Large Wood Statuette of the Seated Goddess Isis with Remains of Gilding

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Ptolemaic period, 332-30 B.C.

Material: Wood, Bronze

Dimensions: 28.7 cm high

Price: Sold

Ref: 1480

Provenance: Belgian private collection G. Acquired in the 1990s from the gallery Drees Archeo in Brussels. Accompanied by the original certificate.

Condition: Unrestored with beautiful color- and gilding remains. Left arm and Horus missing.

Description: Large wood statuette of Isis lactans with remains of gilding dating to the Ptolemaic period. The goddess is seated in her throne with a set off, short backrest and holds with her right hand her left breast. In today’s missing left hand she held the separately worked out and today also missing Horus boy to breastfeed him. The breasts are notably large and round. Isis wears a tripartite wig and a body-hugging gown which reaches to the ankles. The legs are separately worked out, there is an old wood tenon in the plinth. The figure is thinly covered with plaster and gilded on top. Especially on the upper body and right arm the remains of gilding are preserved. The eyes with the striking lid line are inlayed in bronze. The uraeus serpent on the forehead, as well as the Hathor crown with the uraeus wreath, sun disk and cow horns are also worked out in bronze and inserted. The throne is painted on both sides with a scales motive, referring to raising the child Horus in the papyrus thicket of the Delta. The statue was once placed in a naos (shrine) of an Isis temple. The statue was worshiped as if she was the goddess herself. See for the typus the Isis statuette in the Harvard Art Museum with the object number 1960.464. Mounted.