ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Isis and Horus

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodLate Period, Dynasty 30 - Early Ptolemaic Period

Date380-180 BCE

MediumFaience

Credit LineGift in memory of Dr. Charles Shute

Dimensions5 3/8 x 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. (13.7 x 3.8 x 6.3 cm)

Object number2000.004

Label TextThis large amulet or votive offering made of brilliant blue faience is of a type that is first found in the Ramesside Period but becomes increasingly popular in the Third Intermediate Period and into the Ptolemaic Period. It represents the goddess Isis nursing her son Horus. She wears a throne hieroglyph (st) on her head that writes her name, Isis, as well as a vulture headdress, a particularly popular piece of headgear worn by goddesses and queens in the Ramesside through the Ptolemaic Period. Isis sits on a throne decorated with a reed matting, which may refer to the marshy landscape of Lower Egypt in which Isis protected Horus from his jealous uncle Seth until he reached adulthood and was able to defeat him. In this small sculpture Isis is represented as a nurturer and protector of the young male king, a representation that may have had particular resonance during the Ptolemaic Period in which royal women often took a stronger role.

The function of this small sculpture is unclear. It may have been an amulet meant to draw on the power of the figures represented or the regenerative symbolism of the marsh and mother and son; alternately it may have served as a votive offering in a temple or shrine setting, or even as a devotional object in a domestic setting.

Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, April 2000 - Spring 2001
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - Present
Published ReferencesBernard V. Bothmer, et al., Antiquities from the Collection of Christos G. Bastis (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1987), 74-75, number 27.
Sotheby's New York, The Christos G. Bastis Collection (December 9, 1999), 51, lot 33.
MCCM Newsletter, September - November 2000.
Peter Lacovara, "The New Galleries of Egyptian and Near Eastern Art at the Michael C. Carlos Museum," Minerva 12 (September/October 2001): 9-16.

ProvenanceEx coll. Christos G. Bastis (1904-1999), New York and Florida. On loan to The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, 1975-1999. Purchased by MCCM from Sotheby's New York, Sale 7404, December 9, 1999, lot 33.

Status

On view

Collections