Base of a Statue of Nectanebo II with Subject Peoples
Unknown · Reign of Nectanebo II, 359-341 BC
A low block of creamy alabaster once carried a statue of the king; the statue is gone, but the base still says everything a statue was meant to say. On the front, two cartouches with the names of Nectanebo II rise between tall ostrich plumes and a sun disc, and on either side a prisoner kneels with his arms bound behind him: a Nubian with large earrings on one side, an Asiatic with a pointed beard on the other. The long sides carry rows of ovals topped by the busts of foreigners, each naming a conquered land. On the back, two lapwings with human arms perch on baskets above the nine bows, the sign of Egypt's enemies, and raise their hands in adoration.
The scheme is ancient: the king stands on his enemies and is worshipped by his people, the lapwings, whose clipped wings show they cannot leave. Nectanebo II was the last native pharaoh, and within a few years of this carving the Persians would return and then Alexander would arrive. The base comes from Coptos in Upper Egypt, at the head of the desert road to the Red Sea, and was given to the Louvre in 1911.
Did You Know? The lapwings with human arms on the back are the ordinary people of Egypt, drawn as birds that cannot fly away.
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