Hellenistic Portraits, McFadden 1951George H. McFadden

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3. The fold of fat over the corner of the eye is also in the characteristic style of the coinage. As far as one can judge from a full face view, there is nothing in the portrait unlike the impression one receives of Ptolemy I from the coins. It is [handwritten: of] him that Robinsohn [handwritten: to be] considers the portrait and there appears to be every reason for accepting his identification.

There is a plaster cast of a silver or bronze medalion belonging to the same collection of finds from Memphis. It carries a portrait also in high relief but in rather poor condition. Here we note again the diadem covering the baldness over the brow and the treatment of the hair. A large tuft of it can be seen on the temple in the style of Ptolemy Soter's coin portrait (Fig. 1). The fold of fat over the eye is barely apparent, but the eyes slant downward at the corners in a similar way. If seen in profile they might give much the same impression as the coin portrait. I follow Robensohn in identifying this also as Ptolemy I.

If we take the coin portraits for our profile view and the plaster plaque, which is in much better condition than the medalion, for a full face view, we should have a sound basis for other works identified as being of the same group. Poulsen in his discussion of the Copenhagen head (Figs. 19, 20) compares it with the head from Pergamon (Fig. 2) and convincingly enough that Pergamon was a likely place to find a head of Ptolemy in view of the close family