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| Faience amulet of Bastet or Sekhmet |  |
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With brilliant blue glaze, the goddess shown holding a sistrum in her right hand and a papyrus stem in her left, wears a long close fitting dress and tripartite wig. She is seated on an openwork throne, one side with two snakes the other with a cobra-bodied Nehebkau. A suspension loop behind, an ankh inscribed on the back, the details painted in black.
This type of amulet is often difficult to assign to a particular goddess, even the few with inscriptions give contradictory information. The sistrum most likely indicates that the goddess is Bastet in her original fearsome lion-headed incarnation, however at other times similar images are identified as Sekhmet, the fierce Memphite goddess who symbolized the burning sun. Third Intermediate Period. 21st-22nd Dynasty, 1075-716 BC Cf. Similar seated lion headed goddesses can be seen in Carol Andrews, 'Amulets of Ancient Egypt', London 1994, pp. 33-34, no 30a. Also Dorothea Arnold, 'An Egyptian Bestiary,' New York 1995, p. 18, no. 14. Provenance. Thetis Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland |
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Rupert Wace Ancient Art
14 Old Bond Street, London W1S 4PP - Email: info@rupertwace.co.uk |
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