Seated Statuette of Wadjet

Possible OriginThebes, Egypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodLate Period

Date722-332 BCE

MediumBronze

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions6 7/8 x 2 1/4 x 3 15/16 in., 1155 g (17.5 x 5.7 x 10 cm, 2 lb. 8 3/4 oz.)

Object number2018.010.523

Label TextThe goddess Wadjet was one of the oldest deities in ancient Egypt, whose cult was celebrated at Buto in the Egyptian Delta. She could take the form of a cobra or a lioness with the body of a woman. As a cobra, she embodied the fire-spitting uraeus worn on the royal crown. As a woman with a lion head, numerous Late Period bronzes depict her sitting on a throne, wearing a sun disk and uraeus headdress as a “Daughter of Re.”

This masterwork of bronze casting depicts Wadjet with one hand flat and the other fisted on her thighs. Wadjet’s face is beautifully rendered and framed by her mane. The goddess’s ears poke out from her striated wig, and she wears a calf-length dress. Wadjet’s throne and solar disk crown are now missing.
Exhibition HistoryLife and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 4 - August 6, 2023
Published ReferencesMelinda K. Hartwig, ed., Life and The Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), catalogue entry 29.

ProvenancePurchased by Georges Ricard (1921-2012) from Jean-François Mignon, Aix-en Provence, France, June 17, 1973. Ex coll. Musée de l'Égypte et le Monde Antique, Collection Sanousrit, Monaco, 1975-1982. Ex coll. Georges Ricard Foundation, Santa Barbara, California.

Status

Not on view

Collections