portraiture”

In the Ptolemaic–Early Roman Period, the Egyptian elite still managed to play an important ideological role and to keep itself culturally relevant by being represented in texts and images. They continued to be depicted in statues produced according to the traditional Egyptian style, but they also decided to be represented through portraits characterized by realistic facial features. In the past decades, only few scholars have focused their research on non-royal Ptolemaic–Early Roman portraiture. They usually explained this phenomenon as the development of local Egyptian traditions and excluded any foreign influence on the rendering of realistic facial features. The results of research on Ptolemaic–Early Roman private portraits highlight instead a multifaceted and composite phenomenon. The aim of this article is to present the results of the research on Ptolemaic–Early Roman private portraiture thanks to a specific case study, that is, the statue of Hor son of Tutu (Berlin, Ägyptisches Museum, Inv. no. 2271).