Head of a Queen or Goddess
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
MEDIUM
Faience
DATES
probably 1st century B.C.E.
PERIOD
Late Ptolemaic Period
DIMENSIONS
3 3/8 x 2 3/16 x 2 1/2 in. (8.6 x 5.5 x 6.3 cm)
(show scale)
ACCESSION NUMBER
58.1
CREDIT LINE
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Female head in glassy faience, originally blue-green, now pale green, preserved to base of neck. Head tilted to left, face of a pensive type with open mouth. Hair parted in center and dressed in corkscrew curls falling down over shoulders and on back. Wide flat diadem (?) or band on head. Remains of a square base (? support of an attribute) on top of head. A queen or goddess-possibly Isis.
Condition: Glaze worn. Nose chipped. Attribute from top of head lost. Curls chipped as are chin and front of neck. Apparently was part of complete statuette.
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Head of a Queen or Goddess, probably 1st century B.C.E. Faience, 3 3/8 x 2 3/16 x 2 1/2 in. (8.6 x 5.5 x 6.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 58.1. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.1_PS9.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 58.1_PS9.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2014
"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
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a
Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply.
Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online
application form (charges apply).
For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the
United States Library of Congress,
Cornell University,
Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and
Copyright Watch.
For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our
blog posts on copyright.
If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact
copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and
we welcome any additional information you might have.
Could you tell me how faience was made?
Faience is a man-made mixture of "ground quartz or quartz-sand held together by and alkaline binder. The bright and shiny surface
seen on this figurine is a result of glazing. The glaze was made of a form of powdered glass mixed with a liquid and applied either with a brush or by dipping the entire figurine.
It gets it's blue color from copper that is mixed into or applied to the surface of the quartz body before firing.