© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Statuette of Bastet

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodLate Period

Date722-332 BCE

MediumBronze

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions4 1/4 x 1 1/4 x 1 1/8 in., 115 g (10.8 x 3.2 x 2.9 cm, 4 1/16 oz.)

Object number2018.010.789

Label TextThis lovely bronze statuette depicts the feline goddess Bastet. Sometimes this type of statue is described in modern terms as a “Handbag Bastet” due to the small basket that hangs from the goddess’s arm. Bastet holds a sistrum in her upraised hand and, in her other, an aegis with a leonine head, a sun disk, and a broad collar. Symbolizing the role of Bastet as the goddess of dance, the disks on the sistrum produced a gentle rattle when shaken. The aegis was a protective element that carried the strength and fierceness of the lioness goddess Sekhmet, Bastet’s alter-ego. The goddess wears a broad collar and an ankle-length robe decorated with stripes in a herringbone pattern. Pious visitors gave bronze statues such as this to Bastet in her cult places at Bubastis, Saqqara, and Tanis.
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 31.

ProvenancePurchased by S.A.M. Sanousrit from Galerie Jacqueline Soisson, Nice, France, January 13, 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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