Marsh Scene with Cat and Birds (c. 667–647 BCE): Art, History and Details

Marsh Scene with Cat and Birds (c. 667–647 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

In a great papyrus swamp a civet cat attacks a bird's nest. Above are a hoopoe bird and a crane. Probably the mongoose was shown at the left attacking another nest. The scene is essentially copied from Old Kingdom work, but some details show New Kingdom influence.

Object facts

• Title: Marsh Scene with Cat and Birds
• Date: c. 667–647 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Late period (715–332 BCE), Dynasties 25–26
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: limestone
• Dimensions: Overall: 38 x 41.7 cm (14 15/16 x 16 7/16 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Late Period
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1949.498

Collection credit

Gift of the Hanna Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions Press Release,” January 1952, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Wunderlich, Silvia A. “A Group of Egyptian Reliefs of the Saïte Period.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 39, no. 3 (March 1952): 44–50.
• Cooney, John D. “Pharaoh’s Rat.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 52, no. 8 (October 1965): 101–105.

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.