Statuette of Osiris (Late Period, Dynasty 26 or later, 664–332 BCE): Artwork and History

Statuette of Osiris (Late Period, Dynasty 26 or later, 664–332 BCE) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Egyptian.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Ancient Egyptian worshippers purchased statuettes like this one from temple workshops and deposited them in temples or shrines. They made such offerings in thanks for answered prayers or to request good health, long life, and other favors from the gods. This finely cast statuette depicts the mummified Osiris, ruler of the underworld. The god holds a shepherd’s crook and a flail, symbols of royal authority that signify his role as Egypt’s first king. The statuette would have been inserted into a rectangular base inscribed for the person who offered it.

Object facts

• Title: Statuette of Osiris
• Date: Late Period, Dynasty 26 or later, 664–332 BCE
• Artist attribution: Egyptian
• Place of origin: Egypt
• Medium: Copper alloy
• Dimensions: 27 × 6.8 × 4.5 cm (10 5/8 × 2 5/8 × 1 3/4 in.)
• Type: Sculpture
• Department: Arts of Africa
• Reference number: 1892.130

Collection credit

Gift of Henry H. Getty, Charles L. Hutchinson, and Norman W. Harris

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.