Cat (664–30 BCE OR 664–330 BCE): Art, History and Details

Cat (664–30 BCE OR 664–330 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Cats were the sacred animal of Bastet, Egyptian goddess of fire, cats, and protector of the home. Sitting upright in a pose characteristic of these feline figurines, this bronze cat adorned with an embossed pendant and gold earring was made as a votive offering to be deposited with the deceased.

Object facts

• Title: Cat
• Date: 664–30 BCE OR 664–330 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Late period (715–332 BCE), Dynasty 26 or later
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze and gold
• Dimensions: Overall: 9.2 x 2.3 x 5.5 cm (3 5/8 x 7/8 x 2 3/16 in.); without tang: 7.5 cm (2 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Late Period
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1942.776

Collection credit

Bequest of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of the John L. Severance Collection: Bequest of John L. Severance, 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1942.
• Wunderlich, Silvia. "Department of Egyptian Art: Bronzes." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 29, no. 9 (November 1942): 158-159
• Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.