Statuette of Isis and Horus (664–30 BCE OR 664–330 BCE): Art, History and Details

Statuette of Isis and Horus (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:

This statuette of Isis and Horus is a better than average example of an extremely common type. Isis offers her breast to her son Horus, who is seated on her lap. With her left hand she cradles the young god, while with her right she clasps her left breast. She wears a striated divine wig, vulture headdress, and uraeus, the details of which are finely incised. Above her are the modius, cow's horns, and a sun disk. Horus sits at a right angle to his mother, his arms at his side. He wears the sidelock of youth and a uraeus. He is nude except for a broad collar and a chain from which is suspended a heart amulet.

Object facts

• Title: Statuette of Isis and Horus
• Date: 664–30 BCE OR 664–330 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Late period (715–332 BCE), Dynasty 26 or later
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze, solid cast
• Dimensions: Overall: 22.9 x 5.5 cm (9 x 2 3/16 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Late Period
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1993.110

A detail from the museum

Originally, the goddess would have been provided with a wooden throne.

Collection credit

Bequest of Harley C. Lee and Elizabeth K. Lee

Further reading listed by the museum

• “1993 Annual Report.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (July 1994): 143–218.
• Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999
• Pinch, Geraldine. Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

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.