Lady of Brussels

3D Image

by Geoffrey Marchal
published on 31 August 2018

Statue of lady standing (Lady of Brussels), protodynastic, 2nd dynasty (around 2650 BCE), Saqqara (?), Limestone. Musée du Cinquantenaire (Brussels, Belgium). Made with RealityCapture.

This exceptional woman statue, often described in literature as the Lady of Brussels, is one of the oldest testimonies of private stone sculpture in Egypt. The archaic treatment of the forms, among others the absence of the neck, makes it possible to date it from the end of the 2nd dynasty. The lady wears a heavy, finely woven wig and is dressed in a long, low-cut dress that reveals the shapes of her body. Although the origin of the statue is not known, it is probably a funerary statue from a necropolis of the capital, perhaps Saqqara. It is surprising that this woman of the elite is presented alone and not alongside her husband.

For more updates, please consider to follow me on Twitter at @GeoffreyMarchal.