A limestone relief

A limestone relief depicting a queen or a goddess as indicated by her 'Vulture Crown' headdress. It dates to the Ptolemaic Period (circa 150 BCE). This piece is now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England. Photo: Heini Schneebeli.

"One might think that all major problems in Egyptian art history have been resolved and that scholars are now only concerned with details. Far from it. There is a whole category of works of art which are crying out for a thorough investigation. These are the so-called sculptors's trial pieces or models, such as the one illustrated here.

They may be three-dimensional sculptures, usually royal busts, or two-dimensional plaques with a royal head, or the head of a goddess or a queen (it is difficult to distinguish between them) cut in fine relief. Others may have representations of other deities, animals or large individual hieroglyphs. The decoration may be on both sides of the plaque.

These objects are sometimes explained as sculptor's trial pieces or as items used in the training of new sculptors, especially since many display admittedly rather crude grids. But why are so many of them Ptolemaic and why do so few date from earlier periods? Was there a substantial change in the working practices of sculptors or in their training? And the subjects are limited and repetitive; for what reason? It has been suggested that these are votive items, presented in the shrine of a deity. This is supported by the inscriptions on some of them."

― Malek, Jaromir, Egypt: 4000 Years of Art, Phaidon Press Limited, London, England, 2003.