A masterful Egyptian wooden statuette of a high ranking official, Egypt, 16th century B.C. Wooden statue of high artistic quality carved from one wooden block. It shows a slender standing man whose arms run parallel to the body and whose hands are clenched into a fist. The person wears a low-waisted skirt with a triangular attachment that reaches to the calves. This and the shaven head are important features of a dignitary. In the left fist there was also a lost attribute, which also indicated a highly placed personality. The body is slender, above the narrow waist the pectoral muscles are only slightly indicated. The shoulders are broad and the muscular anatomy of the arms clearly developed. The feet are partially damaged in the front and underneath. Nevertheless, the work as a whole is in an excellent state of preservation and shows only a few hairline cracks on the surface. The polychromy has also been largely preserved. It is limited to only a few colours: white for the skirt, the eyes and the nails, black for the pupils and a dark brown coating for the body. The design of the eyes and the pronounced depiction of the eyebrow arch point to the style in vogue at the beginning of the 18th Dynasty. The modelling of the body is also reminiscent of the style of this dynasty, when Middle Kingdom statuettes were taken as models, as shown by the broad shoulders, narrow waist and pronounced musculature. This stylistic dating to the end of the Intermediate Period and the beginning of the New Kingdom (see the publication by Anna Guilia De Marco) is confirmed by C14 data (laboratory of the University of Salento). An outstanding ancient Egyptian work in unusual size and artistic quality. Height 63 cm. Width 8 cm. Depth 9 cm. Lit.: Anna Guilia De Marco, La statuaria lignea nell'antico Egitto: considerazioni a partire da una statua inedita (forthcoming). Provenance: Italian private collection of M.M. Previously for decades in an old Italian private collection. With Italian export license. Condition: II -