Meretseger, ca. 1479–1400 B.C.E., or later. Sandstone, pigment, 14 x 4 5/8 x 8 7/8 in. (35.6 x 11.7 x 22.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1749E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum (Gavin Ashworth,er), 37.1749E_Gavin_Ashworth_photograph.jpg)
Meretseger, ca. 1479–1400 B.C.E., or later. Sandstone, pigment, 14 x 4 5/8 x 8 7/8 in. (35.6 x 11.7 x 22.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1749E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.37.1749E_erg456.jpg)
Meretseger, ca. 1479–1400 B.C.E., or later. Sandstone, pigment, 14 x 4 5/8 x 8 7/8 in. (35.6 x 11.7 x 22.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1749E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.37.1749E.jpg)
Meretseger
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
On View: Old Kingdom to 18th Dynasty, Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor
This goddess, whose name means “she who loves silence,” combines the body of a cobra with the head of a woman. An animal with a human head is a common Egyptian artistic convention. As a local deity, Meretseger guarded the Valley of the Kings, where monarchs were entombed, and the village of craftsmen who worked there. Though a dangerous animal, her purpose was to protect the workers in the valley, and also sometimes to punish wrongdoers.
MEDIUM
Sandstone, pigment
DATES
ca. 1479–1400 B.C.E., or later
DYNASTY
Dynasty 18, or later
PERIOD
New Kingdom
DIMENSIONS
14 x 4 5/8 x 8 7/8 in. (35.6 x 11.7 x 22.5 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
37.1749E
CREDIT LINE
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
One sandstone votive figure of the goddess Meretseger. Meretseger is here represented as a human headed cobra. Sculpted in the round, the figure is fairly rectangular-- there being no smooth transitions from side to front view, or at least totally so. From the side we see the coiled body on the snake; two coils being indicated on each side, forced up into loops. From the front the human face (much rubbed down) is shown wearing a tripartite wig capped by a crown composed of a ka sign embracing a solar disc, a vertical line above the disc divides the apex of the roughly triangular crown. The area behind the crown and when viewed from the side, above the coils is left uncarved, save for a smoothing down which has left the piece of untouched stone. The figure sits on a rectangular plinth.
Condition: The whole of the body is superficially pitted--a small chip is noted above the sun disc on the crown. Traces of red paint exist on the front of the cobra body and on the rim of the crown as well as the solar discs. CRW mentions traces of paint on the flanks. These are not evident today.
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in Old Kingdom to 18th Dynasty, Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor
CAPTION
Meretseger, ca. 1479–1400 B.C.E., or later. Sandstone, pigment, 14 x 4 5/8 x 8 7/8 in. (35.6 x 11.7 x 22.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1749E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum (Gavin Ashworth,er), 37.1749E_Gavin_Ashworth_photograph.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 37.1749E_Gavin_Ashworth_photograph.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph (Gavin Ashworth, photographer), 2012
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
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