Late Period

also: Late Period of ancient Egypt

movement 664-332 BC Egypt North Africa

The Late Period covers ancient Egypt's final age of native and Persian rule, from Psamtik I's reunification of the country in 664 BC to Alexander the Great's conquest in 332 BC. It opens with the Saite Twenty-sixth Dynasty, whose artists looked back deliberately to Old and Middle Kingdom models - a conscious archaism often called the Saite Renaissance - and closes with the Persian Twenty-seventh through Thirty-first Dynasties, among them the last native pharaohs, Nectanebo I and II. Despite pressure from Assyria, Persia, and Greece, workshops produced sculpture of extraordinary finish in hard stones and bronzes, and kings built or expanded temples at Philae and Hibis. The period's refined classicizing style set the terms for the Ptolemaic art that followed.

Example work related to "Late Period".
Example work related to "Late Period".Public domain (credit: Johannes Vermeer) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Archaizing revival of Old and Middle Kingdom forms - the 'Saite Renaissance'
  • Highly polished hard-stone sculpture in greywacke, basalt, quartzite, and granodiorite
  • Widespread bronze casting of cult figures and votive statuettes
  • Crisp, refined relief carving with smooth modeling and delicate detail
  • Monumental temple building: pylons, mammisi, and kiosks at Philae and Hibis
  • Greek influence in portraiture alongside Egyptian conventions (Greek mercenaries and traders at Naukratis)

Key figures

  • Psamtik I (r. 664-610 BC) — Saite pharaoh who reunified Egypt and opened the period's deliberate return to Old Kingdom models
  • Nectanebo I (r. 380-362 BC) — Last great native pharaoh and a major temple builder (the mammisi at Philae is the oldest surviving structure there)
  • Nectanebo II (r. 360-343 BC) — The last native ruler of Egypt, whose monuments preserve the Late Period's classicizing finish

Example works

Sources

← Back to the catalog