Aegis of a Goddess (Hathor?)

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodLate Period - Ptolemaic Period

Date722-30 BCE

MediumBronze

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions2 13/16 x 1 5/16 x 1 1/16 in., 70 g (7.2 x 3.4 x 2.7 cm, 2 1/2 oz.)

Object number2018.010.768

Label TextAn aegis was a divine emblem composed of a deity’s head and a large, broad collar. It could be carried on a processional standard or placed on the prow of a sacred bark. This head, missing its collar, represents a goddess wearing a modius with rearing cobras. Her crown is composed of a sun disk between cow horns. On her forehead is a cobra wearing a horned crown and a disk. The goddess depicted could be Isis, Hathor, or another female deity.
Exhibition HistoryLife and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 4 - August 6, 2023
Published ReferencesHotel des Ventes, Marseille, Archeologie: Glyptique Precolombien (24 Avril 1975), lot 80.
Melinda K. Hartwig, ed., Life and The Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), catalogue entry 40.

ProvenancePurchased by Georges Ricard (1921-2012) from Hotel des Ventes, Marseille, France, April 24, 1975, lot 80. Ex coll. Musée de l'Égypte et le Monde Antique, Collection Sanousrit, Monaco, 1975-1982. Ex coll. Georges Ricard Foundation, Santa Barbara, California.

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