Seated Statuette of the Goddess Mut

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodNew Kingdom

Date1539-1077 BCE

MediumBronze, shell(?) inlay

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions6 9/16 x 1 5/8 x 3 9/16 in., 290 g (16.6 x 4.2 x 9 cm, 10 1/4 oz.)

Object number2018.010.536

Label TextThis rare, early bronze statuette depicts the goddess Mut, the consort of Amun-Re, whose name means “mother.” Mut wears a tripartite wig with a solarized, horned uraeus on her brow and the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. Together, these details symbolize kingship and relate to Mut as the divine mother of the pharaoh. She wears a close-fitting, ankle-length dress. She was once seated on a separately fashioned throne, anchored by two noncanonical tangs under her feet, an indicator of a pre-Third Intermediate Period date. The goddess’s body proportions and tangs point to a manufacture date in the New Kingdom.
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 42.

ProvenancePurchased by Georges Ricard (1921-2012) from Jean-François Mignon, Aix-en Provence, France, August 14, 1976. Ex coll. Musée de l'Égypte et le Monde Antique, Collection Sanousrit, Monaco, 1976-1982. Ex coll. Georges Ricard Foundation, Santa Barbara, California.

Status

Not on view

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