Tazza Farnese: Problems and Debates

Abstract

In 1885 the French doctor and collector Daniel Marie Fouquet bought from the antique dealer Souliman Abd es-Samad a group of objects found in the ruins of Tell el-Moqdam (Leontopolis). This find is known as "Trouvaille des lions". Among the objects purchased by Dr. Fouquet there were four Hellenistic bronzes: a sphinx, an oinochoe, a figure of a fisherman and a statue of the god Hermes. All these bronzes were published by the French archaeologist Paul Perdrizet in his book Bronzes Grecs d'Égypte de la Collection Fouquet in 1911. The German archaeologist Hans Peter Laubscher took up the study of the statue of Hermes found in Leontopolis and interpreted it as a Ptolemaic king depicted as the god Hermes-Horus-Triptolemus. Laubscher's study was based only on photos of the statue because it had been missing since 1922, when it was auctioned as part of the Fouquet collection in Paris. The author was able to localize the statue of Hermes in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon under the number 45. By locating the statue, it is possible to re-discuss it and to review the previous claims of Perdrizet and Laubscher. It is also possible to explore the entire composition for the first time since the published photos of the statue do not show its base. After an iconographical study and considering the interpretations of Perdrizet and Laubscher, the statue can certainly be interpreted as Ptolemy III Euergetes depicted as the god Hermes-Triptolemus. The statue of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum Inv. No. 45 shows Ptolemy III as divine sower, provider and guarantor of abundance, prosperity, and peace. The function of the statue as temple statue allows a re-discussion about the archaeological context by questioning the provenance of all the objects found in 1885 in the ruins of Tell el-Moqdam (Leontopolis).